Pandemic flu: People infected with the H1n1 swine flu virus who are otherwise healthy should not routinely be given antiviral drugs,
the World health organization (WHO) warned last week. Its recommendations are at odds with current practice in many countries,
which handles samples of H1n1 pandemic flu, and which earlier this year lost track of 22 vials containing harmless Ebola-virus genetic material.
It can trigger abortions in goats and sheep and causes flu-like symptoms and sometimes pneumonia in humans.
The World health organization (WHO) announced on 10 august that the world is no longer experiencing an H1n1 influenza virus pandemic.
said that countries were generally not reporting out-of-season outbreaks of the flu strain,
and that H1n1 would probably take on the behaviour of a seasonal flu virus. Margaret Chan,
but from the scientific community's responses to them much as deaths from virulent flu come not from the virus but from the immune system's violent overreaction.
can trigger abortions in goats and sheep and cause flu-like symptoms and sometimes pneumonia in humans.
Transgenic chickens curb bird flu transmission: Nature Newsresearchers have made genetically modified chickens that can't infect other birds with bird flu.
The H5n1 strain of influenza which raged through Southeast asia a decade ago and has killed hundreds of people to date remains a problem in some developing countries,
where it is endemic. The birds carry a genetic tweak that diverts an enzyme crucial for transmitting the H5n1 strain.
We have more ambitious objectives in terms of getting full flu resistance before we would propose to put these chickens into true production,
even if the GM chickens carried full resistance to influenza, there are political and economic hurdles to their widespread commercial use not least the public's aversion to GM food.
What's more, flu viruses mutate quickly and are famous for evading vaccines. If made commercially available,
which includes genetic sequences that match up with an enzyme that influenza viruses use for replication and packaging.
but didn't pass on the flu to any of their uninfected cagemates. The researchers found that the amount of virus present in the infected GM birds was not significantly different from that in non-transgenic controls.
Virus sharing In the event of a future flu pandemic, member states of the World health organization (WHO) will send samples of flu virus to laboratories and drug makers around the world,
in return for greater access to any vaccines created. The deal announced by THE WHO on 17 april,
if to other infectious diseases such as influenza. The difference in foot-and-mouth disease infectiousness predicted previously and that found through the experimental study shows a need for better evidence
Caution urged for mutant flu workwhy would scientists deliberately create a form of the H5n1 avian influenza virus that is probably highly transmissible in humans?
Surveillance of flu viruses could, they argue, allow health organizations to monitor birds and other animals for the mutations that would provide an early warning of a pandemic
More than a dozen flu experts contacted By nature say they believe that the work opens up important vistas in basic research,
But they caution that virus surveillance systems are ill-equipped to detect such mutations arising in flu viruses.
which are a good proxy for how flu behaves in other mammals, including humans. All five mutations have been spotted individually although not together in wild viruses.
provided that a mechanism is established to disseminate the data to flu researchers and public-health officials on a need-to-know basis. The US government,
39 flu researchers declared a 60-day pause in the creation of lab mutant strains of the H5n1 avian flu virus. The hiatus,
says Ilaria Capua, an animal-flu expert at the Experimental Animal health Care Institute of Venice in Legnaro, Italy."
H5n1 is far from being the only flu virus that poses a pandemic threat. But he believes that more extensive genetic surveillance could eventually pay off."
which the mutant flu research could provide immediate public-health benefits, Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases, replies:"
See page 289 for more on the flu-virus debate. go. nature. com/pf7bwv20-24 february Marine scientists'responses to the Gulf of mexico oil spill in 2010 are discussed among topics at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Salt lake city, Utah
Flu surveillance lackingin addition, the surveillance is sustained typically not, but instead is ad hoc and reactive,
But a flu virus that emerges anywhere, at any time, can threaten the entire planet.
lack of data, says Ian Brown, head of avian virology and mammalian influenza at the Animal health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency lab in Weybridge, UK.
Timely global surveillance of animal flu viruses is crucial not just for identifying pandemic threats,
and pig flu deposited in the US National Center for Biotechnology Information s Influenza Virus Sequence Database between 2003 and 2011.
and several large flu sequencing projects, including the Influenza Genome Sequencing Project a major initiative run by the National Institute of Allergy
and Infectious diseases (NIAID) to boost the sequencing of existing isolates. The analysis covered all subtypes of flu virus, not just H5n1.
