Pigs in a pigsty (Ilustration). – Caro / Black / SIPA
The discovery in China of a strain of swine flu virus with all the characteristics capable of causing a future pandemic has sown a wave of panic while that of the coronavirus is far from over.
The Middle Kingdom, where the first case of Covid-19 was detected, however, wanted to be reassuring Wednesday. A spokesperson for Chinese diplomacy, Zhao Lijian, minimized the danger, saying on Wednesday that his country would continue “to monitor the disease, raise the alarm and deal with it in a timely manner”.
According to a study published Monday in the American scientific journal PNAS, the scientists discovered a strain of swine flu virus which “have all the essential characteristics showing a high adaptability to contaminate the humans”. Called G4, these viruses genetically descend from the H1N1 strain, causing a previous pandemic in 2009.
Infected pigsty workers
Between 2011 and 2018, the researchers carried out 30,000 nasal swabs on pigs in slaughterhouses in ten Chinese provinces and in a veterinary hospital.
This operation isolated 179 swine flu viruses. And according to their study, 10.4% of people in contact with pigs were infected. The G4 viruses have already spread to humans, but without having proof that they can be transmitted from human to human.
“Experts have concluded that the sample size cited in the report is small and not representative,” said the spokesman for Chinese diplomacy.
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