New swine flu with pandemic potential identified by China researchers

[PostmanBitesDog]

Let's hope this doesn't get any worse......

New Swine Flu with Pandemic Potential Identified by China Researchers

The Guardian (June 30, 2020) - G4 strain has already infected 10% of industry’s workers in China but no evidence yet that it can be passed from human to human.

Researchers in China have discovered a new type of swine flu that is capable of triggering a pandemic, according to a study in the US science journal PNAS, although experts said there is no imminent threat. Named G4, it is genetically descended from the H1N1 strain that caused a pandemic in 2009.

It possesses “all the essential hallmarks of being highly adapted to infect humans”, said the authors, scientists at Chinese universities and China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in the study published on Monday.

Between 2011 and 2018, researchers took 30,000 nasal swabs from pigs in slaughterhouses in 10 Chinese provinces and in a veterinary hospital, allowing them to isolate 179 swine flu viruses. The majority were of a new kind that has been dominant among pigs since 2016.

The researchers then carried out various experiments – including on ferrets, which are widely used in flu studies because they experience similar symptoms to humans. G4 was observed to be highly infectious, replicating in human cells and causing more serious symptoms in ferrets than other viruses do. Tests also showed that any immunity humans gain from exposure to seasonal flu does not provide protection from G4. More than one in 10 swine workers in the new study had already been infected, according to antibody blood tests which showed exposure to the virus. The tests also showed that as many as 4.4% of the general population also appeared to have been exposed.

The virus has therefore already passed from animals to humans but there is no evidence yet that it can be passed from human to human – the scientists’ main worry. The World Health Organization (WHO) will read the Chinese study carefully, spokesman Christian Lindmeier told a Geneva briefing on Tuesday, saying it was important to collaborate on findings and keep tabs on animal populations.

“It also highlights we cannot let our guard down on influenza and need to be vigilant and continue surveillance even in the coronavirus pandemic,” he added.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a daily news conference on Tuesday that China was closely following developments. “We will take all necessary measures to prevent the spread and outbreak of any virus,” he said.

The study highlights the risks of viruses crossing the species barrier into humans, especially in densely populated regions in China, where millions live close to farms, breeding facilities, slaughterhouses and wet markets. The current coronavirus sweeping the world is believed to have originated in horseshoe bats in southwest China and could have spread to humans via a seafood market in the central city of Wuhan, where the virus was first identified.

“It is of concern that human infection of G4 virus will further human adaptation and increase the risk of a human pandemic,” the researchers wrote.

The authors called for urgent measures to monitor people working with pigs. James Wood, head of the department of veterinary medicine at Cambridge University, said: “The work comes as a salutary reminder that we are constantly at risk of new emergence of zoonotic pathogens and that farmed animals – with which humans have greater contact than with wildlife – may act as the source for important pandemic viruses.” A zoonotic infection is caused by a pathogen that has jumped from a non-human animal into a human.

Although it is capable of infecting humans, there is no imminent risk of a new pandemic, said Carl Bergstrom, a biologist at the University of Washington. “There’s no evidence that G4 is circulating in humans, despite five years of extensive exposure,” he said on Twitter. “That’s the key context to keep in mind.”

G4.jpg

[noggin1969]

[PostmanBitesDog]

OH C'MON, 2020! SERIOUSLY!?!

July 3, 2020 - Mongolia Has Quarantined a Region Next to the Chinese Border after an Outbreak of the Bubonic Plague

Two suspected cases of the bubonic plague - which is linked to the consumption of marmot meat - have been identified, health experts announced on Wednesday. Lab tests confirmed that two unidentified individuals had contracted the illness in the region of Khovd, Mongolia's National Center for Zoonotic Disease (NCZD) said in a statement. The provincial capital in western Mongolia is now in quarantine. According to local media, vehicles have been banned from entering the area temporarily.

The NCZD analysed samples from 146 different people who may have had contact with the two individuals infected. In addition, 504 second-contact individuals were identified. The bacterial infection can kill adults within 24 hours if not treated in time. Local reports suggested that the victims were a 27-year-old male and a young woman, although her age is not known.

The plague is spread by fleas living on wild rodents such as marmots. The plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which is usually found in small mammals and their fleas. The bacterium was linked to the Black Death which wiped out more than a third of Europe's population in the 14th century and to subsequent plague outbreaks.

It is now treatable with antibiotics, as long as they are administered quickly. From 2010 to 2015 there were 3,248 cases reported worldwide, including 584 deaths, says the World Health Organization. Some plague vaccines have been developed, but none are available to the general public. The WHO does not recommend vaccination except for high-risk groups such as health care workers.

Without antibiotics, the bubonic strain can spread to the lungs – where it becomes the more virulent pneumonic form. Pneumonic plague, which can kill within 24 hours, can then be passed on through coughing, sneezing or spitting.

M.jpg