It’s been nearly ten months since our world has been dealing with COVID-19. What started in a small market in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China has now spread all over the world, affecting millions of lives. While situations in Wuhan are all A-OK right now, the condition around the world is just getting worse.
Even in India, we have a total of 6.15 million cases of the novel coronavirus till now and cases are showing no signs of stopping or even slowing down. And amidst all this, Scientists at the ICMR have found another virus from China that has entered in India and poses a threat to spread across the nation.
Cat Que Virus Antibodies in India
Scientists at the Indian Council of Medical Research have found the presence of ‘cat que virus’ in India and have found antibodies for the virus in two of the 883 human serum samples tested across different states of the nation, indicating that people were infected with the virus at some point of time (since antibodies are formed by the immune system only when a virus attacks the body).
Scientists haven’t found the virus in any other human or animal samples at the time of the study. The two samples who were positive of cat que virus antibodies were from Karnataka in the year 2014 and 2017 respectively.
ICMR said in a statement, “Anti-CQV IgG antibody positivity in human serum samples tested and the replication capability of CQV in mosquitoes indicated a possible disease-causing potential of CQV in the Indian scenario. Screening of more human and swine serum samples using these assays is required as a proactive measure for understanding the prevalence of this neglected tropical virus.”
What is Cat Que Virus?
Cat Que Virus is an arthropod-borne virus that is known to cause fever, meningitis and paediatric encephalitis in the human body. This disease is commonly seen in culex mosquitoes and pigs found in China and Vietnam.
According to ICMR, Indian mosquito breeds of aegypti, Cx quinquefasciatus and Cx Tritaeniorhynchus are susceptible to be the medium for the disease. In mammals, swines are the ones to host CQV.
Source: India Times
