Langya virus

In news- Nearly three dozen people in China were affected by the Langya virus recently.

What is Langya virus?

The Novel Langya Henipavirus (LayV) is a type of henipavirus, a category of zoonotic viruses which can jump from animals to humans.
Henipaviruses can cause severe illness in animals and humans, and currently, there are no licensed drugs or vaccines meant for humans. Hence, it is slightly incurable.
Since the LayV virus RNA has been predominantly found in shrews, that might be its natural hosts.
As believed, Langya was discovered in eastern China during surveillance testing of fever-affected patients with a recent history of animal exposure.
Symptoms of the virus include fever, fatigue, cough, nostalgia, headaches and vomiting. Further, the patients were accompanied by abnormalities of leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, and kidney and liver dysfunction.
Thrombocytopenia is low platelet count, whereas leukopenia means a fall in the white blood cell count, in turn decreasing the body’s immunity or disease-fighting capability.
The Langya virus is from the same family as the deadly Nipah and Hendra viruses.
The Hendra & Nipah viruses have an estimated mortality rate of between about 40-70%.
So far, there is no evidence that the Langya virus can transmit among humans.
Hendra virus was first reported in Queensland in 1994, when it caused the deaths of horses and the trainer Vic Rail.
Many outbreaks in horses have been reported in Queensland and northern New South Wales since, and are generally thought to be due to “spillover” infections from flying foxes.