RISHARD KHAN
rishard.khan@guardian.co.tt

The Min­istry of Health is mon­i­tor­ing an out­break of Langya heni­pavirus (LayV) which has in­fect­ed 35 peo­ple. This was con­firmed by Chief Med­ical Of­fi­cer Dr Roshan Paras­ram on Wednes­day, at the min­istry’s vir­tu­al press brief­ing.

"I think if COVID has taught us any­thing, it is to be on the alert for new virus­es, es­pe­cial­ly with the way per­sons trav­el. A virus could be in one part of the world and then in an­oth­er dur­ing that same day, so it is some­thing that we have to keep a very close eye on, look at the spread and see what is hap­pen­ing and see if it is able to be spread from per­son to per­son and then, of course, take the nec­es­sary steps," he said.

Dr Paras­ram said the min­istry is await­ing fur­ther up­dates on the out­break from the In­ter­na­tion­al Health Reg­u­la­tions' net­work.

"But it's some­thing that we will keep a very close eye on," he said.

LayV is a zoonot­ic virus (orig­i­nat­ing in an­i­mals) that can jump over and in­fect hu­mans. Ac­cord­ing to the Cen­tres for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion, more than six out of every 10 known in­fec­tious dis­eases in peo­ple can be spread from an­i­mals, and three out of every four new or emerg­ing in­fec­tious dis­eases in peo­ple come from an­i­mals.

The nov­el Langya heni­pavirus was found in 35 pa­tients in the Shan­dong and Henan provinces, many with symp­toms such as fever, fa­tigue and a cough.

The dis­cov­ery was pub­lished in the New Eng­land Jour­nal of Med­i­cine on Au­gust 4, ti­tled: "A Zoonot­ic Heni­pavirus in Febrile Pa­tients in Chi­na."