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Virologist Steven Van Gucht has said that the swine flu virus recently discovered in China “is a serious candidate for a pandemic for several reasons.” The new virus has already appeared to have passed from animal to human and is therefore causing concern.
News of the new swine flu virus hit Monday when the results of a Chinese study were published in the American scientific journal PNAS. That study found that pigs in 10 different Chinese provinces are carriers of a new type of flu virus that has already spread to humans. About 10% of the local pig farmers and 4.4% of the general population have antibodies and are therefore already infected.
Although human-to-human infection has not yet been diagnosed, the researchers fear that the virus, which was dubbed ‘G4’, will mutate quickly and may be passed between humans. The risk of a pandemic then lurks. Belgian virologist Steven Van Gucht has now also expressed his concern.
No crotch protection
According to Van Gucht, flu viruses cause a pandemic every 20 years, and this new virus is “a serious candidate for various reasons”. After all, the virus has been circulating in Chinese pigs since 2016 and, moreover, the research shows that other already circulating influenza viruses or vaccines do not offer cross-protection against the new G4 virus. The authors of the Chinese study previously stated that the virus “has all the essential characteristics to be highly adaptable to infect people.” G4 can multiply in human cells, and animal tests have shown that the virus is highly contagious.
American immunologist Anthony Fauci does not speak of a “direct threat”, but says that we should “keep an eye on the new virus, just like in 2009”. The new swine flu virus is always genetically derived from the H1N1 strain, which also includes the so-called Mexican flu virus, which caused a pandemic in 2009.
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