Langya Virus Found In China

China detects 35 cases of henipavirus, a new virus of animal origin.

Since the beginning of the new crown epidemic, people have been on high alert about the virus transmitted from animals to humans.

In early August, a team of Chinese, Singaporean and Australian researchers published a paper in a professional journal about a new type of henipavirus called "Langya Virus". 

Its full name Langya-Henipavirus, abbreviated as LayV appeared in China. It was found in 35 people in the eastern provinces of Henan and Shandong.  

 

The "Langya virus" was likely transmitted to humans via shrew (mouselike animal), a murine mammal (mice), the researchers said. That is to say, the shrew may be the natural host of the Langya Virus. It is also found among dogs and goats.

The main symptoms of infected people include fever, fatigue, cough, loss of appetite, muscle pain, nausea, headache, and vomiting.

This virus belongs to the same genus as the Nipah virus and so far these cases have not been fatal or very serious. 

New Virus 'Tomato Flu'

The world is still suffering from the economic, social, and health ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic; however, a new disease has emerged in India.

'Tomato flu' or 'tomato fever' is a disease that has been detected in the state of Kerala, in India, and that mainly affects children under five years of age.

Tomato flu was first identified in the Kollam district of Kerala on May 6, 2022, and more than 82 cases of children under the age of 5 suffering from the infection have been reported in local hospitals. Nonetheless, the Kerala Health Department is taking precautionary measures to control the spread of the viral infection and prevent its spread to other parts of the country. 

 

This rare viral infection is in an endemic state and is considered not life-threatening; however, this virus manifests itself with symptoms similar to those of SARS-CoV-2:

Fever

Fatigue

Body Aches

Skin Rashes

Although the virus could also be a new variant of viral hand, foot, and mouth disease, a common infectious disease that mainly affects children aged 1 to 5 years and immunocompromised adults. There is currently no specific drug to treat it.

The disease got its name precisely from the red, painful blister-like rashes that appear all over the body of those infected and gradually increase to the size of a tomato. They resemble those seen with the monkeypox virus in young individuals. 

Tomato flu is a self-limited disease and there is no specific drug to treat it. Treatment consists of isolation, rest, plenty of fluids, and a hot water sponge to relieve irritation and rashes. Paracetamol is also given for fever and body aches and other symptoms of illness.

Justin Bieber Battling 'Serious' Virus

Justin Bieber has lately delayed a series of concerts due to an illness that directly affects the mobility of part of his face. In a video broadcast on Instagram, the Canadian singer has conveyed that he will postpone more concerts due to facial paralysis.

"As you can see, this eye does not blink, I cannot smile on this side of my face, this nostril does not move. So there is complete paralysis on this side of my face," he has delivered on his social networks.

Therefore, he wanted to send a message to his fans: "This is quite serious, as you can see, I wish it wasn't like that but obviously my body is telling me that I have to slow down and I hope you understand."  

 

Bieber began his Justice World Tour in February, and was scheduled to finish the first leg in North America in July. Initially, the tour was scheduled to last until March 2023. However, the Canadian singer's disease will alter his tour schedule. After this confession, the artist has guaranteed that he will take some time to "rest and relax and return to being 100% to be able to do what I was born to do." 

Of course, he has disclosed that he will have to make a sequence of facial movements over the next few days to regain full mobility of his face from him. Ramsay Hunt syndrome is a rare neurological disorder that happens when the varicella-zoster virus infects a nerve in the head near the inner ear.

After suffering from chickenpox as a child or shingles as an adult, the virus can remain dormant in the body. To this day, it is still unknown why the virus reactivates and causes Ramsay Hunt symptoms. 

This incapacitating syndrome, in addition to paralysis, can also cause vertigo, dizziness, balance and hearing problems, as well as changes in the voice, Bieber's main work tool.

Therapy includes steroids, such as prednisone, to subside inflammation and pain medication. Antiviral medications that help the herpes family, such as acyclovir or valacyclovir, may sometimes be prescribed.

Full recovery is a matter of time. If treatment is started within three days of diagnosis, partial paralysis is 75% resolved. The problem is to catch it after these days, since the possibilities of recovering mobility are increasingly reduced. 

Experts Warn of More Animal Disease Threats

With monkeypox spreading around the world in the immediate aftermath of Covid-19, there are fears that rising outbreaks of diseases jumping from animals to humans could trigger another pandemic.

