Caught in the grip of Chinese military threat, Taiwan on Sunday announced the baptism of a new virus “Langya henipavirus (LayV)”It was discovered in China. Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has reported that 35 people have been infected in Shandong and Henan provinces, two provinces located in the east of the country, revealing Taipei Times, a Taiwanese newspaper in English. The pathogen has since been placed under surveillance. the scientist It measures what we know about this virus.
- Study conducted between 2018 and 2021
The announcement of the discovery of this new virus by Taiwan is based on a study published in New England Journal of MedicineThursday, August 4, and carried out by researchers from universities and institutes in China, Singapore and Australia.
The survey was conducted between 2018 and 2021, with patients presenting with fever and Contact with animals before symptoms appear. These scientists have been studying zoonoses (infectious diseases transmitted to humans by animals), and have been able to identify a new virus of the genus Henipavirus, since baptism. “Langia hanniba virus” (fiber).
- No deaths have been recorded yet
The study identified thirty-five patients, most of whom are farmers located in these two Chinese provinces, suffering from Langia hanniba virus infection; Among them, twenty-six were only injured by Lev.
According to this survey, all of them developed a fever and more than half experienced fatigue, coughing, loss of appetite and low white blood cells. Vomiting, nausea, headache and muscle pain, as well as low platelet count and liver failure were also reported in more than a third of patients. All apparently survived – the study did not mention death.
- It is believed that shrews are the source of pollution
The study’s conclusions suggest that shrews, a small mammal similar to rough-and-tumble moles, could be the source of the contamination. Asked about this before Taipei TimesThe Deputy Director-General of the Taiwan CDC, Chuang Jin-Hsiang, explained that according to researchers and study authors, who conducted serological tests on twenty-five species of animals, the virus was detected in 27% of the population. shrew been tested. Only 2% of goats and 5% of dogs tested positive for the virus.
- An infection that does not spread quickly
nothing indicates, So far, this pathogen can be transmitted from one person to another, as Chuang Jin-Hsiang explains to the Taiwanese daily:
“Thirty-five patients in China had no close contact with each other, no common exposure history, and contact tracing did not show any viral transmission between close contacts and family, indicating that human infection may be sporadic.”
Professor of Biology at University College London, François Ballou, recalls in a series of letters published in Twitterthat infection It does not spread quickly among humans. And that at this point, ‘LayV doesn’t look like a repeat of Covid-19 at all’.
It’s more, he says, a “A reminder of the threat posed by the many pathogens circulating in wild and domestic animals that have the potential to infect humans”.
This spread is common and accounts for more than six out of every ten infectious diseases known to humans, according to the US Centers for Disease Control. Most of the time, these germs cause limited disease and die without much effect. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, additional tracking systems have been put in place and new pathogens are detected.
Each year, several viruses emerge in humans without causing epidemics. [Le LayV] It’s been quietly circulating for several years and we’re not in an emergency situation as was the case with SARS-CoV-2. There are no particular concerns at this point, but more studies are needed.”Yannick Simonin, a virologist from the National Institute of Health and Medical Research, at the University of Montpellier, who interviewed him Parisian.
“Since Langia virus is a newly discovered virus, Taiwanese laboratories will have to establish a standardized method of testing”, concluded the deputy director general of the Taiwan Center for Disease Control. The researchers behind the study said more investigations are still needed to better understand this infection.
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