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Indian mosquitoes (Ae. aegypti, Cx. quinquefasciatus and Cx. tritaeniorhynchus) are susceptible to CQV, according to ICMR.
Even as India is struggling to contain the coronavirus pandemic, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has warned of the danger posed by another virus from China. Called Cat Que Virus (CQV), it can cause febrile illnesses, meningitis, and paediatric encephalitis in humans.
One of the arthropod-borne viruses, Cat Que Virus has been spotted in culex mosquitoes and pigs across China and Vietnam. As India is home to similar species of culex mosquitoes, the ICMR has cautioned that possibility of the disease getting spread across the country.
Indian mosquitoes (Ae. aegypti, Cx. quinquefasciatus and Cx. tritaeniorhynchus) are susceptible to CQV, according to ICMR.
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Researchers at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune have found antibodies for CQV in two out of the 883 human serum samples which were taken from various Indian states. This implies that the persons had at some point of time contracted the infection. However, the virus was not found in any of the human or animal samples during the course of the study.
Both the samples that were found to be positive for the presence of anti-CQV IgG antibodies came from Karnataka - one from 2014 and the other from 2017. The findings of the study were published in the latest issue of the Indian Journal of Medical Research (IJMR).
Presence of CQV antibodies in human serum samples and the replication capability of this virus in mosquitoes indicate a possible disease-causing potential of CQV in the Indian scenario, the ICMR noted.
Screening of more human and swine serum samples is required to understand the prevalence of this neglected tropical virus, it added.
Cat Que virus (CQV) was first isolated in 2004 from mosquitoes during surveillance of arbovirus activity in acute pediatric encephalitis in northern Vietnam. A complete genome sequence of the virus was isolated from mosquitoes (Culex tritaeniorhynchus) in Sichuan Province, China in 2015.
Domestic pigs are the primary mammalian host of CQV and antibodies against the virus have been found in pigs reared locally in China, indicating that CQV has formed a natural cycle in local areas.
While CQV has been isolated and reported from its natural host, mosquitoes, the role of birds as a host or vector for CQV transmission and report of human infection with CQV are not documented, the ICMR noted.
Availability of vector, primary mammalian host (swine) and confirmation of CQV from jungle myna signifies the potential of this virus as a public health pathogen in India, cautioned ICMR scientists.
Scientists have also warned the possibility of another pandemic that can be much more severe than the novel coronavirus. It is the Brucellosis outbreak in China that has scientists worried. This is a contagious bacterial virus that is usually transmitted to humans from farm animals including pigs, cows, and buffaloes. One can get this virus by coming in direct contact with the fluid of an infected animal, eating raw or unpasteurized dairy products or inhaling contaminated air.
It is believed that a leak at a biopharmaceutical company in China led to the Brucellosis outbreak. The National Health Commission (NHC) of Lanzhou has already confirmed that around 3,245 people in the capital of Gansu province have been diagnosed with Brucellosis. A recent report has also revealed the presence of the disease in India.