Langya Virus: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment
                     Langya Virus: Causes, 
Symptoms, and Treatment
What Is Langya Henipavirus?
 Experts have found a new virus that starts in 
animals and can spread to humans. They first 
located Langya henipavirus, or Langya virus, in 
eastern China. 
 Henipaviruses are RNA viruses that start in 
animals. But experts don’t believe that the virus 
can spread easily to people. And so far, it doesn’t 
seem to be deadly either.
SOURCE: WWW.WEBMD.COM 2
What Causes 
Langya Virus?
 Experts studied goats, dogs, pigs, cattle, and 
other wild small animals to look for the animal 
origin of Langya virus. 
 They found Langya virus antibodies in some 
goats and dogs as well as viral RNA in a large 
number of shrews.
SOURCE: WWW.WEBMD.COM 3
What Are the 
Symptoms of 
Langya Virus?
 The Langya virus can cause respiratory 
symptoms such as:
 Fever
 Cough
 Fatigue
 The virus is similar to two other henipaviruses 
that can infect people. They include Hendra virus 
and Nipah virus. These also cause respiratory 
infections, but these viruses can be fatal.
SOURCE: WWW.WEBMD.COM 4
How Do 
Doctors Treat 
Langya Virus?
 There aren’t any approved treatments for 
henipaviruses. Experts have only tried a few 
antiviral options in animal studies. There’s no 
specific vaccine for the Langya virus either.
 But ribavirin may be a good treatment. Doctors 
often use this medication for viral infections with 
no current treatment option. Ribavirin is helpful 
for RNA viruses and can be useful for those that 
cause respiratory issues.
SOURCE: WWW.WEBMD.COM 5
How was the new 
viral infection 
discovered?
 The LayV was identified in throat swabs of 
patients with fever. These patients had a recent 
history of exposure to animals. 
 Probe after initial identification found 35 people 
who had acute Langya virus infection in two 
Chinese provinces.
SOURCE: WWW.DNAINDIA.COM 6
Is there human-to-
human transmission of 
Langya virus?
 Authorities have not found exposure in close 
contact tracing of 9 patients or history of 
common exposure, which may indicate that the 
Langya virus infection in human population to be 
sporadic. 
 Nevertheless, researchers say that the sample 
size is not large enough to make a strong case for 
lack of human-to-human transmission of the 
virus.
SOURCE: WWW.DNAINDIA.COM 7
Initial 
observations
 As per initial observations, there are concerns 
that the virus can possibly lead to acute liver and 
kidney infection. 
 An article has been published by Chinese and 
Singaporean scientists in the New England 
Journal of Medicine (NEJM) shedding light on 
details about the virus.
SOURCE: WWW.DNAINDIA.COM 8
Where has 
Langya virus 
come from?
 In all likelihood, the new virus has jumped from 
an animal to humans. The LayV virus RNA has 
been predominantly found in shrews, which may 
be its natural hosts. 
 The study zeroed in on shrews after conducting a 
serosurvey of domestic and wild animals. Among 
domestic animals, seropositivity was detected in 
goats and dogs.
SOURCE: INDIANEXPRESS.COM 9
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