{"id":4652,"date":"2022-08-23T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-23T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=4652"},"modified":"2022-08-11T06:16:24","modified_gmt":"2022-08-11T06:16:24","slug":"what-is-this-new-langya-virus-do-we-need-to-be-worried","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/what-is-this-new-langya-virus-do-we-need-to-be-worried\/","title":{"rendered":"What is this new Langya virus? Do we need to be worried?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n People could have caught the virus from wild shrews.\n Shutterstock<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\nAllen Cheng<\/a>, Monash University<\/a><\/em><\/span>\n\n

A new virus, Langya henipavirus, is suspected<\/a> to have caused infections in 35 people in China\u2019s Shandong and Henan provinces over roughly a two-year period to 2021.<\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s related to Hendra and Nipah viruses, which cause disease in humans. However, there\u2019s much we don\u2019t know about the new virus \u2013 known as LayV for short \u2013 including whether it spreads from human to human.<\/p>\n\n

Here\u2019s what we know so far.<\/p>\n\n

How sick are people getting?<\/h2>\n\n

Researchers in China first detected this new virus as part of routine surveillance in people with a fever who had reported recent contact with animals. Once the virus was identified, the researchers looked for the virus in other people. <\/p>\n\n

Symptoms reported appeared to be mostly mild \u2013 fever, fatigue, cough, loss of appetite, muscle aches, nausea and headache \u2013 although we don\u2019t know how long the patients were unwell. <\/p>\n\n

A smaller proportion had potentially more serious complications, including pneumonia, and abnormalities in liver and kidney function. However, the severity of these abnormalities, the need for hospitalisation, and whether any cases were fatal were not reported.<\/p>\n\n

Where did this virus come from?<\/h2>\n\n

The authors also investigated whether domestic or wild animals may have been the source of the virus. Although they found a small number of goats and dogs that may have been infected with the virus in the past, there was more direct evidence a significant proportion of wild shrews were harbouring the virus. <\/p>\n\n

This suggests humans may have caught the virus from wild shrews.<\/p>\n\n

Does this virus actually cause this disease?<\/h2>\n\n

The researchers used a modern technique known as metagenomic analysis<\/a> to find this new virus. Researchers sequence all genetic material then discard the \u201cknown\u201d sequences (for example, human DNA) to look for \u201cunknown\u201d sequences that might represent a new virus.<\/p>\n\n

This raises the question about how scientists can tell whether a particular virus causes the disease. <\/p>\n\n

We have traditionally used \u201cKoch\u2019s postulates<\/a>\u201d to determine whether a particular micro-organism causes disease:<\/p>\n\n