That s important, says Malik Peiris, a flu virologist and surveillance expert at the University of Hong kong,
because"H5n1 is not the sole pandemic candidate, and low pathogenic viruses are just as likely, if not more likely,
The number of avian flu sequences deposited in the database skyrocketed between 2003 and 2010, before dropping off in 2011.
The number of avian flu sequences from isolates collected in each year peaks in 2007 and plummets thereafter.
The Influenza Genome Sequencing Project is also helping by generating vast quantities of sequences it now accounts for half of all avian
An exception is the Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance a network created by the NIAID in 2007 to boost flu surveillance
which has a policy of releasing all sequence data within 45 days of its collection.
says Ilaria Capua an avian-flu researcher at the Veterinary Public health Institute in Legnaro, Italy, who champions greater availability of sequences5.
Just 7 of the 39 countries with more than 100 million poultry in 2010 collected more than 1, 000 avian flu samples between 2003 and 2011.
Surveillance of avian flu viruses is bad, but that of pig viruses is worse. Yet pigs are a serious pandemic risk:
they can be infected co with both human and avian flu strains, which means that they provide ample opportunity for gene swapping and, thereby,
679 pig flu sequences were collected between 2003 and 2011. Just three countries the United states, China and Hong kong  collected more than 1,
000 swine flu sequences each, and around 200 countries collected none at all. Five of those countries-Russia
In pigs, flu tends to be mild, so there is little economic incentive for surveillance. Moreover, the pork industry often doesn t want the negative image of having swine flu detected in its farms.
Research teams at Hong kong University, including one led by virologist Malik Peiris, are compiling one of the world's single largest sources of pig sequences.
a highly conserved set of six genes that allows the virus to swap genes with flu viruses from other species much more freely than the seasonal H1n1 that circulated before 2009 (see Pandemic 2009 H1n1 virus gives wings to avian flu).
globally changing the swine influenza virus landscape, says Peiris.""This certainly is a source of concern for public health.
and a well-structured and hygienic farming industry inevitably have fewer flu sequences to report,
or no sequences have poor veterinary systems and flu-prone farming systems, such as backyard farms and mixed poultry and pig farms,
which are often close to wild ducks and other flu reservoirs.""Proper geographic representation is lacking, says van der Werf,
Flu experts say that the dire state of surveillance could be turned rapidly around by, for example, creating a network of sentinel sites,
The problem is that no global body has overall responsibility for flu surveillance. The World health organization (WHO) runs a global network of labs for human flu surveillance
and selects human strains to be included in vaccines for seasonal flu. Monitoring animals falls to the FAO,
which tends to focus on food security, and the OIE, which looks mostly at animal health and trade.
and the United kingdom, are hotspots of emerging zoonotic infections, such as avian influenza.""Zoonoses present a major threat to human and animal health.
Swine-flu alert The number of reported cases in an outbreak of H3n2v virus a variant strain of swine flu that can pass from pigs to humans took a sudden spike last week.
3 9 august 2012h5n1 moratorium Researchers should continue a self-imposed moratorium on lab studies that give new properties to the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5n1, according to Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute
Fauci was speaking at a meeting of flu researchers in New york city. The moratorium has been in place since late January;
Rinderpest is as deadly to cattle as highly pathogenic H5n1 avian flu is to chickens. In past decades, outbreaks ripped through herds and wiped out up to 90%of animals, often leaving famine,
Need for flu surveillance reiteratedthe emergence of the H1n1 influenza virus that leapt from pigs to humans in 2009,
and his colleagues have isolated a new strain of H1n2 influenza from Korean pigs that kills infected ferrets the model animal of choice for influenza work
Like that responsible for the 2009 pandemic, the new strain, known as Sw/1204, is a'triple-reassortant'virus that is, one with genes from avian, swine and human flu.
Recent experiments show how Avian flu may become transmissible among mammals. In an era of constant and rapid international travel,
including chickens engineered to be resistant to the bird-flu virus. A BBSRC spokesperson told Nature:"
Mapping the H7n9 avian flu outbreakssources: Multiple, including WHO and Xinhua News agency. To download map file to view in Google earth,
well-established avian flu virus H5n1 may help to target H7n9 surveillance and control efforts. The map shows human cases of H7n9 (blue circles) superimposed on a risk map developed for H5n1,
and an expert in the epidemiology and ecology of avian flu viruses at the Free University of Brussels, says that
Maryland. go. nature. com/wfnyw227-30 april Flu pandemics, the resurgence of measles and antimicrobial resistance are discussed all at the European Society of Clinical Microbiology
H7n9 bird flu poised to spreadthe H7n9 avian flu virus greatly expanded its geographical range over the weekend,
says Marius Gilbert, an expert in the epidemiology and ecology of avian flu viruses at the Universitã libre de Bruxelles in Belgium.
