Monday 27 November 2023 17:38, UK
A new strain of swine flu - similar to a flu virus currently circulating in pigs - has been detected in a human in the UK for the first time.
The person was diagnosed with the infection - influenza A(H1N2)v - as part of routine national flu surveillance after visiting their GP in North Yorkshire with breathing problems, it is understood.
The person involved is not known to have worked with pigs and has fully recovered.
The source of the infection is still unknown and under investigation.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said it is monitoring the situation closely and is taking steps to increase surveillance within existing programmes involving GP surgeries and hospitals.
There have been a total of 50 human cases of influenza A(H1N2)v reported globally since 2005; but none of them are related genetically to this strain.
H1N1, H1N2 and H3N2 are major subtypes of swine flu A viruses in pigs and occasionally infect humans.
Based on early information, the UKHSA said the strain detected in the UK differs from recent human cases of H1N2 elsewhere in the world, but is similar to viruses in UK pigs.
A person in North Yorkshire has been diagnosed with a strain of flu similar to a virus circulating in pigs.
As this is the first time the virus has been detected in humans in the UK - there are a number of questions the public will want the answers to.
Is this swine flu? Bird flu? Both? Have there been cases in other parts of the world? What do we know about the first case?
Find out all the answers here
Meera Chand, incident director at UKHSA, said: "This is the first time we have detected this virus in humans in the UK, though it is very similar to viruses that have been detected in pigs."
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Chief veterinary officer, Christine Middlemiss, said: "We know that some diseases of animals can be transferred to humans, which is why high standards of animal health, welfare and biosecurity are so important.
"Through our animal and human surveillance systems we work together to protect everyone.
"In this case we are providing specialist veterinary and scientific knowledge to support the UKHSA investigation."
Every time a virus jumps from animals into humans there is a shudder of alarm.
So-called zoonotic diseases have resulted in pandemics in the past, most recently of course COVID.
That's why the UK Health Security Agency is trying to work out how someone in Yorkshire has been infected with a strain of flu so similar to a virus circulating in pigs in the UK.
We don't know much about the individual. But we do know they only had mild symptoms and fully recovered. And they didnt work with pigs. That's the puzzle.
Does it mean that the virus is circulating in people, undetected until now? Health authorities are tracing contacts of the infected person and are trying to identify the source.
Flu normally crosses the species barrier by infecting people in close contact with animals. That's why people who work with chickens are checked for bird flu, which is caused by another strain of the virus.
But even if there is a human case of an animal virus that's usually the end of the story. The virus isn't passed on because it's not well enough adapted to human cells to spread from person to person.
Officially, there is no evidence of human transmission of the new swine flu virus. But it's hard to see an alternative explanation at the moment.
That doesn't mean we are on the verge of a new pandemic. The strain could disappear as quickly as it emerged.
But scientists will want to understand more about the virus to gauge how transmissible it is - and also to be sure it's not more of a risk to people who are vulnerable, either because of age or underlying health conditions.
Pig-keepers have been urged to report any suspicion of swine flu in their herds to their local vet immediately.
It is not known at this stage how transmissible the strain is or if there could be other cases in the UK.
It is also too early to say if the strain could have pandemic potential.
The UKHSA has notified the World Health Organisation (WHO) of the latest case.
This is a limited version of the story so unfortunately this content is not available. Open the full version
In 2009, there was a pandemic in humans caused by flu strain H1N1, commonly referred to as swine flu.
This now circulates in humans seasonally.
By Dylan Donnelly, news reporter
Sunday 26 November 2023 18:13, UK
China has said its outbreak of a respiratory illness stems from the flu and other known pathogens - while questions about its origins rise.
A spokesperson from China's National Health Commission said clusters of respiratory infections across the country are caused by an overlap of common viruses.
They cited the influenza virus, rhinoviruses, the respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, the adenovirus as well as bacteria such as mycoplasma pneumoniae as the culprits.
In response, the ministry called for more fever clinics and vaccinations for children and the elderly.
