According to official media in China, a new form of animal-derived Henipavirus has infected people in the Chinese provinces of Shandong and Henan. According to state-run Global Times, the novel Henipavirus (also known as Langya henipavirus, LayV) was discovered in throat swab samples from feverish patients in eastern China. Scientists this week reported in a paper “Researchers in China discovered a novel henipavirus linked to a fever human sickness. This virus was also discovered in shrews.” The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
According to study participants, this newly found Henipavirus, which may have originated in animals, is related with some febrile instances, and infected persons experience symptoms such as fever, lethargy, cough, anorexia, myalgia, and nausea. Henipavirus presently has no vaccine or therapy, and the only option is supportive care to manage consequences.
There is no need for panic because the cases of Langya henipavirus so far have not been fatal or very serious, according to Wang Linfa, a Professor in the Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases at Duke-NUS Medical School who was involved in the study, adding that it is still a cause for concern because many viruses that exist in nature have unpredictable outcomes when they infect humans.