While such diseases, called zoonoses, have been around for millennia, they have become more common in recent decades due to deforestation, massive ranching, climate change and other human-induced upheavals in the animal world, experts say.

Other diseases that have jumped from animals to humans include HIV, Ebola, Zika, SARS, MERS, avian flu, and bubonic plague.  

 

And with more than 1,000 cases of monkeypox recorded worldwide in the past month, the UN agency has warned there is a "real" risk of the disease establishing itself in dozens of countries.

WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said last week that "it's not just about monkeypox" but that the way humans and animals interact has become "unstable."

"The number of times these diseases cross over into humans is increasing" he said.

Monkeypox has not recently jumped to humans: the first human case was identified in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1970 and has since been confined to areas of central and western Africa.

Despite its name, "the latest outbreak of monkeypox has nothing to try to to with monkeys," said Olivier Restif, an epidemiologist at the University of Cambridge.

Zoonotic transmission is most often from rodents and outbreaks are spread by person-to-person contact.

Worse Yet To Come?

About 60 percent of all known human infections are zoonotic, as are 75 percent of all new and emerging infectious diseases, according to the United Nations Environment Program.

Zoonotic outbreaks has increased in recent decades due to population growth, livestock growth, and encroachment on wildlife habitats. Wild animals have drastically changed their behavior in response to human activities, migrating from depleted habitats.

Animals with weakened immune systems hanging around people and pets are a sure way to get more pathogen transmission and deforestation has had a major effect.

Is Monkeypox Virus Another Pandemic

The monkeypox virus has been reported mostly from Central and West Africa and is a rare but dangerous infection similar to the now-eradicated smallpox virus. 

According to the World Health Organization, monkeypox continues to appear sporadically but now spreading rapidly in Europe and North America.

The monkeypox has set off alarm bells in Europe and the United States.  

 

The illness begins with a fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, chills, swollen lymph nodes—a symptom that smallpox does not have—and exhaustion. Up to three days after you have a fever, you may develop a rash on your face and body that progresses to crusty skin lesions.

People who may have symptoms of monkeypox, and those who have close contact with them, should contact their doctor if they have any unusual rashes or lesions.

Is there a vaccine? There is currently no treatment or vaccine for monkeypox virus infection. The outbreaks can be controlled since the smallpox vaccine has shown an efficacy of 85% in preventing monkeypox. However, following the global eradication of smallpox in 1980, production of the vaccine was discontinued and it is no longer accessible to the public.

Coronavirus Found In Eight Lions

Eight lions at an Indian zoo have tested positive for coronavirus, the Indian government has announced, insisting there is no evidence that the animals can transmit the virus to humans, according to a News report.

The authorities of the zoo in the city of Hyderabad, in the south of the country, took the samples to a research laboratory on March 24, after the lions presented respiratory difficulties.

Following blood tests, nasal and rectal swabs 11 lions nasal and rectal swabs were sent to the National Institute of High Security Diseases and nine samples were positive. The authorities of the zoo said: "According to the results of laboratory tests provided by the Institute, the samples from nine lions tested positive for Covid. In order to ascertain whether the reported results are positive or not, other analyzes will also be carried out."

Meanwhile, a nine-year-old lioness, who was housed in another location in the zoo, died on June 3. The Zoo enlisted the help of the National High Security Animal Disease Institute and Hyderabad Zoo for the treatment protocol as eight lions from Hyderabad Zoo had contracted the disease earlier. The zoo, which is home to 13 lions, has been closed since the lockdown began and it remains a mystery as to how the felines contracted the respiratory virus.

The results come in the midst of the country's crisis due to the dramatic situation it has been experiencing in recent weeks due to the expansion of the coronavirus.

"Based on experience with animals from zoos in other parts of the world that tested positive for SARS-COV-2 last year, there is no evidence that animals can transmit the disease to humans," the Environment Ministry said, Forests and Climate Change.

Scientists currently plan to perform genome sequencing in an attempt to find out whether the strain responsible for the infection comes from humans or other animals. At the moment it is hypothesized that the lions have contracted the virus through a visitor or keeper of the zoo, in fact about 25 employees have been recently infected. The zoo has already been closed.

India has reported more than 300,000 daily Covid-19 infections for 13 days in a row and has already reached 20 million infections.