A Zoonotic Henipavirus in Febrile Patients in China

First Genomic Evidence of a Henipa-like Virus in Brazil

“…Another possibility is that PBV is a marsupial-borne henipavirus. Recently, it was demonstrated the existence of rodent-borne henipavirus [10,14], from China, and shrewborne henipaviruses, from China, South Korea, Belgium, and Guinea [14][15][16][17], which further indicates the possibility of other mammals harboring henipaviruses. Although this matter remains unclear, due to lack of data about PBV genomic organization and ecological features, the marsupial-borne origin hypothesis is still supported by the high divergence of the nucleotide sequence and the isolated position of PBV in a sister clade to the bat-borne and rodent/shrew-borne subclades in the phylogenetic reconstruction.…”

“…Besides, a presumably shrew-borne novel henipavirus, phylogenetically related to MojV, referred as Langya henipavirus, was associated to a febrile illness in patients from China, mostly farmer workers. The limited epidemiological data analysis indicated that human-to-human transmission was unlikely, and the human cases probably emerged from multiple spillover events [17]. These new data on the diversity of henipavirus in shrews reinforced the possibility that other mammals may harbor henipaviruses instead of only bats and rodents and highlight their potential of emerging as novel human pathogens despite the taxonomic classification of their reservoir animals.…”

Spillover zoonotic ‘Langya virus’: is it a matter of concern?

“…Fruit bats are the natural host for Hendra and Nipah virus (Drexler et al 2012 ). The genomic analysis of the LayV genome has shown that the virus is closely linked to Mojiang henipavirus (Zhang et al 2022 ), a rat-borne virus that was first identified in southern China, Yunnan province in 2012 after three miners developed severe pneumonia and died. The serum samples collected from the dead miners were sent to the Wuhan Institute of Virology that showed negative results for the Ebola virus, Nipah virus, and bat SARS-CoV Rp3.…”

“…While the LayV was first identified in the north-eastern provinces of Shandong and Henan in late 2018 ( Figure 1 ), it was only formally identified by scientists on 4 August 2022 and described in length in the New England Journal of Medicine (Zhang et al 2022 ). The virus was likely transmitted from animals (rodent-like mammals) to humans, and Taiwan’s health authority is now monitoring the spread at the China-Taiwan border.…”

“…Evolutionary virologists tested wild animals and found LayV viral RNA in more than a quarter of 262 shrews tested. The finding suggested that the shrews may have been a ‘natural reservoir’ (Zhang et al 2022 ). The virus was also detected in 2% of domestic goats and 5% of dogs.…”