A flu virus found in pigs in China has pandemic potential and needs to be monitored “urgently,” researchers warn in study in peer-reviewed journal. PNAS this week.
Threat alert: While it has not been transmitted from human to human, the virus is causing concern because it is a genetic mix of strains that has devastated humans before and there are indications that it “has acquired increased human infectivity,” the researchers say.
Driving the news: NIAID Director Anthony Fauci said at a Senate hearing Tuesday that there was no immediate threat, but that they are monitoring her.
Details: Influenza genetics includes characteristics of the 2009 and 1918 influenza pandemics. “You are seeing the virus in pigs, in pigs now, which have characteristics of 2009 H1N1, from the original 1918, that many of our influenza viruses have traces … as well as segments of other hosts, such as pigs. ” Fauci said.
- The other concern of the researchers is that 10% of 338 people who worked with examined pigs from 2016 to 2018 were found to be positive for the virus, G4 EA H1N1 (although most had not reported that they were sick).
- They also point to two cases, reported in 2016 and 2019, of swine influenza virus in a 46-year-old boy and a 9-year-old boy caused by the EA H1N1 type G4 virus. They both had neighbors who raised pigs, suggesting that the virus “could be transmitted from pigs to humans and cause serious infections and even death.”
- “Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the surveillance effort of EA G4 viruses among pig and human populations,” the study points out.
Background: The research team identified the virus as predominant in swine populations from 2016. From 2011 to 2018, they had been collecting and evaluating 30,000 nasal samples from pigs.
What they are saying “We have always had potential pandemic influenza viruses that we are concerned about … they just don’t have a media moment like the pandemic viruses are having right now,” Amesh Adalja, principal investigator for the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. .
- “This is one of the influenza viruses that we will have to trace, observe and understand what their potential could be for causing human infections, just like we do with H5N1 and H7N9, which are the other two possible influenza viruses. pandemic, which we have also been tracking, “says Adalja.
Whats Next: If the virus initiates a person-to-person infection and progresses to an epidemic or pandemic, scientists will likely work on developing a targeted flu vaccine similar to 2009, but this again emphasizes the need for a universal flu vaccine, says Adalja.
Go deeper: Pandemic Emphasizes the Need for a Universal Flu Vaccine
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