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New flu Virus with PANDEMIC potential


RadX
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Meanwhile, whilst Covid is still around....

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-53218704?at_custom3=BBC+News&at_custom2=facebook_page&at_custom4=1148D5C6-BA40-11EA-8D3C-B0574D484DA4&at_custom1=[post+type]&at_campaign=64&at_medium=custom7&fbclid=IwAR2-uNadmc3vl1cGIdkvNFnXCF8mA6cY3f-7uWIKozZcqCs80Ds9gX5mhTU&fbclid=IwAR3s4A_HIa0m1GFExTdWKfOxTuNiOd7zp_8Yp7p17dZDXx9jA0vmKr13-14

 

Pandemic threat

A bad new strain of influenza is among the top disease threats that experts are watching for, even as the world attempts to bring to an end the current coronavirus pandemic.

The last pandemic flu the world encountered - the swine flu outbreak of 2009 that began in Mexico - was less deadly than initially feared, largely because many older people had some immunity to it, probably because of its similarity to other flu viruses that had circulated years before.

Coronavirus: This is not the last pandemic

Does the UK have coronavirus under control?

Worst could be 'yet to come' in coronavirus pandemic

That virus, called A/H1N1pdm09, is now covered by the annual flu vaccine to make sure people are protected.

The new flu strain that has been identified in China is similar to 2009 swine flu, but with some new changes.

Media captionSearching for viruses in Thai bats - watch scientists collect samples from the animals in order to look for clues about coronaviruses

So far, it hasn't posed a big threat, but Prof Kin-Chow Chang and colleagues who have been studying it, say it is one to keep an eye on.

The virus, which the researchers call G4 EA H1N1, can grow and multiply in the cells that line the human airways.

They found evidence of recent infection starting in people who worked in abattoirs and the swine industry in China.

Current flu vaccines do not appear to protect against it, although they could be adapted to do so if needed.

Prof Kin-Chow Chang, who works at Nottingham University in the UK, told the BBC: "Right now we are distracted with coronavirus and rightly so. But we must not lose sight of potentially dangerous new viruses."

While this new virus is not an immediate problem, he says: "We should not ignore it."

Prof James Wood, head of the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Cambridge, said the work "comes as a salutary reminder" that we are constantly at risk of new emergence of pathogens, and that farmed animals, with which humans have greater contact than with wildlife, may act as the source for important pandemic viruses.

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2 hours ago, RadX said:

Meanwhile, whilst Covid is still around....

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-53218704?at_custom3=BBC+News&at_custom2=facebook_page&at_custom4=1148D5C6-BA40-11EA-8D3C-B0574D484DA4&at_custom1=[post+type]&at_campaign=64&at_medium=custom7&fbclid=IwAR2-uNadmc3vl1cGIdkvNFnXCF8mA6cY3f-7uWIKozZcqCs80Ds9gX5mhTU&fbclid=IwAR3s4A_HIa0m1GFExTdWKfOxTuNiOd7zp_8Yp7p17dZDXx9jA0vmKr13-14

 

Pandemic threat

A bad new strain of influenza is among the top disease threats that experts are watching for, even as the world attempts to bring to an end the current coronavirus pandemic.

The last pandemic flu the world encountered - the swine flu outbreak of 2009 that began in Mexico - was less deadly than initially feared, largely because many older people had some immunity to it, probably because of its similarity to other flu viruses that had circulated years before.

Coronavirus: This is not the last pandemic

Does the UK have coronavirus under control?

Worst could be 'yet to come' in coronavirus pandemic

That virus, called A/H1N1pdm09, is now covered by the annual flu vaccine to make sure people are protected.

The new flu strain that has been identified in China is similar to 2009 swine flu, but with some new changes.

Media captionSearching for viruses in Thai bats - watch scientists collect samples from the animals in order to look for clues about coronaviruses

So far, it hasn't posed a big threat, but Prof Kin-Chow Chang and colleagues who have been studying it, say it is one to keep an eye on.

The virus, which the researchers call G4 EA H1N1, can grow and multiply in the cells that line the human airways.

They found evidence of recent infection starting in people who worked in abattoirs and the swine industry in China.

Current flu vaccines do not appear to protect against it, although they could be adapted to do so if needed.

Prof Kin-Chow Chang, who works at Nottingham University in the UK, told the BBC: "Right now we are distracted with coronavirus and rightly so. But we must not lose sight of potentially dangerous new viruses."

While this new virus is not an immediate problem, he says: "We should not ignore it."

Prof James Wood, head of the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Cambridge, said the work "comes as a salutary reminder" that we are constantly at risk of new emergence of pathogens, and that farmed animals, with which humans have greater contact than with wildlife, may act as the source for important pandemic viruses.

-_-[laugh][laugh]

 

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https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3091114/new-swine-flu-found-china-has-pandemic-potential-researchers-say

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According to blood tests which showed up antibodies created by exposure to the virus, 10.4 per cent of swine workers had already been infected.

The tests showed that as many as 4.4 per cent of the general population also appeared to have been exposed

 

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