Langya virus: How serious is the new pathogen discovered in China?

Dozens of people in eastern China are known to have been infected by a novel virus, named Langya henipavirus (LayV), that appears to be transmitted from animals to people.What is Langya henipavirus?
LayV is part of a genus of viruses called henipaviruses that are typically harboured in fruit bats. The genus includes the Hendra virus, which was first identified in Australia in 1994 and is known to infect humans and horses. The Nipah virus, first identified in 1999 in Malaysia, is also part of this genus. Both infections have high fatality rates in people.

LayV appears to be most closely related to Mojiang henipavirus, according to a team of researchers led by Xiao-Ai Zhang at the Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology and Fa-Chun Jiang at the Qingdao Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, both in China. In 2012, Mojiang henipavirus was linked to the onset of severe pneumonia, and eventually death, in three men working in a derelict copper mine in China.In the latest development, a group of people with fever and a recent history of animal exposure were being monitored in eastern China. A new henipavirus – LayV – was identified in a throat swab sample from one individual.

A subsequent analysis by the same team of researchers has revealed that 35 known cases of LayV arose in people, mostly farmers, in the Shandong and Henan provinces of eastern China between December 2018 and May 2021.

What are the symptoms of Langya virus?
Within the 35 people, the researchers have only reported symptoms experienced by those who didn’t also show signs of another infection, to better determine that LayV was the cause of their symptoms.