The 2009 H1N1 Virus Is Genetically Changed Over The Past 1,5 Years

The 2009 H1N1 Virus Is Genetically Changed Over The Past 1,5 Years.
Although the pandemic H1N1 "swine" flu that emerged terminal appear has stayed genetically unwavering in humans, researchers in Asia say the virus has undergone genetic changes in pigs during the model year and a half. The fear is that these genetic changes, or reassortments, could forth a more virulent bug. "The particular reassortment we found is not itself likely to be of major gentle health risk, but it is an indication of what may be occurring on a wider scale, undetected," said Malik Peiris, an influenza top-notch and co-author of a paper published in the June 18 issue of Science. "Other reassortments may occur, some of which predicate greater risks".

The findings underscore the importance of monitoring how the influenza virus behaves in pigs, said Peiris, who is chairman and professor of microbiology at the University of Hong Kong and methodical director of the university's Pasteur Research Center. "Obviously, there's a lot of developing going on and whenever you see some unstable situation, there's the potential for something new to evolve that could be dangerous," added Dr John Treanor, professor of medicine and of microbiology and immunology at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York.

The romance H1N1 pandemic influenza virus that began circulating in humans in beforehand 2009 originally came from swine, first infecting humans in Mexico before spreading to more than 200 countries. In humans, the 2009 H1N1 virus has stayed genetically the same and still causes extent kindly disease, when it causes disease at all (the virus has all but disappeared in latest weeks, although experts suspect it will be back). But in January 2010, the authors of this tract isolated a new version of the H1N1 virus in pigs in a Hong Kong slaughterhouse.

The H1N1 virus circulating in humans seemingly looped back to pigs, where it underwent this genetic change. Theoretically, the changed virus could now voyage back to humans, potentially causing more dangerous disease. "We found that the pandemic virus has frequently transmitted back to pigs, and we report one instance of reassortment, meaning genetic change, of this virus within pigs," said Peiris.

Peiris and his co-authors mucroniform out that the influenza viruses that sparked the 1918, 1957 and 1968 pandemics all lingered in mammals before reassorting and wreaking disruption on humans. "Our headland is that this is likely to be occurring in many places and not unique to Hong Kong," Peiris said. "There is have need of for much greater surveillance efforts to assess what is occurring on a worldwide basis". "In the past, we have focused a lot of limelight trying to understand what's been going on in birds," Treanor said scriptovore.com. "This article and others are saying it may be equally or more noteworthy to have extensive surveillance of viruses in pigs".