New strain of 'deadly' bird flu
Experts are concerned that the virus could mutate to spread far and wide
Experts are concerned about the spread of a new strain of bird flu that has already killed one woman in China.
The 73-year-old from Nanchang City caught the H10N8 virus after visiting a live poultry market, although it is not known for sure if this was the source of infection.
A second person has since become infected in China's Jiangxi province.
Scientists told The Lancet the potential for it to become a pandemic "should not be underestimated".
Dr John McCauley Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for InfluenzaPreviously we did not think that H7N9 infections might be so lethal. Now we also must consider H10N8 infections as well”
This particular strain of influenza A virus has not been seen before.
In recent months, China has already been coping with an outbreak of a similar influenza virus called H7N9, which has killed around a quarter of those infected.
Pandemic risk
Scientists who have studied the new H10N8 virus say it has evolved some genetic characteristics that may allow it to replicate efficiently in humans.The concern is that it could ultimately be able to spread from person to person, although experts stress that there is no evidence of this yet.
Dr Mingbin Liu from Nanchang City Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said: "A second case of H10N8 was identified in Jiangxi province, China, on 26 January 2014. This is of great concern because it reveals that the H10N8 virus has continued to circulate and may cause more human infections in future."
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New Bird Flu Virus Leads To First Human Death; H10N8 Strain More ‘Virulent,’ Able To Replicate Efficiently
(Ella Mullins, CC BY 2.0)
A new, virulent strain of the bird flu virus in China
killed a woman in December, and now scientists better understand how.
Various strains of avian flu have floated around China, and even North America, in recent months. While the cases have remained contained to individual victims, or at worst several dozen, researchers consistently express concern over the threat of pandemic — perhaps for good reason, too, as each strain’s origin and particular virulence profile keeps experts uncertain whether they can contain it. The current strain of H10N8 (JX346) was found through tracheal swabs to contain six internal genes derived from avian H9N2 viruses currently awash in China.
"A genetic analysis of the H10N8 virus shows a virus that is distinct from previously reported H10N8 viruses having evolved some genetic characteristics that may allow it to replicate efficiently in humans,” explained study author Dr. Yuelong Shu, from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Beijing, in a statement. “Notably, H9N2 virus provided the internal genes not only for the H10N8 virus, but also for H7N9 and H5N1 viruses.”
All three strains have surfaced in recent months, most notably the H7N9 strain, which claimed the lives of 150 people. Only days before that, the first death was recorded in North America as a result of the H5N1 strain — a Canadian man who had recently vacationed in Beijing. It was last December, in fact, when the current H10N8 strain killed a 73-year-old woman in the city of Nanchang in Jiangxi Province, marking the first time that strain had resulted in human death. Now researchers believe they have the specific genetic makeup of the virus, which made it so lethal, killing the woman within nine days.
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