A new animal virus that can infect people has been identified in eastern China. But scientists say they are not overly concerned because the virus doesn’t seem to spread easily between people, nor is it fatal.

The virus, named Langya henipavirus (LayV), can cause respiratory symptoms such as fever, cough and fatigue, and is closely related to two other henipaviruses known to infect people — Hendra virus and Nipah virus. These also cause respiratory infections, and can be fatal. Researchers think LayV is carried by shrews, which might have infected people directly or through an intermediate animal. The virus was described in the New England Journal of Medicine1 on 4 August.

Researchers say LayV has infected only 35 people since 2018, and none of the cases seems to be linked. “There is no particular need to worry about this, but ongoing surveillance is critical,” says Edward Holmes, an evolutionary virologist at the University of Sydney in Australia. Regularly testing people and animals for emerging viruses is important to understand the risk of zoonotic diseases — those that can be transmitted from other animals to humans, he says.