Researchers describe a virus that has been “predominant in swine populations since 2016” with “the essential hallmarks of' a possible pandemic
Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images It’s a story that may not have garnered much notice a scant six months ago: Chinese scientists have identified a strain of influenza in pigs that has “all the hallmarks” of a potential human pandemic.
On Monday, a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal by researchers in China noted that a strain of the flu that has been “predominant in swine populations since 2016” has “all the essential hallmarks of a candidate pandemic virus.
The study took place from 2011 to 2018, involving around 30,000 swabs from pigs in slaughterhouses in 10 Chinese provinces; a total of 179 virus strains were found among the swine, including the worrisome flu strain they have identified as G4 EA H1N1. As Business Insider notes, “The virus is a combination of three flu strains … one from European and Asian birds, the flu strain that caused the 2009 swine flu outbreak, and a North American flu that has genes from bird, human, and pig flu viruses.
The researchers also wrote that the virus “is “distinct from current human influenza vaccine strains, indicating that preexisting immunity derived from the present human seasonal influenza vaccines cannot provide protection.” However, they also note that the current flu vaccine — a quadrivalent shot designed to provide protection against four separate virus strains — could be adapted for the new flu.
Meanwhile, Dr. Anne Schuchat, the principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Monday that the United States has “way too much virus” to be able to control the current pandemic. Also on Monday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, cautioned that “the worst” of the coronavirus “is yet to come.”
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