Ministry spokesman Mi Feng also said: "Efforts should be made to increase the opening of relevant clinics and treatment areas, extend service hours and increase the supply of medicines."
The statements come after a Beijing children's hospital earlier told state media CCTV that at least 7,000 patients were being admitted daily to the institution, exceeding capacity.
And last week, the largest paediatric hospital in nearby Tianjin reportedly received more than 13,000 children at its outpatient and emergency departments.
The World Health Organisation formally requested information on the outbreak from China earlier this week, describing the rare request as a "routine" check.
On Thursday, Chinese health officials carried out a teleconference with the WHO, providing data that showed an increase in hospital admissions of children due to diseases commonly seen in the autumn since October.
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The WHO added Chinese officials maintained the spike in infections had not overloaded the country's hospitals, and explained they made the request via an international legal mechanism.
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Despite the information, the group also said there was too little data to assess the risk of the reported cases.
Chinese health authorities later said they found no "unusual or novel diseases".
They added they believe the rising infections are also linked to the country's first full cold season after strict Covid restrictions were lifted last December.
Three years on from when the cases were first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in the latter months of 2019 - there is still debate about the origins of the coronavirus outbreak.
Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Dr Krutika Kuppalli, who is part of the WHO's emergency programme, said the outbreaks "really could be anything".
She warned against jumping to conclusions, saying: "The point is we need information."
A swine flu pandemic in 2009 killed hundreds of thousands of people.Credit: Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty
Scientists are working to better understand a type of swine flu that was detected in a person in the United Kingdom for the first time. Swine flu typically circulates in pigs but caused a human pandemic in 2009 that killed an estimated 284,000 people.
The virus detected in the UK individual was influenza A subtype H1N2, which is known to have infected 50 people worldwide since 2005. None of those previous cases is related genetically to the UK variant, according to information released on 27 November by the UKs Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
The UK case was detected after doctors carried out a genetic test on a person in North Yorkshire who reported flu-like symptoms. The patient has now made a full recovery. The UKSHA says that it is is still investigating how the person got infected.
Scientists and medics are now working to understand more about the genetics of this human infection, as well as monitoring for evidence of human-to-human transmission.
Its really important that these cases are monitored, because if anything is going any further we really want to know about it, says Ed Hutchinson a virologist at the University of Glasgow, UK.
Spillover infections of respiratory viruses, including influenza, from one species to another are quite common. The reason its popped up now is that it was spreading in pigs, says Paul Hunter an epidemiologist at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK.
Respiratory viruses spread through close contact, so people working with pigs are at particular risk although any close contact with an infected animal could pass on the virus. In the majority of cases, spillovers are thought to go undetected, because the person doesnt feel ill and the virus travels no further.
The UK spillover was detected in part because the infected person felt unwell enough to see a doctor. The country has a surveillance system for respiratory viruses, and if a person comes to a doctor with flu-like symptoms, the physician is encouraged to swab them and send that sample off for analysis, says Hutchinson.
Once a virus has spilled over into people, scientists look for evidence that it is spreading between them. Until you get evidence that its starting to spread more widely and increasing in numbers, you dont know its going to be a threat, says Hunter. There is no evidence that this has happened yet in the case of H1N2 detected in the United Kingdom.
Hutchinson says that such onward spread is rare. The question is, can the virus replicate enough in that person in order to not just infect them but to pass on to another human, and thats actually really hard for viruses to do if theyre not in the right host, he says. So, usually for a spillover case, that doesnt happen.
However, influenza viruses are unusual in that they are able to breed, meaning that different viruses can combine their genes during replication. This helps the viruses to adapt from one species to another.
If you get two different viruses infecting the same cell at the same time, the virus can come out which has some genes from one parent virus, and some genes from the other parent virus, Hutchinson says. This is called reassortment.
The process is especially concerning when it leads to a virus that has a lot of human-adapted genes, and so is adept at replicating in humans, and that also has proteins on its outside which are what human antibodies use to recognize and destroy viruses that are from a new non-human source.
