Chinese and Singaporean scientists have identified a new henipavirus in China that can infect both animals and humans.
The virus was named “Langye”. Currently, 35 cases of infection with the new henipavirus have been identified in the provinces of Henan and Shandong.
The Chinese publication reports this.
What is known about the new virus
According to scientists, Lanya is very similar to the Nipah virus, but no severe cases or deaths have yet been identified.
The most common symptoms of the new virus are fever, headache, cough, nausea, vomiting, anorexia, weakness, and muscle pain.
No connections between the infected and cases of infection of their relatives and loved ones were found, which may indicate that the new virus is not yet capable of transmission from person to person.
The genome of the new virus consists of 18,402 nucleotides. “Langye” is similar to the other 5 henipaviruses known to scientists, most of all to the “Mojiang” virus, first identified in southern China in Yunnan province.
In the wild, Lanya was most often found in shrews, and antibodies to it were also detected in some dogs and goats.
Until now, two types of henipaviruses were known that could infect people – “Nipah” and “Hendra”.
When infected with these viruses, the disease can occur either asymptomatically or as a severe respiratory infection with a fatal outcome. The natural reservoir of these two henipavirus species in the wild is bats.
