India: study 'revealed..pathogen...more virulent'

[Roehl_JC]

hat tip Blackkitty newfluwiki2

Mumbai: A preliminary study conducted by the state government into the deaths caused by the H1N1 influenza virus has revealed that the pathogen is now affecting patients more virulently and is producing newer reactions in the body. The study has also thrown up a perplexing fact--two-thirds of those suspected to have died of swine flu did not have the virus, despite showing all clinical symptoms.Pathologists at the state-run Sassoon General Hospital in Pune took tissue samples from the bodies of the deceased to study the effect of the virus that attacks the respiratory tract. "Our doctors have concluded that the virus has undergone some genomic changes," said Dr Arun Jamkar, dean, BJ Medical College, Pune. A key discovery is that the virus, which was initially causing a bacterial infection, is now causing a more potent viral infection.
"The viral is now leading to a condition called hyalinisation of alvelar membrane, or thickening of the lung wall by deposition of proteins. Due to this, oxygen supply is severely affected, and even ventilators have been of little help," said Dr Pravin Shingare, joint director, Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER).

The state experts have found that the deaths between August 3 and 25 were largely due to formation of pus on the membrane lining the lungs. "During that period, deaths were caused mostly due to a secondary bacterial infection," said a professor who was involved in the study. But the deaths caused thereafter were the result of deposition of proteins on the membrane. "The deposition is more severe in the case of recent deaths. It leads to the thickening of the membrane, and therefore oxygen cannot not pass into the body at all," the professor said.

This finding has led experts to conclude that the virus has indeed undergone some changes and its anti-antigenicity is changing. But, the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune has a different opinion. Director of NIV, Dr AC Mishra, said that his team is yet to record any change in the behaviour of the virus. "We still cannot say conclusively that the virus has mutated," he added.

Jamkar said that another interesting finding of the state experts has been that two-thirds of the influenza H1N1 patients who died actually tested negative for the virus. "As many as 36 suspected cases who died were later found negative for the virus," he said.

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_h1n1-is-mutating-turning-deadlier_1303962

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: India: study 'revealed..pathogen...more virulent'

BMC worried over swine flu virus mutation


Naziya Alvi, Hindustan Times
Email Author
Mumbai, October 31, 2009
First Published: 01:09 IST(31/10/2009)
Last Updated: 01:10 IST(31/10/2009)

Though the city witnessed no swine flu deaths in October, BMC health officials are worried that the H1N1 virus may have undergone mutation.

Civic officials will be meeting medical experts at Pune?s National Institute of Virology (NIV) in the coming week.

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation?s Additional Municipal Commissioner (Health), Manisha Mhaiskar, confirmed the civic body?s decision to hold a meeting with NIV experts. ? Yes, our doctors will discuss the possibility of the swine flu virus undergoing a mutation,? said Mhaiskar.

Despite a drastic fall in the number of suspected swine flu patients testing positive for H1N1, what has got health officials worried is the fact that two patients, who died after showing all the classic symptoms of swine flu, tested negative for the H1N1 virus. ?This may suggest that the H1N1 virus may have mutated and is resultantly leading to different symptoms in affected persons,? said a senior health officer, who requested anonymity.

Medical experts, however, said that the BMC?s concern maybe misplaced as chance of a significant mutation in the H1N1 virus in such a short span is unlikely.

?This virus is known to mutate but the process is very slow, it may happen over a season but not within a few months,? said Dr Abhay Chaudhary, director of the Haffkine Institute for Research at Parel.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/rssfeed/mumbai/BMC-worried-over-swine-flu-virus-mutation/Article1-471133.aspx

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: India: study 'revealed..pathogen...more virulent'

Director of NIV, Dr AC Mishra, said that his team is yet to record any change in the behaviour of the virus. "We still cannot say conclusively that the virus has mutated," he added. [/B]

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/repor...adlier_1303962

For me this is the most important quote.

[Roehl_JC]

Re: India: study 'revealed..pathogen...more virulent'

Yes I agree, watch for the changes from viral samples that can be evaluated ...the University of California San Francisco is doing just that, and they have found some changes but no reports yet as to the significance for H1N1 pandemic.

..............

story below:

SAN FRANCISCO ? As the H1N1 flu virus spreads at breakneck speed, a team of local scientists are close behind. They are watching its evolution through a cutting-edge technology in hopes of answering the question: Where did it come from ? and where is it going?

Their lab at the University of California-San Francisco holds a growing international collection of viral samples, including some from San Jose swabbed from the noses of sick people, since the first days of the swine flu epidemic. Genetic analysis of each sample will alert researchers to any tiny change that would create a giant problem.

So far, the swine flu virus seems to be evolving slowly. But a small mutation could create resistance to drugs.

