New pestilence just dropped. (uh, like 18 months ago but we almost panicked about it for a day).
Today’s Moment of Science… Do we really have to worry about the novel Langya virus?
(TL;DR- almost certainly not, but it sounds… at least mildly unpleasant).
In the last few years, I’ve written far too many terrifying snippets about new plagues that, much like the rest of us, refuse to get all that close to Ted Cruz. Obviously not every virus that gets a name is going to turn the world upside down for a few years, but what about this one? There were quite a few headlines today that at least implied this sonofabitch was getting twelves of people sick right now. TWELVES!
If you’ll please, allow me this rant.
In a time when we already have our minds occupied by monkeypox, covid, and motherfucking polio? Could some of my colleagues in journalism and media exercise a little self restraint whenever an interesting new microbe shows up and only elect to spur panic about diseases that have infected more than, perhaps, three dozen people in two and a half years? I’m just saying, some outlets have been far more “please grab yer ankles” about this than necessary.
Anyway, the interesting new microbe.
Henipaviruses operate at all levels on the ‘yikes’ scale. Cedar virus hasn’t shown observable disease in any animals. A few of the other cousins have only really popped their heads out to say hello, be identified, and then fucked right back off into the wilderness. There are no known cases of Ghanian bat henipavirus infecting a human. And Mojiang henipavirus was suspected in causing fatal pneumonia in three miners in China in 2012, but it was never confirmed, and hasn’t been seen outside of a laboratory or a literal rat’s ass since.
Then there’s Hendra and Nipah. They’re… more than mildly unpleasant.
Hendra came from my favorite place for zoological nightmares: Australia. A result of a messy threeway zoonotic crossover event in 1994 (my band name), the virus spread from the host fruit bats to horses to humans. Humans typically only catch the disease from working with infected horses. It was typically fatal over half the time to both species, and there have been small outbreaks since then. There’s a vaccine now. For horses, at least.
Four years later in Sungai Nipah, Malaysia, some pigs and humans came down with very different illnesses with the same cause. Pigs only occasionally had encephalitis, but typically had fevers, severe breathing issues, and a cough described as a ‘one mile cough’ (or barking pig syndrome, which absolutely needs a dirtier definition in my comments section). Fatality rates were generally below 5%. Humans didn’t get any breathing issues (though respiratory symptoms have been reported in subsequent outbreaks), but were hit hard with complications of encephalitis. Out of 276 cases in that first outbreak, there were 106 fatalities.
So, say hello to the newest bundle of [sound of the universe screaming at its own creation], Langya henipavirus.
It was discovered in 2018, and I know class, you’re already asking “Ms. Auntie SciBabe, was there a reason you couldn’t have interrupted your very busy schedule to tell us about this amidst the stories prehensile dolphin dick?”
I would have, but there have been 35 cases.
Total.
Since 2018.
(This was originally published in 2022, and it’s still… 35 cases).
What brand of henipavirus is this? In the article in the New England Journal of Medicine last week, it sounds quite a bit nastier than a cold, but so far no fatalities. People feel like utter dogshit, they get a fever, fatigue, and a cough. Some cases come with headache, nausea, and a side of liver and kidney function impairment. Low platelet and low white blood cell count are some pretty concerning symptoms as well.
With such a low number of cases, there are still countless unknowns. Though it seems unlikely that human to human transmission is occurring, it hasn’t been ruled out yet. It’s also unknown if some of these more serious symptoms could contribute to fatalities in a large outbreak.
I’m not too worried at the moment though. At least for now, it’s a disease the vast majority of us can rest easy about.
Amongst the animals evaluated as possible host species, over a quarter of shrews tested positive for the virus. So please, if you want to keep it to just one pandemic, one emergency, and one “WTF POLIO?!” Avoid these adorable little mouse-like floofs with long snoots, lest you bring a fourth plague upon us all.
This has been your Moment of Science, not at all suddenly wanting to tame a shrew.
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