New Strain of Swine Flu Virus having Human Pandemic Potential Discovered in China

A new virus has been discovered by scientists in China that is quite similar to the 2009 Swine Flu that caused a global pandemic. The new strain of the virus is named as ‘G4 EA H1N1 (commonly called G4 virus)’, it has human pandemic potential.

G4 Virus

The G4 virus was detected by scientists at several institutions of China including the National Influenza Centre of China during a pig surveillance program. The surveillance program was conducted in between 2011 to 2018 by collecting above 30,000 nasal swab samples from pigs across 10 provinces of China.

A total of 179 swine influence viruses were identified during the program, mostly didn’t pose such concern for human transmission. The new strain of the G4 Virus has sharply increased among the pigs since 2016 after which tests were conducted on the strain of the virus.

The tests conducted found that the virus can cause zoonotic infection (animal to human) but there hasn’t been any evidence of person-to-person transmission of the virus yet. The G4 virus can replicate in human cells and the test results have further shown that the immunity developed by a human body against seasonal flu won’t be able to provide protection to the human body against the G4 virus.

Month: Current Affairs - June, 2020