A virus recently discovered in eastern China is unlikely to cause another pandemic, according to scientists involved in its research.
The pathogen, identified as the Langya henipavirus, has so far infected 35 people in Shandong and Henan provinces from 2018 to 2021. The first case reportedly involved a 53-year-old Qingdao city farmer who sought medical treatment for a fever, cough, headaches and nausea.
Also known as “LayV,” the virus is believed to be carried by shrews — small, mole-like mammals that are somehow among the most voracious mammalian predators on Earth — which might have infected humans directly or through another animal. Its genome reveals that it is most closely related to the Mojiang henipavirus, which was first found in rats in an abandoned mine in Yunnan province in 2012, according to Nature.
A team of Chinese and international scientists published the first study into the virus in the New England Journal of Medicine on Aug. 4. With COVID-19 still affecting many parts of the world, the news quickly raised concerns.
More from NextShark: Mother of Olympics gold medal superstar Eileen Gu offers advice on what it takes to raise a champion
However, the researchers did not find evidence that LayV spreads between humans, with the 35 detected cases being sporadic and unrelated. No deaths related to the virus have been reported thus far.
Linfa Wang, an emerging infectious disease scientist involved in the research, told CNN that LayV is unlikely to evolve into “another ‘disease X’ event,” or one that causes an epidemic or pandemic. Still, their study “does demonstrate that such zoonotic spillover events happen more often than we think or know.”
Francois Balloux, a professor of computational biology systems at University College London, who was not involved in the study, shares the same position.
More from NextShark: Connecticut Asian restaurant that ‘turned into a nightclub’ surrenders liquor license after shooting incident
“At this stage, LayV doesn’t look like a repeat of COVID-19 at all, but it is yet another reminder of the looming threat caused by the many pathogens circulating in populations of wild and domestic animals that have the potential to infect humans,” Balloux tweeted.
Still, the researchers acknowledged that their sample size “was too small to determine the status of human-to-human transmission.” Needless to say, more research is necessary to officially rule it out.
More from NextShark: Some People Think Kimchi Can Fight the 2019 Coronavirus
Featured Image via Pixabay
Enjoy this content? Read more from NextShark!
Starbucks apologizes for selling expired food in some China stores
Virus discovered in China carried by shrews unlikely to become the next COVID, scientists suggest & Latest News Update
Virus discovered in China carried by shrews unlikely to become the next COVID, scientists suggest & More Live News
All this news that I have made and shared for you people, you will like it very much and in it we keep bringing topics for you people like every time so that you keep getting news information like trending topics and you It is our goal to be able to get
all kinds of news without going through us so that we can reach you the latest and best news for free so that you can move ahead further by getting the information of that news together with you. Later on, we will continue
to give information about more today world news update types of latest news through posts on our website so that you always keep moving forward in that news and whatever kind of information will be there, it will definitely be conveyed to you people.
Virus discovered in China carried by shrews unlikely to become the next COVID, scientists suggest & More News Today
All this news that I have brought up to you or will be the most different and best news that you people are not going to get anywhere, along with the information Trending News, Breaking News, Health News, Science News, Sports News, Entertainment News, Technology News, Business News, World News of this made available to all of you so that you are always connected with the news, stay ahead in the matter and keep getting today news all types of news for free till today so that you can get the news by getting it. Always take two steps forward
Credit Goes To News Website – This Original Content Owner News Website . This Is Not My Content So If You Want To Read Original Content You Can Follow Below Links