Researchers started tracking one virus recently identified in ChinaDozens of cases have already been reported.

The Langya virus was first detected in the northeastern provinces of Shandong and Henan in late 2018, but was only officially identified by scientists last week.

According to scientists, the virus was probably transmitted from animals to humans.

The first studies of the virus were presented in the New England Journal of Medicine by scientists from China, Singapore and Australia.

The virus in question causes symptoms in humans such as fever, fatigue, coughing, loss of appetite and muscle pain. Those infected had a fever, scientists report. The virus was the only potential pathogen identified in 26 of 35 people, indicating “LayV was the cause of the fever.”

So far, no deaths from the virus have been reported.

As the researchers note, it remains unclear whether the virus can be transmitted from person to person. Of the 35 cases, most involved farmers and workers.

“Contact tracing of nine patients with 15 close contacts in their family environment did not show transmission of LayV through close contact, but our sample was too small to know if the virus is transmitted between people,” the researchers said.

The scientists sequenced the LayV genome and determined it to be the genipah virus, a class of zoonotic RNA viruses that also includes the Hendra virus and the Nipah virus. The Hendra virus, which affects horses and humans and is native to Australia, and the Nipah virus, which has caused outbreaks in Southeast Asia, are associated with high mortality rates.

LayV is most closely related to the Mojiang virus, first identified in southern China.

It is noted that specialists in infectious diseases have long warned that the climate crisis and the destruction of the natural environment will increase the risk of transmission of viruses from animals to humans.

^{Source: Guardian}