Urgent search for flu sourcevirologists know its name: H7n9. What they don t yet know is
whether this novel avian influenza virus first reported in humans in China less than two weeks ago will rapidly fizzle out,
Scientists urgently want to find out which sources are stoking the human infections that result in flu-like symptoms and, in most reported cases, severe pneumonia.
says Malik Peiris, a flu virologist at the University of Hong kong. Sources: WHO/ECDC/Xinhua state mediabut the various bird species found to be infected may not be the original source,
Researchers know that H7 flu viruses mainly infect wild birds such as ducks, geese, waders and gulls,
He also co-convenes the Asia-Pacific Working group on Migratory Waterbirds and Avian influenza with the Food and agriculture organization of the united nations (FAO.
says Masato Tashiro, a virologist at the Influenza Virus Research center in Tokyo, the World health organization s influenza reference
and research centre in Japan. Each time the virus encounters new human hosts, it has fresh opportunities to mutate
Researchers working on the molecular biology of the virus say that it seems to derive from a reassortment of genetic material from at least three known bird-flu groups (see Nature http//doi. org/k4j;
Because flu viruses evolve rapidly, comparing viral sequences from each of the human cases might reveal
and posting them on the GISAID flu database. If human-to-human transmission does start to occur,
Humanity has never been exposed widely to H7 or N9 flu viruses, and so lacks resistance to these subtypes.
Bird flu deaths Two men have died after being infected with a type of bird flu never before seen in humans
Novel bird flu kills two in Chinascientists and public-health officials worldwide are on alert after China announced on 31 march that two people had died
and a third was seriously ill from being infected with a new avian influenza virus, H7n9, that has never been seen before in humans.
says Masato Tashiro, a virologist at the Influenza Virus Research center in Tokyo, the World health organization (WHO) influenza reference
and research centre in Japan. The epidemiological picture is troubling too says Malik Peiris, a flu virologist at the University of Hong kong.
Any time an animal influenza virus crosses to humans it is a cause for concern,
and with three severe cases of disease over a short period of time, we certainly have to take it seriously,
All three developed flu-like symptoms before developing severe pneumonia. The cases were announced on 31 march by China's health ministry, the National Health and Family planning Commission,
Chinese researchers have moved swiftly to decipher the new virus. THE WHO Chinese National Influenza Center in Beijing has sequenced isolates from each of the three cases,
and published them on the GISAID flu sequence database on 31 march. Researchers around the world have
Flu viruses have eight genes: two that encode the haemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N) proteins that stud the surface of the virus,
because this protein allows the virus to bind to host cells seems to belong to a Eurasian group of H7 avian flu viruses.
Most of the genetic analyses are still being carried out confidentially within THE WHO's global flu-research networks.
Flu viruses that don t sicken birds can, however, cause severe disease in humans simply because we lack any immunity to them.
China has reported not any recent H7 flu infections in birds, perhaps because such infections would not show up as serious disease,
Flu experts say that other urgent requirements include testing any human cases of serious pneumonia for traces of the virus
with scientific discussions including threats from the avian influenza viruses H7n9 and H5n1. gm. asm. org21-23 may The Pasteur institute in Paris hosts an international symposium on HIV research,
Flu vaccine backfires in pigspreventing seasonal sniffles may be complicated more than researchers suspected. A vaccine that protects piglets from one common influenza virus also makes them more vulnerable to a rarer flu strain,
researchers report today in Science Translational Medicine1. The team gave piglets a vaccine against H1n2 influenza.
The animals responded by making antibodies that blocked that virus but aided infection with the swine flu H1n1,
which caused a pandemic among humans in 2009. In the study, H1n1 infected more cells
The root of the different immune responses lies with the mushroom-shaped haemagglutinin protein found on the outside of influenza-virus particles
The protein occurs in all types of flu, but the make-up of its cap and stem vary between strains.
