What to do about the potentially

pandemic swine virus detected

in China?

Researchers have found a new strain of influenza virus with “pandemic

potential” in China. It is a virus that can spread from pigs to humans, and
has made a number of alarming headlines.

The fact that the virus has been detected so early is excellent news, as activating
the alert situation quickly allows virologists to take action and develop new tests
specifically for this particular flu virus.

But it is important to understand that so far there is no evidence that this virus
can be transmitted from human to human, and although antibody tests have
shown that some Chinese pig workers have indeed had it in the past, there is no
evidence at present that this virus is particularly deadly either.

What is known so far

China has a fantastic flu surveillance system in place in all its provinces. They
track the occurrence of influenza outbreaks originating from birds, humans or
pigs.

And they do so because, as the scientists say in the article, “systematic

surveillance of influenza viruses in pigs is key to both early warning and
preparedness for a potential pandemic”.

Between 2011 and 2018, in their surveillance of influenza viruses from pigs, the
researchers found what they called “a recently emerged genotype 4 (G4) that
has been reclassified as an H1N1 virus, similar to those from Eurasian birds
(EB)”.

In that paper, they called the G4 EA H1N1 virus, and they argued that it had
been spreading very slowly since 2013, becoming the key component of the
H1N1 swine-origin virus that was detected in China in 2018.
What they discovered was a new type of flu that was a mixture of our
H1N1 human flu and an avian flu.

What is interesting is that the antibody tests showed that the workers on the pig
farms in the affected areas were infected.

Among the workers tested, about 10% (35 people out of 338) showed signs of
having contracted the new G4 EA H1N1 virus in the past and people aged 18-35
seemed more likely to have had it.

Most notably, however, a small percentage of the total blood samples collected
also tested positive for antibodies; these samples came from people who had
little contact with the pigs in the first place, i.e. these people had also had the
virus in the past.

It is very relevant that so far researchers have not found evidence that human-to-
human transmission of the virus is possible.

Infectious efficiency and aerosol transmission in ferrets” has been discovered,

meaning that there is evidence that the new virus can be spread through airborne
droplets from ferret to ferret (these are animals that are often used as surrogates
for humans in studies of influenza viruses).

Ferrets infected with the G4 virus became ill, lost weight and suffered lung
damage, as did other ferrets infected with a seasonal strain of the human-origin
H1N1 flu virus.

It was also found that the virus can infect cells in the human respiratory tract, and
most people still do not have antibodies to G4 viruses, meaning that most human
immune systems lack the tools to fight off illness if faced with such a virus.

In summary: This virus has been circulating for years, is known to jump from
pigs to humans, and meets all the requirements to become one of those
infectious diseases that researchers call PPP (potentially pandemic pathogen).

If a human is infected, how serious is it?

We don’t have a lot of data to work with yet, but it’s likely that people who have
had these infections in the past won’t even remember that they had them.
New articles on the subject do not offer much detail, but none of the people from
whom the samples came died from this virus.

There are no indications that this new virus has had a great impact or spread in
the regions of China where it has been detected, as this country has excellent
virus surveillance systems and at this time there is no reason to be afraid.

The World Health Organization has stated that it is following events very
closely, and that this “highlights the fact that one cannot let down one’s
guard against the flu.

What’s going to happen now?

People working in the field (infectious disease research) are alert, but not
alarmed. New flu strains emerge from time to time and you need to be prepared
to respond to them, you need to pay close attention to any possible signs of
human-to-human transmission.

As far as is known, the specific tests used for human influenza will
not be able to identify this new G4 EA H1N1 virus, so new tests
should be developed and ready soon. However, standard screening
tests for influenza A should work.

In other words, you can tell if someone has so-called “influenza A” (a type of flu
virus that is normally detected in seasonal flu). But this is a very general term that
covers many types of flu strains.

There is no specific test yet for this particular strain discovered in China, but one
can develop quickly.

It is key to be prepared in the laboratory for unusual outbreaks of flu. This

preparedness underlines the importance of pandemic planning, current virus
surveillance systems and the implementation of comprehensive health policies.

And, as with all influenza, the best defenses are careful hand washing and
maintaining social distance in case others, or the same person, have even the
slightest symptom.

Author: Ian M. Mackay, Adjunct Assistant Professor, The University of

Queensland
If you want to learn more about the subject, you can consult the following:

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons

license. Read the original article.

Prevalent Eurasian avian-like H1N1 swine influenza virus with 2009 pandemic
viral genes facilitating human infection.