LANGYA VIRUS
1. Background and the story so far
- Scientists in Asia have identified a new virus that can cause severe fever and was likely transmitted to humans from animals in eastern China.
- The Langya henipavirus (LayV) was found in 35 people in the Shandong and Henan provinces of China, who were tested between 2018 and 2021, according to a letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine earlier this month.
2.Prominance of langya in causing disease
- The researchers used a modern technique known as metagenomic analysis to find this new virus. Researchers sequence all genetic material then discard the “known" sequences (for example, human DNA) to look for “unknown" sequences that might represent a new virus.
- This raises the question about how scientists can tell whether a particular virus causes the disease.
- Scientists have traditionally used “Koch’s postulates" to determine whether a particular microorganism causes disease:
- it must be found in people with the disease and not in well people
- it must be able to be isolated from people with the disease
- the isolate from people with the disease must cause the disease if given to a healthy person (or animal)
- it must be able to be re-isolated from the healthy person after they become ill.
3.Contemporary highlights about the virus
- The virus has reportedly been found in throat swab samples
- The early patients of the virus are mainly farmers
- The virus was also detected in 2% of domestic goats and 5% of dogs
4.BACK TO BASICS
4.1.What is a Virus
- A virus is an infectious microbe consisting of a segment of nucleic acid (either DNA or RNA) surrounded by a protein coat.
- A virus cannot replicate alone; instead, it must infect cells and use components of the host cell to make copies of itself.
- Often, a virus ends up killing the host cell in the process, causing damage to the host organism.
- Well-known examples of viruses causing human disease include AIDS, COVID-19, measles and smallpox.
4.2.Differences between Virus and Bacteria
