- Warning comes days after authorities in China announced they had identified cases of H7N9
- Flu experts are currently picking through DNA data of victims to assess severity of the strain
- Virus needs a ‘very close eye kept on it’ say experts
By
Anna Hodgekiss
11:59 EST, 3 April 2013
|
11:59 EST, 3 April 2013
A deadly strain of bird flu previously unknown in people has begun to mutate into a form more likely to cause a human pandemic, scientists say.
Just days after authorities in China announced they had identified cases of H7N9, flu experts in laboratories across the world are picking through the DNA sequence data of samples isolated from patients to assess its severity.
One of the world’s top flu experts, Ab Osterhaus, from the Erasmus Medical Centre in The Netherlands, says the sequences show some genetic mutations that should put authorities on alert and entail increased surveillance in animals and humans.
‘The virus has to a certain extent already adapted to mammalian species and to humans, so from that point of view it’s worrisome,’ he said.
A deadly strain of bird flu previously unknown in people has begun to mutate into a form more likely to cause a human pandemic, say scientists
‘Really we should keep a very close eye on this.’
China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission confirmed that three people had been infected with the new H7N9 flu, with two deaths of men in Shanghai aged 87 and 27 who fell sick in late February.
Chinese authorities have in the past two days confirmed another six cases, including another fatal one.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says the cases of H7N9 are ‘of concern’ because they are the first in humans.
‘That makes it a unique event, which the World Health Organization is taking seriously,’ the Geneva-based United Nations health agency said today.
Other strains of bird flu, such as H5N1, have been circulating for many years and can be transmitted from bird to bird, and bird to human, but not from human to human.Â
So far, this lack of human-to-human transmission also appears to be a feature of the H7N9 strain.
Other strains of bird flu, such as H5N1 (pictured), have been circulating for many years and can be transmitted from bird to bird, and bird to human, but not from human to human
Flu viruses are classified based on two types of protein found on their surface, haemagglutinin and neuraminidase, which are abbreviated to H and N.
Although it is very early days, scientists says initial analysis also suggests H7N9 does not appear to make birds particularly ill – in other words it is what is known as a low pathogenic avian influenza, of LPAI.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t necessarily mean it will be mild in humans, says Wendy Barclay, a flu virology expert at Britain’s Imperial College London.
Its mildness in birds could also mean H7N9 is a ‘silent spreader’ – harder to detect than highly pathogenic flu strains such as H5N1 that can wipe out entire flocks of wild birds or domestic poultry and are therefore far more visible.
In 2003, China initially tried to cover up an epidemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which emerged in China and killed about a tenth of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide.
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When you have God as your shield and Jesus as your armour you have no worries.
P e r c i v a l
,
England, United Kingdom,
04/4/2013 02:42
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Michael Haymar , Oxford;… The public are being primed for yet another flu pandemic, where they can promote mass vaccinations, helping the vaccine manufacturers make obscene profits.â€â€¦.. The latest flu that is never supposed to infect humans was H5N7. It was pi$$ poor at spreading and only 5 people caught it…out of those 5 three died and the other two were in intensive care because of no natural immunity defense against it. That equals a 60% killrate with 100% hospitalization rate. That’s worse then even Ebola, it’s even worse than Small Pox. If something like that goes global, and that’s what the article is about, civilization as we know it is over. Can you imagine 60% of Europe dead over the course of one flu season? Bodies would be lining the streets. Perhaps when (I didn’t say if) the next flu epidemic like 1918 hits, can we write down all the names of people who say things like this and put you last in line for the vaccine….can we ALSO make you help clean sick people?
Resident
,
somewhere in America,
04/4/2013 02:25
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Geez… another pandemic?
IkeCarumba
,
Wild Blue Yonder, United States,
04/4/2013 01:53
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Let’s take bets on what’s going to get us first; WWIII, bird flu or starvation as the depression deepens. I think I’ll turn the internet off and go and enjoy what little time I have left. Bye x
TerribleTwo
,
Cloud Cuckoo Land,
04/4/2013 01:20
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“More likely to mutate†or “slightly less highly unlikely to mutate�
John S
,
Bromley, United Kingdom,
04/4/2013 00:57
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It’s going to combine with swine flu and become flying pig flu.
John S
,
Bromley, United Kingdom,
04/4/2013 00:47
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DEVELOP VIRUS,MARKET CURE,EXPLOIT THE PANIC.
– Gnostickev , Brighton, United Kingdom, 03/4/2013 20:28
The NWO are determind to get us one way or another.
cozmik
,
RIP-UK, United Kingdom,
04/4/2013 00:45
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It’s always China these diseases seems to originate from… probably due to their poor standards of animal welfare and sanitation.
John
,
Peterborough,
04/4/2013 00:16
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The public are being primed for yet another flu pandemic, where the Medical Establishment can promote mass vaccinations, thus helping the vaccine manufacturers make obscene profits.
Michael Haymar
,
Oxford UK,
04/4/2013 00:10
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If you have spare cash then buy shares in GSK etc as these pharmaceutical firms are a solid bet..
Bob Mugabe
,
This doomed country, United Kingdom,
03/4/2013 23:26
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