Pathfinder
Editor, Senior Moderator
Threatwatch: Mother virus of China's deadly bird flu
17:28 31 January 2014 by Debora MacKenzie
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Exactly 10 years after H5N1 bird flu exploded across south-east Asia, the virus is still widespread, and has been joined by new killer types of bird flu. Human cases of H7N9 flu are surging in south-east China, and a new type of bird flu, H10N8, has claimed its second human victim, in the same region.
Now it seems that all of these viruses stem from a single, mother virus.
Targeting it might stop it from spawning new, deadly viruses in the future.
Few people have heard of H9N2, but this virus was crucial in giving rise to the three dangerous bird flu viruses that have emerged so far in China ? H5N1, H7N9 and H10N8.
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"H9N2 is the enabler, the one to worry about," Robert Webster of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, told New Scientist. Bird flu is usually a gut infection in ducks, but H9N2 has evolved into a benign respiratory virus in chickens that has spread across Eurasia.
When multiple flu viruses infect the same host, they can swap genes.
They may be named for their various H and N surface proteins, but H5N1, H7N9 and H10N8 all got some or all of their "internal" genes from H9N2.
...
Closing Asia's ubiquitous live poultry markets would be the key to controlling H9N2, says Webster, as this is where H9N2 and its spin-off viruses spread, mingle and evolve ? and where humans catch them.
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But H7N9 is not the only problem. The latest killer in the family, H10N8, took the life of a 73-year-old woman in December last year, and now a 55-year-old woman is critically ill with it after visiting a live poultry market. "We know very little about H10 viruses," says Richard Webby...
Meanwhile, H5N1 still circulates in Chinese poultry ? silently, because it can spread in vaccinated birds without causing obvious disease. A Canadian woman died of H5N1 flu this month after flying home from a visit to Beijing, even though the city has not reported a case of H5N1 in years.
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Full text:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24981-threatwatch-mother-virus-of-chinas-deadly-bird-flu.html
17:28 31 January 2014 by Debora MacKenzie
...
Exactly 10 years after H5N1 bird flu exploded across south-east Asia, the virus is still widespread, and has been joined by new killer types of bird flu. Human cases of H7N9 flu are surging in south-east China, and a new type of bird flu, H10N8, has claimed its second human victim, in the same region.
Now it seems that all of these viruses stem from a single, mother virus.
Targeting it might stop it from spawning new, deadly viruses in the future.
Few people have heard of H9N2, but this virus was crucial in giving rise to the three dangerous bird flu viruses that have emerged so far in China ? H5N1, H7N9 and H10N8.
...
"H9N2 is the enabler, the one to worry about," Robert Webster of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, told New Scientist. Bird flu is usually a gut infection in ducks, but H9N2 has evolved into a benign respiratory virus in chickens that has spread across Eurasia.
When multiple flu viruses infect the same host, they can swap genes.
They may be named for their various H and N surface proteins, but H5N1, H7N9 and H10N8 all got some or all of their "internal" genes from H9N2.
...
Closing Asia's ubiquitous live poultry markets would be the key to controlling H9N2, says Webster, as this is where H9N2 and its spin-off viruses spread, mingle and evolve ? and where humans catch them.
...
But H7N9 is not the only problem. The latest killer in the family, H10N8, took the life of a 73-year-old woman in December last year, and now a 55-year-old woman is critically ill with it after visiting a live poultry market. "We know very little about H10 viruses," says Richard Webby...
Meanwhile, H5N1 still circulates in Chinese poultry ? silently, because it can spread in vaccinated birds without causing obvious disease. A Canadian woman died of H5N1 flu this month after flying home from a visit to Beijing, even though the city has not reported a case of H5N1 in years.
...
Full text:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24981-threatwatch-mother-virus-of-chinas-deadly-bird-flu.html