By Raúl Rivas González - The Conversation
On August 4,
The New England Journal of Medicine
published a study that warned of the detection, in the Chinese provinces of Henan and Shandong, of at least 35 people infected with a new type of Henipavirus.
It's bad news.
Among the many emerging infectious viruses, the genus
Henipavirus
, belonging to the family
Paramyxoviridae
, is of particular concern due to the high mortality rates in humans exhibited by some members of the genus, such as Hendra (HeV) and Nipah (NiV) viruses.
Microbiologists on alert
The recent discovery of numerous henipaviruses in bats and wild rodents—including Cedar (CedV), Kumasi (KuV), and Mojiang (MojV) viruses—and evidence that they can infect human populations have further raised concerns regarding to its diversity and its zoonotic, pathogenic and pandemic potential.
Since 2012, at least 20 divergent clades of henipaviruses have been discovered in various viral analyzes conducted by many international research groups.
Such a situation reveals that the universe of this type of microorganism is still completely unknown to us.
Again, this is bad news.
A wide range of symptoms
Some henipaviruses are zoonotic—animal-borne—pathogens that cause severe acute respiratory distress and neurological disease in humans.
The new henipavirus has been named
Langya henipavirus
(LayV), is phylogenetically related to Mojiang virus, and was discovered during sentinel surveillance of febrile patients with a recent history of animal exposure in eastern China.
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The symptoms it causes include fever, tiredness, cough, anorexia, myalgia, nausea, vomiting, leukopenia (low white blood cells), thrombocytopenia (low platelets), and impaired liver and kidney function.
The shrew, suspect number one
The possibility that it is a virus of zoonotic origin prompted the analysis of 25 species of small wild animals.
Langya henipavirus
RNA
was predominantly detected in shrews (27%).
This finding suggests that the shrew may be a natural reservoir of the virus.
By evolutionary convergence, this animal resembles a small mouse with an elongated snout, but it is not actually a rodent.
Scientific findings suggest that the shrew may be a natural reservoir of the new virus.Getty Images
In 2021, two new henipaviruses isolated from shrews of the genus Crocidura
were discovered in South Korea
.
Shrews are one of the largest and most abundant groups of mammals in the world, and species of the genus
Crocidura
are natural reservoirs that carry pathogens harmful to humans.
They are widely distributed in habitats such as rural areas, agricultural fields, and forests.
In fact, several cases of patients with encephalitis caused by the Borna disease virus 1, transmitted by shrews, have recently been identified in Germany.
In addition, they harbor other zoonotic pathogens, including arenaviruses, coronaviruses, hantaviruses, rotaviruses, and hepadnaviruses.
Is it transmitted between humans?
In the current analysis, contact tracing of 9 patients with 15 close family members revealed no transmission of
Langya henipavirus
by close contact.
Still, the study's sample size is too small to determine whether the virus can spread from person to person.
Certainly , the finding of
Langya henipavirus
, and its association with multi-symptom disease in humans, warrants further investigation and surveillance of this new virus.
In addition, metagenomic studies and ongoing surveillance in small mammals for potential new human pathogenic viruses provide clues to establish preventive and mitigation strategies against new emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.