The world has not fully recovered from the deadly coronavirus pandemic, yet threats of a new virus are currently looming over us.
From 2018 to 2021, the Langya henipavirus, or LayV, has affected around 35 people in China according to news reports.
Not a large number of cases, but this may be just the beginning.
Its name of the virus was derived from Langya, a town in Shandong, China, where the first patient was identified through a swab done during a routine surveillance.
There were no reported hospitalizations or fatalities among people who tested positive, but cases are continuously being monitored to better understand the illness.
Its genome shows that the LayV comes from the Paramyxoviridae family and that it closely resembles the Mojiang henipavirus, which was first found in rats.
This family of viruses may cause various respiratory illnesses, fever, and fatigue. Victims infected with LayV have also experienced muscle aches and pains, nausea, headaches, and vomiting.
Most patients were also reported to have close contact with animals before they tested positive.
Since the new virus was discovered, there were not enough cases to be able to check for human-to-human transmission.
Since viruses and other new diseases are usually detected after patients have been severely affected, University of Pittsburgh evolutionary professor Vaughn Cooper said that it was an “achievement” that scientists were able to “chase it down.”
This is due to heightened efforts to track diseases since the first SARS outbreak in China, Peter John Hudson, a biology professor at Penn State, shared.
Global disease surveillance has also increased, alongside the discovery and development of new techniques to detect the new viruses.
Researchers conducted tests on various small animals, finally narrowing the cause to shrews and other small mammals with a long snout and tiny eyes.
A small percentage of dogs and goats also tested positive for the virus.
Francois Balloux at the University College London said that the “majority of pathogens come from animal populations.” He further added that, “We should be better prepared for an event like COVID-19 happening.”