Another virus that infects humans and animals has been discovered. Can it be transmitted from person to person?

Recently, Professor Liu Wei, Professor Fang Liqun from the Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Academy of Military Sciences, Professor Wang Linfa from Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School and others collaborated to publish a communication article in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). The article reported a new animal-borne henipavirus that can infect humans discovered in Shandong and Henan, China, and named it langya virus (LayV).

So what is Henipavirus and what is the current infection situation of patients? Let’s talk about it below.

01. What is Henipavirus?

First, Henipavirus is an emerging rare virus that infects humans and animals and is classified as the most dangerous biosafety level 4 (BSL4).

Secondly, the Henipavirus genus belongs to the Paramyxoviridae family. There are a total of 5 viruses in this genus, such as Hendra virus and Nipah virus.

Again, the most noteworthy thing is that this virus infects livestock and spreads to humans. The virus mainly occurs in the Asia-Pacific region. For example, in 1998, Nipah virus was prevalent in pigs in Malaysia and caused 265 infections, of which 105 died.

Finally, bats are generally considered to be the natural reservoir of the virus. In addition to Hendra and Nipah viruses, other related Henipaviruses have been detected in bats, rodents, and shrews.

02. New Henipavirus - Langya Virus

The henipavirus that occurred in Shandong and Henan, China this time is a different henipavirus from the one on the phylogenetic tree and was named Langya henipavirus (LayV).

The strain was isolated from a throat swab of a febrile patient with a history of animal contact. Its genome consists of 18,402 nucleotides and its genome structure is the same as other Henipaviruses.

On the phylogenetic tree, it was found that the strain was a new strain, and in terms of evolutionary relationship, it was most related to the Henipavirus previously discovered in Mojiang, my country.

03. Current infection status of the patient

Further investigation revealed that there have been 35 acute langya strain infections in Henan and Shandong, of which 26 were infected with LayV alone (no other pathogens were present). These 26 patients experienced fever (100% of patients), fatigue (54%), cough (50%), anorexia (50%), myalgia (46%), nausea (38%), headache (35%), and vomiting (35%), accompanied by thrombocytopenia (35%), leukopenia (54%), and impaired liver (35%) and kidney (8%) functions.

Serological tests on animals revealed the following:

Livestock testing: Seropositivity was detected in goats (3 of 168 [2%]) and dogs (4 of 79 [5%]).

Wildlife Detection: Among 25 small wild animal species investigated, LayV RNA was primarily detected in shrews (71 of 262 [27%]), a finding that suggests shrews may be a natural reservoir of LayV.

The infection status of these patients is currently classified into characteristics as shown below:

The upper part shows cases in Shandong, and the lower part shows cases in Henan.

Among them, farmers (△) are the main occupational groups, followed by factory workers (○), and students (□) are the least. There are slightly more women than men.

Although the current study does not meet Koch's postulates (the procedure for determining the pathogen of an infectious disease), the following evidence can be used as a basis for confirmation:

1. LayV was the only potential pathogen infection detected in 26 of 35 patients with acute LayV (74%);

2. Among paired serum samples from 14 patients obtained from the acute and convalescent phases of infection, 86% of the convalescent phase samples had IgG titers that were four times higher than those in the acute phase samples;

3. Viremia is associated with acute LayV infection;

4. The viral load of patients with pneumonia is higher than that of patients without pneumonia.

5. However, there is currently no history of close contact or common contact between patients, suggesting that population infection may be sporadic.

Finally, regarding the langya virus, we still need to pay close attention.