Much of the work to develop a universal flu vaccine has targeted the stems of haemagglutinin proteins
because they are relatively consistent across many types of influenza viruses. The new study suggests that such vaccines could also produce antibodies that enhance the ability of some viruses to infect new hosts,
But that does not mean that researchers should stop developing novel flu vaccines, including those that target haemagglutinin stems,
Gary Nabel, a flu-vaccine researcher and chief scientific officer at the biotechnology firm Sanofi in Cambridge, Massachusetts, agrees."
Still, researchers have not yet tested whether human influenza vaccines can produce the same effect. And differences between pigs and humans make it difficult to interpret how relevant the findings are to the development of human vaccines,
Emergence of H7n9 avian flu hints at broader threatthe H7n9 influenza virus did not emerge alone.
Researchers have traced the evolution of the deadly avian flu currently spreading in China, and have found evidence that it developed in parallel with a similar bird flu, H7n7,
which can infect mammals1. Although there is no evidence that this H7n7 strain will infect humans,
a co-author of the study and an influenza specialist at St jude Children s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
says lead author Yi Guan, an influenza specialist at the University of Hong kong. In China, the virus has infected 135 people
This is a very different influenza ecosystem from other countries says Guan. Guan's team sampled wild birds and poultry markets around Shanghai in April,
About 10%of samples tested positive for an influenza virus; of those, 15%were an H7 virus
and compared them to other bird-flu strains, they found H7n9 and H7n7 to be hybrids of wild Eurasian waterfowl strains, such as H7n3 and H11n9.
David Morens, an influenza researcher and senior adviser at the US National institutes of health in Bethesda, Maryland, says that the evolutionary pathway that the viruses followed suggests that more surveillance
H7n9 virus persists China reported on 11 august its first new case of the H7n9 avian influenza virus in three weeks:
cut back influenza monitoring and resulted in the loss of observing time at major telescope facilities.
which also examined the United kingdom s stockpiling programme for the influenza drug Tamiflu (oseltamivir), the authors say that evaluation of the efficacy of Tamiflu
Vietnam on high alert over flu riskthe H7n9 avian-influenza virus that has killed more than 100 people in China in the past year has for the first time been detected in a province bordering Vietnam,
The news comes as a surge in human H7n9 flu cases in China since the start of the year shows signs of abating,
H7n9 flu was detected first in China in March last year, and almost all of the human cases were reported the following month.
more than 200 human cases of H7n9 flu have been registered in China this year, compared with around 160 recorded in 2013 (see Ups and downs).
although with a coastal and southerly shift (see The flu front line). Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces are affected the worst.
Last week, the first human case of H7n9 flu was detected in Jilin province in the far north of the country, raising a further risk of spread to North korea and Russia,
The country was hit hard by another avian-flu virus, H5n1, a decade ago, and suffered enormous economic losses and more than 60 Â human deaths.
and mitigate avian-flu outbreaks, including boosting the number of veterinary surgeons and improving diagnostic facilities. To specifically address the risk of H7n9 flu,
Vietnam has banned the importation of poultry from China. It has introduced also twice-weekly monitoring for H7n9 in markets in the north of the country,
says Ben Cowling, a flu epidemiologist at the University of Hong kong.""My impression is that financial concerns had a greater influence this winter compared to last spring.
But the surge in H7n9 flu cases highlights the continuing public-health and possibly pandemic threat that it poses.
Study revives bird origin for 1918 flu pandemicthe virus that caused the 1918 influenza pandemic probably sprang from North american domestic and wild birds, not from the mixing of human and swine viruses.
Worobey and his colleagues analysed more than 80,000 gene sequences from flu viruses isolated from humans, birds, horses,
but there is evidence that the influenza virus evolves at different rates in different hosts faster in birds than in horses, for example.
The analysis also reveals a shared ancestor for almost all avian flu strains and an H7n7 virus that struck down horses and mules throughout North america in 1872.
"We now have this idea that the source for a lot of influenza virus we see now worldwide is potentially equine,
Flu pertussis measles you name it many of the infected (if not most) are fully or partially vaccinated people.
a real one not the BS swine flu) Engineers are scientists too btw. Think applied physics.
Nevertheless thimerosal no longer appears in any vaccines except influenza because an infant receiving the recommended schedule of old vaccines would get a higher-than-recommended dose of mercury
The issue is as serious as swine flu says Modern Farmer. Some key quotes: So they're bad.
when you have the gastric flu? an unknown starling you have seen never or the lettuce you had with your lunch.
