Outbreak of new dangerous virus has been reported in China.
Media reports say a new zoonotic virus Langya henipavirus (LayV) has been identified in China. At least 35 people have been infected with the new dangerous LayV virus, which China has named "Lanja".
China's news agency The Paper reports that the death rate from this virus is higher than that of the infamous COVID-19.
A new virus of animal origin, which is capable of infecting humans, has been detected in Shandong and Henan province.
It's not yet known whether the pathogen can spread from human to human. None of the 35 infected humans reportedly had close contact with each other or a common exposure history.
More than one-third of patients suffered liver failure, and 8% had kidney failure.
India’s Republic TV says the serosurvey conducted by specialists concluded that 25 wild animal species might be a "natural reservoir" of the LayV henipavirus. About 27% of such wild subjects showed the presence of the virus in themselves.
LayV is part of the Paramyxoviridae family of negative-strand RNA viruses, which can cause "fatal disease." Its emergence comes as public health officials around the world are still dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, which has reportedly killed more than 6.4 million people.
A comprehensive study titled “A Zoonotic Henipavirus in Febrile Patients in China” noted that the new infections reported among humans exhibited symptoms like fever, fatigue, cough, cold, loss of appetite, muscle pain, nausea, and vomiting. Eventually, the virus led to a decrease in white blood cells, and low platelet count, further resulting in renal and liver failure. The Henipah virus is described by experts as one of the important emerging causes of zoonotic diseases in Asia-Pacific. Two viruses in the genus are known to affect humans- Hendra and Nipah- the natural host for both are fruit bats. The fatality rate for both is between 40% to 70%.
