At a time when India is struggling hard to combat Covid-19 which has spread to almost all the States in the country, scientists have alarmingly found the presence of antibodies for another virus — cat que virus (CQV) — in human serum samples tested from across India. Incidentally, as in Covid-19, which has killed over 95,000 people so far, the CQV is also said to be largely reported from China.
The arthropod-borne virus (arboviruses) is usually carried by culex mosquitoes and pigs, and could cause fatal illness in humans. In fact, Swines are the primary mammalian host of the CQV.
While antibodies of the virus have been found, the scientists at National Institute of Virology (NIV)- ICMR did not stumble upon the virus in any of the 883 human serum samples they tested.
The scientists said that the arthropod-borne virus (arboviruses) is usually carried by culex mosquitoes and pigs, and could cause fatal illness in humans.
The presence of an antibody against a virus in a person indicates that the person had at some point of time been infected by the virus.
But the study, which was published in the latest issue of Indian Journal of Medical Research (IJMR), did not find the presence of the actual virus in any of the samples tested.
Cat que virus, the presence of which is usually reported from China and Vietnam, causes febrile illnesses, meningitis and paediatric encephalitis in humans.
“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 Indian scenario,” the scientists said.