A new international research at the China Centre for Disease Control and Prevention discovered four new types of Hantavirus in bats, a life-threatening disease that can infect humans, reports Medical Xpress.
Hantaviruses are commonly carried by rodents, and have the potential to infect humans if they come in contact with dust contaminated with mice nests or feces left by mice. The newly discovered Hantaviruses in bats increases the possibility of other animal acting as hosts.
"This breakthrough in understanding the biodiversity and evolution of hantaviruses could help arm us against the threat of a pandemic," said Professor Eddie Holmes, an NHMRC Australia Fellow at the University of Sydney, based at the Sydney Emerging Infections and Biosecurity Institute, according to Medical Xpress. "Hantavirus is a major threat to global health, making information that adds to our poor understanding of how it evolved and is transmitted an important contribution to fighting the disease."
Hantavirus infections in human can cause influenza like symptoms which may even result in respiratory and kidney failures. This deadly infection can turn into an epidemic.
"Our research describes four novel hantaviruses, sampled from bats and shrews in China, which are distinct from known hantaviruses," Holmes said. "Despite the public health threat hantavirus poses there is no scientific consensus on their evolutionary history, especially how diverse they are or how often their transmission jumps species barriers."
The research led to the discovery that the hantaviruses initially existed in bats or other carnivores that feed on insects despite the fact that rodents are known subjects to carry the viruses, says the report.
During the course of the research, it was learned that all the genetically discrete bunch of hantaviruses including the new ones have spread enormously across geographical distances, reports Medical Xpress.
"The fact the evolutionary 'trees' or pathways of the virus don't always match those of their mammalian hosts makes it possible to conclude that hantaviruses frequently jump host barriers and emerge in new species, with bats serving as ancient and important hosts," Holmes said. "Overall that analysis shows that bats are likely to be important hosts from which new hantaviruses may emerge in the future and possibly pass to humans."
The research was contributed by University of Sydney and published in PLOS Pathogens.
