Recently, Chinese scientists discovered a flu virus which has potential to be a pandemic.
Named as G4, the discovered flu is genetically descended from the H1N1 strain that caused a pandemic in 2009.
The flu carries all the essential hallmarks of being highly adapted to infect humans.
Scientists at Chinese universities and China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention published the research on the 29th of June.
The research came at a time when world is already suffering from a pandemic, the Novel Coronavirus, which was also first reported in China.
The research regarding the new flu was conducted between 2011 and 2018.
Researchers took 30,000 nasal swabs from pigs in slaughterhouses allowing them to isolate 179 swine flu viruses.
The researchers then carried out vakórious experiments on ferrets, used in flu studies as they experience similar symptoms to humans.
As per the studies, G4 is said to be a 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.
The tests showed that as many as 4.4% of the general population also appeared to have been exposed to the new virus or flu.
Since the virus has been passed from animal to human, it is unclear if the virus could transmit from human to human.
According to many reasearchers, “It is of concern that human infection of G4 virus will further human adaptation and increase the risk of a human pandemic.”
The authors of the published research 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.”
While another virus with potential of being pandemic created chaos amongst people, the everyday rise in Coronavirus cases crossed 10.4 million cases globally.
Stay tuned for further updates.
