Novel Langya Henipavirus

Context

Almost three years after the novel coronavirus was detected in China, a new zoonotic virus has been discovered in the country’s two eastern provinces with 35 infections identified so far.

• This new type of Henipavirus is also being called Langya Henipavirus or the LayV.
  
  
  

What is Langya virus?

• The newly discovered virus is a “phylogenetically distinct Henipavirus”.
• The types of Henipaviruses that had been identified prior to this included Hendra, Nipah, Cedar, Mojiang and the Ghanaian bat virus.
• According to the US CDC, the Cedar virus, Ghanaian bat virus, and Mojiang virus are not known to cause human disease. But Hendra and Nipah infect humans and can cause fatal illness.
• Langya, meanwhile, is known to cause fever.
• The study adds that Langya’s genome organization is “identical to that of other Henipaviruses”, and that it is closely related to the “Mojiang Henipavirus, which was discovered in southern China”.
• Henipaviruses are classified as biosafety level 4 (BSL4) pathogens.
• They can cause severe illness in animals and humans, and as of now there are no licensed drugs or vaccines meant for humans.

About the discovery of Langya virus 

• Langya was discovered in eastern China during surveillance testing of patients who had fever along with a recent history of animal exposure.
• It was identified and isolated from the throat swab sample of one of those patients.
• 35 patients with LayV infection were found in Shandong and Henan provinces, out of which 26 were only infected with this new virus and no other pathogen.

Symptoms

• The study looked at the 26 patients with only LayV infection to identify the associated symptoms.
• While all 26 had fever, 54% reported fatigue, 50% had cough, 38% complained of nausea.
• Also, 35% of the total 26, complained of headache and vomiting.
• The study found that 35% had impaired liver function, while 8% had their kidney function impacted.
• The patients were accompanied by abnormalities of “thrombocytopenia (35%), leukopenia (54%), impaired liver (35%) and kidney (8%) function”, the study noted.
• Thrombocytopenia is low platelet count, while leukopenia means a fall in the white blood cell count, in turn reducing the body’s disease-fighting capability.