- Joined
- Dec 3, 2017
- Messages
- 26,290
- Reaction score
- 16,771
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Progressive
Swine flu strain with human pandemic potential increasingly found in pigs in China | Science | AAAS
What the world doesn’t need now is a pandemic on top of a pandemic. So a new finding that pigs in China are more and more frequently becoming infected with a strain of influenza that has the potential to jump to humans has infectious disease researchers worldwide taking serious notice. Robert Webster, an influenza investigator who recently retired from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, says it’s a “guessing game” as to whether this strain will mutate to readily transmit between humans, which it has not done yet. “We just do not know a pandemic is going to occur until the damn thing occurs,” Webster says, noting that China has the largest pig population in the world. “Will this one do it? God knows.”
========================================================================
Just what we don't need is another flu pandemic.
The strain has genes from a mix of pig, avian and human viruses and genes from the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic virus. Genetic material can mix in an animal host through a process called reassortment, creating a new virus, according to Flor M. Munoz, M.D., M.Sc., FAAP, a member of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases.
CDC: New swine flu strain in China a ‘potential pandemic concern’ | American Academy of Pediatrics
The new strain appears to grow well in human airway epithelial cells and possesses “all the essential hallmarks of being highly adapted to infect humans,” according to the study. It is a variant of the H1N1 virus that was responsible for the 1918-1920 Spanish flu pandemic.
What the world doesn’t need now is a pandemic on top of a pandemic. So a new finding that pigs in China are more and more frequently becoming infected with a strain of influenza that has the potential to jump to humans has infectious disease researchers worldwide taking serious notice. Robert Webster, an influenza investigator who recently retired from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, says it’s a “guessing game” as to whether this strain will mutate to readily transmit between humans, which it has not done yet. “We just do not know a pandemic is going to occur until the damn thing occurs,” Webster says, noting that China has the largest pig population in the world. “Will this one do it? God knows.”
========================================================================
Just what we don't need is another flu pandemic.
The strain has genes from a mix of pig, avian and human viruses and genes from the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic virus. Genetic material can mix in an animal host through a process called reassortment, creating a new virus, according to Flor M. Munoz, M.D., M.Sc., FAAP, a member of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases.
CDC: New swine flu strain in China a ‘potential pandemic concern’ | American Academy of Pediatrics
The new strain appears to grow well in human airway epithelial cells and possesses “all the essential hallmarks of being highly adapted to infect humans,” according to the study. It is a variant of the H1N1 virus that was responsible for the 1918-1920 Spanish flu pandemic.
Last edited:
