Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, a new strain of flu having the potential to trigger a pandemic has been identified by scientists in China and is carried by pigs. The virus is named G4 and has similar genes to that of 2009 flu pandemic.
On Monday, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PANS), a US science journal, published this study. The scientists in the journal further stated that measures must be taken to control the virus in pigs and the close monitoring of swine industry workers, should be swiftly implemented.
How the virus was identified?
From 2011 to 2018, scientists researched pigs to surveillance influenza viruses in them in 10 provinces of China. For this purpose, more than 29,000 nasal swabs and over 1,000 lung tissues were collected from the slaughtered and farmed pigs respectively having signs of respiratory illness.
Out of the collected samples, the scientists isolated 179 swine flu viruses and the majority of them are associated with the newly identified G4 strain.
Why should we be worried about the new virus?
As per the researchers, this virus could mutate further and can transfer from one person to another triggering an outbreak. The researchers call this virus as G4 EA H1N1 which can grow and multiply itself in the epithelial cells lining up the human airways.
Scientists are of the view that the current flu vaccines won't protect us from the G4 virus but can be adapted as and when needed. Also, as the virus is new, people may have no or little immunity against it.
However, researches are still going on to identify whether the new strain of the virus can transmit from pigs to humans or can transmit from one human to another.
What WHO stated on the new G4 virus?
As per the World Health Organisation (WHO) expert, the swine flu in China is not new and is under surveillance. The executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, Michael Ryan further states that the swine flu virus is closely monitored since 2011 and the recently published study is a compilation of the data from 2011 and is not a newly emerged virus.
2009 swine flu pandemic
In 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared A H1N1 influenza virus a pandemic after it reached 30,000 globally. As per several reports, around 11-21% of the global population in the year 2009 contracted the illness. The virus was transmitted from human to human and the symptoms include-- fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headaches, chills and fatigue.
As per the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), swine flu is a virus that infects pigs and humans are not typically infected by such viruses. However, they only infect humans who are exposed to infected pigs and human-to-human transmission is limited.
What is an epidemic?
According to WHO, the occurrence in a community or region of cases of illness, specific health-related behaviour, or other health-related events clearly over normal expectancy. The community or region and the period in which the cases occur are specified precisely. The number of cases indicating the presence of an epidemic varies according to the agent, size, and type of population exposed, previous experience or lack of exposure to the disease, and time and place of occurrence.
Comments
All Comments (0)
Join the conversation