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What is Zoonotic Langya virus? All about new infection strain that affected 35 people in China

The Langya henipavirus has been found in China's Shandong and Henan provinces and can be transmitted from animals to humans, reported Taipei Times.

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Zoonotic Langya virus has been found in China with 35 human infections reported so far, Taiwan's Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said, noting that Taipei would establish a nucleic acid testing method to identify the virus and monitor its spread, media reports said. 

Where has the Zoonotic Langya virus been found? 

The Langya henipavirus has been found in China's Shandong and Henan provinces and can be transmitted from animals to humans, reported Taipei Times. Taiwan's CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang on Sunday said that according to a study, human-to-human transmission of the virus has not been reported however at the same time he said that CDC has yet to determine whether the virus can be transmitted among humans and cautioned people to pay close attention to further updates about the virus. 

Zoonotic Langya virus: Survey on animals 

Providing details of the serological survey conducted on domestic animals, he said that 2 percent of the tested goats and 5 percent of the tested dogs were positive. The test results of 25 wild animal species suggest that the shrew (a small insectivorous mammal resembling a mouse) might be a natural reservoir of the Langya henipavirus, as the virus was found in 27 percent of the shrew subjects, the CDC Deputy DG said. 

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Moreover, a study titled "A Zoonotic Henipavirus in Febrile Patients in China" that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday said that a new henipavirus associated with a fever-causing human illness was identified in China.

Zoonotic Langya virus: Possibility of human-to-human transmission?

The investigation identified 35 patients with acute infection of the Langya henipavirus in China's Shandong and Henan provinces, and 26 of them were infected with the Langya virus only, with no other pathogens.

Chuang said the 35 patients in China did not have close contact with each other or common exposure history, and contact tracing showed no viral transmission among close contacts and family, suggesting that human infections might be sporadic.

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Zoonotic Langya virus: Symptoms

The 26 patients developed symptoms including fever, fatigue, a cough, loss of appetite, muscle pain, nausea, headache, and vomiting. They also showed a decrease in white blood cells. low platelet count, liver failure, and kidney failure. 

Zoonotic Langya virus: What is the way forward?

Langya virus is a newly detected virus and therefore, Taiwan's laboratories will require a standardised nucleic acid testing method to identify the virus, so that human infections could be monitored, if needed, Chuang added.

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