The virus that caused the 2009 swine flu pandemic was a mixture of different viruses: a swine flu, a human flu and a bird flu all exchanged genes, Hutchinson says. And then another swine flu mixed with that one, to produce a virus which was able to jump into humans, and so that was an unusually complex mixing and matching version, he says.
Over the coming days, scientists will be working to understand more about the genetics of the variant that infected the person in the United Kingdom, using known data from large sets of virus information to see whether it is related to other viruses.
Enoch Arhinful, MD, a Cedars-Sinai physician specializing in internal medicine, helps patients understand the importance of receiving the COVID-19 updated vaccine by putting it in context.
I explain to them that, like any virus, SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) shifts in its genetic makeup over time, ultimately becoming so different from the initial variant that its difficult for our immune systems to recognize, he said. Imagine having a picture ID of a baby and then, years later, trying to validate that childs identity with the old photo. This new, updated vaccine gives our bodies a current picture of how the virus that causes COVID-19 actually looks today, which allows them to do a better job identifying the virus and fighting it off.
Still, some patients remain resistant to convincing.
With COVID-19, there are patients who, no matter what new evidence comes available, dont seem willing to take up the vaccine, Arhinful said. Some are hesitant because they never got it in the first place, and so they dont have any experience with it. Others may have had a small reaction from the initial vaccine and are worried about that discomfort happening again. However, based on my observation and experience, it appears that the number of people open to the vaccine is steadily increasing.
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With winter approaching, birds are migrating south to escape the cold and take advantage of more abundant food sources.
But birds aren't the only ones taking advantage of this migratory ritual. Avian influenza viruses, more commonly known as bird flu, can spread across the country if migrating birds carry the viruses with them on their pre-winter journey.
As a result, Dr. Isabelle Louge, a clinical assistant professor at the Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, advises poultry owners to remain vigilant against the spread of bird flu this winter because it can be deadly for our avian counterparts.
Bird flu typically follows migratory patterns, mainly through waterfowl (ducks and geese) droppings. Yet, Louge says the virus can also spread through infected poultry or people and through contact with contaminated equipment, including clothing and shoes.
"Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), or highly contagious bird flu, is a periodic problem in poultry flocks and is spread both bird-to-bird and when birds come into contact with contaminated objects and surfaces," Louge said. "The past few years have seen outbreaks of HPAI spreading very easily among birds and often causing high losses in a flock."
Because HPAI is contagious, Louge says owners should be familiar with and watch for signs of bird flu. If signs are present, humans and other animals will need to steer clear so that they don't become infected as well.
"The first sign of the disease among poultry is dead birds, but other signs include ruffled feathers, depression, gasping, difficulty breathing, swelling of the head and neck, and diarrhea," Louge said. "The virus that causes avian influenza also can recombine with other influenza viruses found in humans, pigs, and other species."
If owners find that their birds are exhibiting these symptoms, Louge strongly suggests reporting the outbreak to the state veterinary office or the U.S. Department of Agriculture to receive professional help.
"It is important for all of us to work together to keep the spread under control," Louge said.
In addition, owners should stay up to date with nearby outbreaks so that they can implement safety measures sooner, preventing the disease from spreading.
"If HPAI has been detected in your area, it is best to keep your flock fully indoorsin a clean, well-ventilated coop with fresh feed and waterto avoid contact with any potential wild birds that could spread the virus," Louge said.
There are various methods, or biosecurity measures, that can help prevent flocks from becoming sick when exposed to new birds. Quarantining new birds from existing flocks is one measure that can keep your birds safe from the virus.
"Owners should quarantine any new poultry brought to the farm for at least 30 days to ensure they are not sick, and they should work with these birds last so that they are clean when working with the home flock," Louge said
Owners should also consider designing outdoor areas to completely exclude access for wild birds, not sharing farm equipment with other poultry farmers, and routinely disinfecting any equipment used around flocks.
Avian influenza can harm poultry flocks, so following biosecurity measures is necessary to keep both you and your flock safe from illness. Not only are you keeping your farm healthy, but you are helping stop the spread of illness to nearby farms.
