2022 Langya virus outbreak in China
| 2018-22 China Langya virus outbreak | |
|---|---|
| Disease | Langya henipavirus |
| Virus strain | LayV |
| Source | Transmitted from shrews |
| Location | China |
| First outbreak | Shandong, China |
| Date | 2018 – ongoing? |
| Confirmed cases | 35 |
Deaths | 0 |
A possibly ongoing outbreak of Langya henipavirus (LayV) was reported in China in August 2022, with 35 identified cases spanning from 2018 to August 2022.[1][2] The index case was a 53-year old female farmer who had been in contact with shrews and presented with a fever, headache, cough and nausea in Qingdao city.[1] The virus was named "Langya" after the hometown of the index patient in Shandong.[3]
The virus does not appear to spread easily from person to person,[3] consistent with the 35 reported cases being apparently independent from one another.[1] In 26 of the 35 human cases reported in China, the only identified infectious agent was LayV; in the LayV-only cases, symptoms appeared such as fever, fatigue, and coughing. No deaths due to LayV had been reported as of August 2022.
LayV infection is a respiratory zoonotic disease which has been shown to be present in goats and dogs, where shrews appear to be a viral reservoir species.[3] LayV is closely related to Hendra virus and Nipah virus, both of which cause respiratory infections that can be fatal, and both of which show low person-to-person transmissibility.[3] The exact method of transmission between animals and from animal to person remains unknown.[3] The closest viral strain match to LayV is Mojiang henipavirus (MojV), discovered in 2012 in rats in southern China and responsible for several fatal respiratory infections.[3]
Initial detection of the virus was made during an infection surveillance study at three hospitals in Eastern China involving patients exhibiting a fever.[3] The Taiwan Centers for Disease Control said they would monitor the virus closely and establish a genome sequencing method to identify the virus.[4][5]
References
- ^ a b c McCarthy, Simone (12 August 2022). "New Langya virus found in China could be 'tip of the iceberg' for undiscovered pathogens, researchers say". CNN. Retrieved 13 August 2022.
- ^ Pandey, NIkhil, ed. (9 August 2022). "What is Langya, the fresh zoonotic virus outbreak that infected 35 people in China?". WION. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g Mallapaty, Smriti (25 August 2022). "New Animal Virus That Can Infect People Identified in China" (PDF). Nature. 608: 656–7.
- ^ Lu, Donna (10 August 2022). "Newly identified Langya virus tracked after China reports dozens of cases". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 August 2022.
- ^ Chen, Chieh-ling; Ken, Chao (8 August 2022). "CDC to monitor novel virus after China infection reports". Focus Taiwan. Retrieved 13 August 2022.
Further reading
- Zhang X, Jiang F, Zhu F, Zhang Y, Tan C, Anderson DE, Fan H, Dong L, Li C, Zhang P, Wang L, Liu W (4 August 2022). "A Zoonotic Henipavirus in Febrile Patients in China". N. Engl. J. Med. (Correspondence). 387: 470–2. doi:10.1056/NEJMc2202705.