Researchers in China have identified a new successor to H1N1 swine flu, now called the G4. It should be recalled that H1N1 was the virus that caused the flu pandemic in 2009, and scientists are concerned that the 2009 offspring of swine flu, G4, could also potentially cause a new pandemic, AFP reports. This virus has all the essential features that indicate a high ability to infect humans, explains the authors of a study published in the scientific journal “PNAS”.
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In a study from 2011 to 2018, scientists took 30,000 swabs from pig noses in slaughterhouses in 10 Chinese provinces, resulting in the isolation of 179 strains of swine flu. Most were previously unknown mutations in the virus, but not all of them are of concern. Some viruses appeared only once every seven years when data were collected. However, pigs became infected with G4 year after year, and the number of pigs infected with this type of virus increased particularly rapidly after 2016.
Scientists then studied the isolated viruses by experimenting with ferrets – these animals are often used directly to study the flu viruses, because in case of infection, the main symptoms are similar to those experienced by humans, namely fever, coughing, sneezing.
Experiments have shown that G4, a relative of H1N1 swine flu, replicates very rapidly in human cells, and ferrets infected directly with G4 had much more severe symptoms than those infected with other influenza viruses.
The scientists’ findings also suggest that the immunity that a person acquires by becoming infected with one of the seasonally circulating flu viruses and then recovering does not confer immunity to G4. Accordingly, vaccines against the types of influenza we know of do not guarantee protection against the G4.
Monitoring and analysis of blood samples between 2016 and 2018 show that around 10% of pig farm workers are infected with G4, but overall, around 4.4% of the Chinese population may have been exposed to the virus.
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