Posted on 02/22/2010 4:11:57 PM PST by SJackson
A new study authored by UW-Madison virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka warns there is the potential for avian H5N1 influenza and human seasonal flu viruses to interact and form a new flu strain which could be both highly contagious and deadly.
Since the H5N1 influenza outbreak in Asian poultry in 2003, forms of this virus have spread to wild birds and poultry on several continents. However, since the H5N1 virus lacks the ability to transmit efficiently among humans, there have been only 442 confirmed human cases -- although 59 percent (262) of those infected have died.
The new findings -- which appear in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences -- raise concerns that H5N1 and pandemic H1N1 viruses could exchange genetic material in individuals exposed to both and generate a hybrid strain that is both highly virulent and infectious.
Kawaoka, who is the senior author of this study, did not return messages seeking comment. However, he told UW Communications in a news release that "with the new pandemic H1N1 virus, people sort of forgot about H5N1 avian influenza. But the reality is that H5N1 avian virus is still out there. Our data suggests that it is possible there may be reassortment between H5 and pandemic H1N1 that can create a more pathogenic H5N1 virus."
That's surprising, because previous lab studies indicated that hybrid viruses were less harmful than their parent strains. But experimenting on mice in a lab, Kawaoka and a team of researchers showed that a single gene segment from a seasonal flu virus, H3N2, was able to convert the avian H5N1 virus into a highly pathogenic form.
"H5N1 virus has never acquired the ability to transmit among humans, which is why we haven't had a pandemic," Kawaoka says in the press release. "The worry is that the pandemic H1N1 virus may provide that nature in the background of this highly pathogenic H5N1 virus."
So while the H1N1 influenza outbreak has garnered most of the headlines over the past year, Kawaoka's study points to the importance of keeping track of the avian H5N1 virus and all viral populations to monitor for any emergence of highly pathogenic variants.
This influenza study was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan, and the Japan Science and Technology Agency.
everyone stuck with the vaccine
This past week in my small town there wss a free clinic for getting the H1N1 vaccine free- I did not see anything in the paper about how many participated, but I sure did not hear any one talking about it either.
If ya can’t give it away-———
I got immunity the old fashioned way. I got the swine flu.
It really sucked, but every doc I talked with said it was a “mild” flu. If that is mild, I never want to get regular.
Aww jeesh, we’re back to bird flu now.
My mother (nurse) took care of many people with the 1918 influenza- never ever got influenza til her later years when she was convinced to take the vaccine-for that reason I did not take it, until I did get influenza. Doesn’t sound as though I fared as badly as you, but it was not fun.
Thanks for the ping!
Thanks for the ping.
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