PNAS: China's newly discovered swine flu virus could lead to a human flu pandemic!

, July 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --BiovalleyBIOON/-- Pigs are considered important hosts or "hybrid containers" for the emergence of pandemic influenza virusesSystematic monitoring of swine flu viruses is critical to early warning and preparation for the next potential pandemica team of researchers affiliated with several Chinese institutions (China Agricultural University, Shandong Agricultural University, China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, etc.) and a U.Sagency found evidence of a new type of swine flu that could pose a threat to humansIn their paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team describes their extensive trials of pigs and people known to be close to pigs in China, as well as their findingsmedia reports around the world, Chinese researchers have discovered a new type of swine flu that could trigger a pandemic at a time when the world is still suffering from a global coronavirus pandemicThese reports may exaggerate the threatAccording to the team, although the new strain, called G4 EA H1N1, is similar to the virus that caused the 2009 pandemic (pdm/09), it can bind to human receptors, produce more sub-viruses in the skin cells of the popular tract, and exhibit efficient infectious and aerosol transmission in ferretsBut the ability to spread between humans has not yet been shown -- and that clearly does not meet the necessary conditions for a pandemicPicture Source:NIAIDthe work of this group of scientists is part of an ongoing project in ChinaMedical workers often test domestic pigs for the virus, hoping to detect it before it can be transmitted to humans and spreadIn their paper, the researchers focused on tests between 2011 and 2018, during which 179 strains of swine flu were found, although most of them were G4They also found that the rate of infection in pigs has risen sharply since 2016, and that G4 is now the most common strain of Chinese pigsresearchers also found that the G4 strain included DNA from the 2009 H1N1 strain, which was behind the pandemic that yearThe low antigen cross-reaction of thestrain of influenza vaccine
in people with The G4 recombinant EA H1N1 virus indicates that existing population immunity does not provide protection against the G4 virusThey found that G4 had been transmitted to humans - two active infections had been diagnosedby, while 10 percent (35/338) of people known to have contact with infected pigs had G4 antibodies, especially those aged 18 to 35, with a seropositive rate of 20.5 percent (9/44), indicating increased infectiousness in people mainly with the G4 EA H1N1 virusThis infectiousness greatly increases the chances of the virus adapting in humansThe worry is that the G4 strain will continue to evolve, allowing it to jump from person to person, triggering outbreaks and even a pandemicresearchers believe the new swine flu strain represents a potential threat strong enough to require preventive measuresChina has begun the first step in this prevention process because our researchers are monitoring the virus very closely -- the next step will be to develop a vaccine before it is needed(BioValleyBioon.com)References:New swine flu strain dit in China threat threatpandemicee sun et al.
Prevalent Eurasian-like H1N1 swine influenza virus with 2009 pandemic viral viral genes human human infection , proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2020) DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1921186117