The study showed the identification of a new virus of possible animal origin in China that was detected in fever cases without so far causing death in any of them.
It was recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine detection of a new virus in China. The new virus is a zoonosis (transmitted from animal to human) belonging to the Henipavirus genus of the Paramyxoviridae family. Some viruses in this group can cause serious illness and even death in humans. The new virus was detected during the investigation of febrile cases with a recent history of animal exposure in the East China region. Specifically, a genetically distinct henipavirus was identified, named Langya henipavirus (LayV). The genome of LayV consists of 18,402 nucleotides with a genome organization that is similar to other henipaviruses. The new virus is most genetically related to the Mojiang henipavirus, which was isolated from Southern China.
Further investigation for the presence of the virus in humans showed that 35 people were infected with LayV virus in Shandong and Henan provinces of China, among which 26 were infected only with LayV (no other pathogens were detected). These 26 patients presented with symptoms such as fever (100% of cases), fatigue (54%), cough (50%), anorexia (50%), myalgia (46%), nausea (38%), headache (35%) , and vomiting (35%), accompanied by thrombocytopenia (35%), leukopenia (54%), and hepatic (35%) and renal (8%) dysfunction. In a seroepidemiological study in domestic animals, the presence of antibodies was detected in goats (3 of 168, 2%) and dogs (4 of 79, 5%). Among 25 wild small animal species surveyed, LayV RNA was detected predominantly in midges (71 of 262, 27%), a finding suggesting that midges are likely the natural reservoir of LayV.
According to study LayV was the only pathogen detected in 26 of 35 patients (74%) with acute LayV infection. In serum samples obtained from 14 patients during the acute phase of infection and recovery, antibody (IgG) titers in 86% of recovery samples were 4-fold higher than in acute phase samples. Viremia (virus detection) was associated with acute LayV infection, while patients with pneumonia had higher viral loads than those without pneumonia. Although human-to-human transmission is possible for Nipah virus, there has been no epidemiological correlation (spatial or temporal confluence) of cases with LayV. Also no close contact or shared exposure history was reported between the cases, suggesting that human infections are sporadic events. Contact tracing for 9 cases showed no LayV transmission to 15 members of their close contacts in the same family, but still the sample size was too small to determine the risk of human-to-human transmission.
The study showed the identification of a new virus of possible animal origin in China that was detected in fever cases without so far causing death in any of them. The findings require further research to better understand the characteristics and epidemiology of the disease in humans, and for now there is no reason for particular concern regarding the new virus.
Read the News today and get the latest news. Follow us on Google News and be the first to learn all the news from Skai.gr.
_002115.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1)
