Chinese epidemiologists are closely monitoring the appearance of people infected with a new virus, Langya virus, in the east of the country.
In a correspondence to New England Journal Of Medicinescientists from Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, in China, share a news that recalls the beginning of theepidemic of Covid-19. In the provinces of Henan and Shandong, 35 people have been infected with a new virus of the genus Henipavirus, called Langya (LayV), between January 2019 and January 2021.
A novel RNA virus of its kind Henipavirus
It is a virus RNA wrapped whose genome makes about 18,000 nucleotides and code six proteins structural. Among the 35 patients, 26 were only infected with the Langya virus – the others had other infectious diseases. Thus, the analysis of the symptoms caused by the virus was only made on these 26 patients. All patients presented with fever (100%), followed by fatigue, cough and pains muscular for half of them. Some also suffered from nausea, headaches and vomiting.
Although the Langya virus appears to be solely responsible for the symptoms presented by the patients, it does not fulfill all the criteria of the postulate of Koch, a set of rules issued by Robert Koch in the 19the century and readapted since, which make it possible to identify with certainty the etiological agent of a disease.
No proven human-to-human contamination
No human-to-human transmission has been demonstrated at this stage. The cases identified are not geographically restricted and the survey of patients does not reveal any close contact with other patients. On the other hand, the contamination appears to be of animal origin. Three goats and four dogsamong the hundreds tested, have antibody directed against the Langya virus. On the other hand, studies carried out on the wildlife wild designate shrews as the natural reservoir of the virus.
Genre Henipavirus is not unknown to epidemiologists since it contains two other zoonotic viruses known to cause severe and even fatal illness in some mammalsof which the human being: the Nipah virus and Hendra, both present naturally in bats.
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