#The Swine flu You Can Get From American County Fairsbefore 2012 outbreaks of so-called influenza A variant infections in the U s. only popped up once in a while in the medical literature.
Then in 2012 healthcare workers across the U s. reported 309 human cases of influenza A (H3n2) variant also known as H3n2v.
Samples of flu viruses taken from pigs and from people in Ohio during the 2012 outbreak were genetically close to one another according to the study
In addition all of the cases recorded across the state were more than 99.5 percent similar to one another genetically indicating that it was just one flu strain that took residence in humans and swine alike.
It's a little funny to think of getting a flu from a pig at the county fair.
which influenza viruses evolve. Swine are susceptible to avian human and swine flus and these virus can circulate inside pigs for varying lengths of time with no signs of illness.
This makes them great meet-markets for flu viruses to exchange genetic material. The H1n1 flu that reached pandemic proportions in 2009 first spent some time circulating among pigs in Asia Europe and North america.
Luckily H3n2v doesn't readily move between people which limits its ability to spread. People mostly catch it directly from swine.
The U s. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that people who are susceptible to complications from the flu--such as young kids older adults
and pregnant women--avoid pig barns at fairs. Keeping away from sick-looking pigs is important but not adequate.
which bird flu viruses don't reproduce. In spite of public opposition and a lack of funding GM meat research has continued to advance.
It is presumed that the infection can cause flu-like conditions. In people with impaired immune systems an infection can cause pneumonia
#Influenza virus in wild birds in Norwayducks and gulls are the natural hosts of Influenza a virus.
One example of this is the highly pathogenic H5n1 virus in Southeast asia known to cause#oebird flu#.
#Due to the outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus subtype H5n1 in Southeast asia a programme to monitor influenza viruses in wild birds in Norway was initiated in 2005.
The results showed that low pathogenic avian influenza viruses were present in 15.5%of the samples
but not the highly pathogenic H5n1 virus. The complete genetic material from a total of five influenza viruses from mallard and common gull were sequenced and characterized.
The results showed that the genes of the Norwegian viruses resembled the genes found in influenza viruses from other wild birds in Europe.
and America influenza viruses with different genetic material have developed between these two continents. However in some areas it has been observed that genes can be exchanged between influenza viruses from Eurasia and America.
Tønnessen studied the role that gulls play in the transfer of virus genes between these two continents.
Genes from American avian influenza viruses were detected not in the European gull viruses studied. However within avian influenza viruses from Eurasia she found that virus genes were exchanged between influenza viruses typically found in gulls and ducks respectively.
During the breeding seasons of 2008 and 2009 Tønnessen studied the occurrence of influenza virus in the black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) at Hornã¸ya in Finnmark in Northern Norway.
Low amounts of influenza virus were detected in 5-15%of the samples from adult kittiwakes
and she discovered that more than 70%of the adult birds had developed antibodies against Influenza a virus. The majority of the kittiwakes had antibodies against an influenza virus subtype typically found in gulls namely H16.
Ducks can become infected with influenza virus through consumption of surface water contaminated with faeces shed by virus infected birds.
Most subtypes of influenza virus from ducks can retain their infectivity in water over long periods of time.
Experiments performed by Tønnessen showed that influenza virus subtypes primarily found in gulls (i e.
H13 and H16) can also remain infectious in water for several months under different salinity and temperature conditions.
To assess if a typical influenza virus subtype from gull can infect chickens Tønnessen inoculated chickens with an H16n3 virus obtained from herring gull.
Influenza virus was detected in the oropharynx of 2 of the 19 virus inoculated chickens and specific antibodies against H16 were found in the same two chickens.
In order to find out why influenza viruses of the H13 and H16 subtypes primarily infect gulls Tønnessen examined
#Genesis and evolution of H7n9 influenza virusan international team of influenza researchers in China the United kingdom and the United states has used genetic sequencing to trace the source
and evolution of the avian H7n9 influenza virus that emerged in humans in China earlier this year.
From these samples the researchers isolated several influenza viruses and genetically sequenced those of the H7n9 subtype as well as related H7n7 and H9n2 viruses.
Within ducks and later within chickens various strains of avian H7n9 H7n7 and H9n2 influenza exchanged genes with one another in different combinations.
Given these results the authors write continued surveillance of influenza viruses in birds remains essential.
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