The Chinese virus, called Langya virus, causes symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough and can impair liver and kidney function.
A previously unknown virus has infected at least 35 people in China, starting from 2018. It is called Langya virus (LayV), of the genus henipavirus, and has been identified in throat swabs. Described in a study by scientists from China and Singapore and published in the New England Journal of Medicinethis infection – a zoonosis – causes symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough and can impair liver and kidney function. There is no vaccine o a treatment for henipaviruses; the only therapy is the management of complications.
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Emerging zoonosis
The genus henipavirus is one of the emerging zoonoses in the Asia-Pacific region. In fact, other viruses of this family have been observed, such as Hendra (HeV) and Nipah (NiV), which can infect humans and find their natural host in bats. According to the World Health Organization, henipaviruses they can cause serious diseases in animals and humans and are classified with a biosecurity level 4, ie with mortality rates between 40 and 75%. However, early data suggest that the Langya virus does not have the ability to spread effectively in humans and that it is less aggressive than Hendra and Nipah, both with high lethality.
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Symptoms of the infection
The investigation that led to the identification of the virus started from a 53-year-old patient hospitalized at the end of 2018 for fever and other flu-like symptoms in a Chinese hospital where surveillance for infections of animal origin was active. Since then, 35 Langya-infected patients have been identified in Shandong and Henan provinces. Of 26 patients infected with the Langya virus alone, researchers report the clinical conditions: all had fever, about half suffered from fatigue, cough, anorexia, muscle pain, lack of white blood cells; about one third had nausea, headache, vomiting, platelet deficiency, impaired liver function; less than one in ten kidney problems. No deaths were reported among the 26 patients.
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The infections could be sporadic
The virus does not appear to be able to pass easily from human to human: There was no close contact or common exposure history among patients, suggesting that infection in the human population may be sporadic, the researchers write. Patient contact tracing also did not document any contagion. The investigation among the animals that came into contact with the patients showed a high presence of the virus in spider mice, which could therefore be a natural reservoir of LayV.
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Promiscuit with animals
According to Maria Caramelli, veterinarian of the Emerging Diseases Surveillance Laboratory of the Zooprophylactic Institute of Piedmont, Langya a zoonosis that must be monitored very well. a pathogen of the genus of henipaviruses, found in bats or spider mice where they have their reservoir. For example, Nipah virus of this genus can affect horses, but these agents have a large spectrum of animals to infect, including humans. So there is some concern about this Chinese outbreak. Now for this cluster linked to conditions of promiscuit with animals. We know that for this kind of virus a sporadic human-to-human passage has little effectiveness, but it cannot be excluded, as other cases teach us. Over 70% of the diseases that affect humans come from animals and this must make us think about the importance of prevention and surveillance, which in Europe is high but in other countries it is lower.
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August 9, 2022 (change August 9, 2022 | 18:43)
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