Zoonotic Langya Henipavirus found in China

On August 4th, a medical study report suggested reveals investigators in Communist China identified a new henipavirus associated with febrile human illness, same virus was also found in shrews.
Until recently, only two genipaviruses dangerous to humans were identified, namely Nippah and Hendra. Nippah virus, which is also carried by fruit bats, was identified in 1999 in Malaysia as a cause of encephalitis in humans, at the time a total of 256 cases reported in Malaysia and 105 were fatal.
The new type of henipavirus (named Langya henipavirus, LayV) was found in throat swab samples from febrile patients in eastern China with a history of animals contact. The genome study of LayV reveals its evolutionary phylogenetic tree most relevant to the henipavirus previously discovered in Mojiang of Southern China province Yunnan.
The report shows the investigation identified 35 patients with acute infection of the Langya henipavirus in Communist China’s Shandong and Henan provinces, 26 of them were infected with the Langya virus only, with no other pathogens. The 26 patients developed symptoms including fever (100%), fatigue (54%), a cough (50%), loss of appetite (50%), muscle pain (46%), nausea (38%), headache (35%) and vomiting (35%). They also showed a decrease in white blood cells (54%), low platelet count (35%), liver failure (35%) and kidney failure (8%).
In the meantime, a serological survey of domestic animals found out that 2% of the tested goats and 5% of the tested dogs were positive. Out of total 25 wild animal species been tested, shrew is suggested to be a natural reservoir of the Langya henipavirus, as the virus was found in 27% of the shrew subjects.
The reports disclosed that the 35 patients in China did not have close contact with each other or a common exposure history, and contact tracing showed no viral transmission among close acontacts and family, suggesting that human infections might be sporadic.