The scientific sleuths are most worried about a big genetic leap ? such as in 1918, when a mild virus turned deadly, killing 20 million to 40 million people. If such a leap does happen, the lab hopes to detect it early, triggering more aggressive treatment, quarantining and prevention measures.

Locked inside a large, $14,000 freezer, kept at 7 degrees below zero, are trays of plastic vials holding specimens of the H1N1 virus from California, Canada and Mexico. Some of the viruses came from dead patients; others caused merely an annoying cough.

"So far, we have no evidence that this virus is any more virulent than seasonal flu," said Dr. Charles Chiu, director of the Viral Detection and Discovery Center. Instead,

what seems to matter is the immune response of the infected person; while some people shrug it off, others go into lethal overdrive. There is also new evidence suggesting that co-infection with another virus, such as the common cold, may worsen illness.
"What we're worried about is the possibility, because it is a fundamentally new virus, that it may mutate into a strain that is more virulent," said Chiu.The ambition of the new center, just a half block from AT&T Park, is to hunt down viruses whose identities and origins baffle doctors. And its team wants to understand these mystery viruses at the most essential level: the sequence of its genes.
Upon opening in January, one of the center's first projects was to study H1N1. Its first specimen, from a young girl in Mexico, is now known to be one of the first cases of swine flu. Since then, the virus has spread to 190 countries.

But its researchers have also detected a new virus linked to a rare type of prostate cancer and another virus that causes diarrheal disease in children. In yet another project, they are collecting unusual strains of HIV from Cameroon, Africa.

While at least 20 other labs are studying the genetic structure of the flu virus through conventional sequencing, the San Francisco lab is one of two in the entire nation engaged in viral discovery and "deep sequencing," seeking mutations that occur at very low frequencies. The other is the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University in New York City. "They're doing a great job. What they do is very important," said molecular virologist Paul Luciw of the University of California-Davis.

"The technology enables analysis of strain variation. If you find something very different, then you have to pay more attention ? isolating that patient and looking at the patient's contacts."

The collection now includes about 100 samples sent from the California Department of Health Services, 100 from Canada and 100 from various sites in Mexico.

More specimens arrive every day.

Long ago, scientists had to peer through microscopes to figure out what was killing people ? a process that could take 10 to 20 years.

Modern surveillance is improved not only through use of "deep sequencing," but another novel detection tool called the virochip, designed by the center's Joseph DeRisi.

The technology uses tiny glass slides dotted with thousands of fragments of DNA from 2,500 known viruses. The tool can study an entire genome at once ? so experiments that used to be impossible are now being performed in days or hours.

All the viral sequences are stored in a huge computer database.

A flu virus is thought to reproduce about every eight hours. Within one day, it's spawned several generations. As it breeds, it mixes and morphs.

By comparing H1N1's genetic code with other influenzas, scientists have found a new combination of elements of previously known viruses. Three flu strains ? from pigs, birds and humans ? combined in one animal to create an unusual "triple re-assortment."

It's not known how, when or where this happened. Then it jumped into humans.

Chiu's team is watching its continued evolution, a gradual accretion of minor mutations called genetic "drift."

"There are changes," he said. "Not a lot of changes ? but there are changes. Now we're investigating the significance of these changes."

What he's worried about is a big change called genetic "shift," when there's a dramatic re-assortment and exchange of strands of genetic material that trigger hard-to-predict epidemic trajectories.

Such a shift could build a virus that is fast-growing, adept at infecting lungs, unfamiliar to the immune system ? and highly contagious.

"That would be a big deal," he said.

For now, they're waiting and watching, so that a catastrophe like 1918 need never happen again.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/localnews/ci_13688296

[Corn]

Re: India: study 'revealed..pathogen...more virulent'

“This virus is known to mutate but the process is very slow, it may happen over a season but not within a few months,” said Dr Abhay Chaudhary, director of the Haffkine Institute for Research at Parel.

We are talking about a Pan virus.

A seasonal virus may effect 10% of the population with opportunities to mutate within a specific species whereas a pan virus has the opportunity to infect 1/3 to half of humans on the planet since there is no previous immunity. So anywhere from 2 billion plus chances to mutate with human infection.

Add to this virus that it is a quadruple re assort and can infect fowl and swine easily and how many possibilities for infection/ confection and chances for mutation are they?

Billions upon billions of mutation opportunities.

Add antiviral's, vaccines, intensified farming and we are driving the virus to mutate even further and faster.

Forget about air travel, air mail and paper money and.....

[Roehl_JC]

Re: India: study 'revealed..pathogen...more virulent'

good to read your comments Corn )
I find myself wondering as well about the need to facilitate work-from-home cyberstations and home-school internet classrooming and expedite meds to areas of major disruption both at home and abroad as per best practice models.
We also need to find more sustainable animal husbandry standards that are prohibitive of tranzoonotic infections.