Researchers are monitoring a new strain of flu that has emerged in China, which they say has the characteristics of a “candidate pandemic virus.”
It is called G4 EA H1N1 and is carried by pigs in Asia. It is a new strain of H1N1, or swine flu, that caused the 1918 and 2009 flu pandemics.
While experts say there is no cause for alarm at this time, a recent study in the American scientific journal PNAS said: “G4 viruses have all the essential characteristics of a possible pandemic virus.”
Pigs are incubators for influenza, or “mixing vessels,” as the researchers put it, allowing them to generate influenza viruses at the pandemic level.
Some pig farm workers, about 10% of those studied, tested positive for antibodies to the new strain of flu, but did not get sick because the virus still cannot cause the disease.
But researchers said the strain “has acquired increased human infectivity,” indicating that it is learning how to survive better in people, said David Cennimo, an infectious disease expert at Rutgers New Jersey School of Medicine.
“I think the concern is that it is adapting better to being in humans,” Cennimo said.
Such ability to establish infection “greatly increases the opportunity for virus adaptation in humans and raises concerns about the possible generation of pandemic viruses,” the study said.
But Cennimo emphasized that there is no reason to panic.
“I think the concern is more academic,” he said. “This does not generate a health alert or anything else.”
If stress became a contagious disease, then the alarms would sound.
“You would be concerned that these pig farmers would really get sick” and then pass it on to others, Cennimo said.
That remains a concern, the researchers said in the study.
A pandemic of a new flu strain would increase the coronavirus pandemic, which has shown no signs of slowing down in the US In fact, the crisis has only escalated in recent weeks in states across the country, especially in the southern and western regions.
Only time will tell what the new strain of influenza develops in. Health experts continue to monitor the situation in China.
The study said “close monitoring must be urgently implemented in human populations, especially workers in (the) pig industry.”
Although the situation is still being investigated, Patty Olinger, an infectious disease expert, said the study has drawn the attention of health experts from around the country and the world.
“It is one of the reports that you really pay attention to …” said Olinger, who is also the executive director of the Biorisk Global Advisory Council. “When we see these events, when there is a jump from one species to another, you start paying attention.”
She said that every time you see a new virus that “has at least reached humans but not caused the disease, it makes you pause and take a look at it.”
But even if the new strain ends up being harmless, Cennimo said that only a moderately severe flu season could disrupt the healthcare system amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Experts call it increased capacity, and a moderate flu season could spell disaster for hospitals in the state that are still dealing with COVID-19.
Spencer Kent can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerMKent. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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