An employee works on a rack of slaughtered ducks at a poultry farm in Eugenie les Bains, France, January 24, 2017, as France scales back preventive slaughtering of ducks to counter bird flu after the culling of 800,000 birds this month helped slow the spread of the disease. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File photo Acquire Licensing Rights
PARIS, Nov 28 (Reuters) - France has detected an outbreak of highly pathogenic bird flu virus on a turkey farm in the northwest of the country, the agriculture ministry said on Tuesday, as a seasonal wave of infections spreads across Europe.
The outbreak in the Brittany region, France's first farm case this autumn, occurred near where an infected wild bird was found, the ministry said in a statement.
Several cases among wild birds have been recorded in recent days, it said, adding the government had raised its national alert level for bird flu to moderate from negligible.
Poultry flocks in areas particularly exposed to contact with wild birds would now be confined indoors, the ministry said.
Avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu, has led to the culling of hundreds of millions birds in the past years. It usually strikes in Europe during autumn and winter and has recently been detected on farms in countries including Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Croatia and Hungary.
To counter the disease, which has disrupted the supply of poultry meat and eggs and sent prices rocketing in parts of the world in recent years, France launched a vaccination campaign against bird flu in early October.
The French programme is being initially limited to ducks, which are the most vulnerable to the virus. Ducks accounted for only 8% of total French poultry output in 2022.
Reporting by Gus Trompiz and Sybille de La Hamaide; Editing by Kirsten Donovan
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Chinas health ministry says a surge in respiratory illnesses across the country that has drawn the attention of the World Health Organization is caused by the flu and other known pathogens and not by a novel virus
November 26, 2023, 7:14 AM ET
3 min read
BEIJING -- A surge in respiratory illnesses across China that has drawn the attention of the World Health Organization is caused by the flu and other known pathogens and not by a novel virus, the country's health ministry said Sunday.
Recent clusters of respiratory infections are caused by an overlap of common viruses such as the influenza virus, rhinoviruses, the respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, the adenovirus as well as bacteria such as mycoplasma pneumoniae, which is a common culprit for respiratory tract infections, a National Health Commission spokesperson said.
The ministry called on local authorities to open more fever clinics and promote vaccinations among children and the elderly as the country grapples with a wave of respiratory illnesses in its first full winter since the removal of COVID-19 restrictions.
Efforts should be made to increase the opening of relevant clinics and treatment areas, extend service hours and increase the supply of medicines, said ministry spokesman Mi Feng.
He advised people to wear masks and called on local authorities to focus on preventing the spread of illnesses in crowded places such as schools and nursing homes.
The WHO earlier this week formally requested that China provide information about a potentially worrying spike in respiratory illnesses and clusters of pneumonia in children, as mentioned by several media reports and a global infectious disease monitoring service.
The emergence of new flu strains or other viruses capable of triggering pandemics typically starts with undiagnosed clusters of respiratory illness. Both SARS and COVID-19 were first reported as unusual types of pneumonia.
Chinese authorities earlier this month blamed the increase in respiratory diseases on the lifting of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. Other countries also saw a jump in respiratory diseases such as RSV when pandemic restrictions ended.
The WHO said Chinese health officials on Thursday provided the data it requested during a teleconference. Those showed an increase in hospital admissions of children due to diseases including bacterial infection, RSV, influenza and common cold viruses since October.
Chinese officials maintained the spike in patients had not overloaded the countrys hospitals, according to the WHO.
It is rare for the U.N. health agency to publicly ask for more detailed information from countries, as such requests are typically made internally. WHO said it requested further data from China via an international legal mechanism.
According to internal accounts in China, the outbreaks have swamped some hospitals in northern China, including in Beijing, and health authorities have asked the public to take children with less severe symptoms to clinics and other facilities.
WHO said that there was too little information at the moment to properly assess the risk of these reported cases of respiratory illness in children.
Both Chinese authorities and WHO have been accused of a lack of transparency in their initial reports on the COVID-19 pandemic, which started in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019.
Ever since the outbreak of a mysterious respiratory illness thats affecting children in northern China, authorities there have been talking about a cocktail of viruses that are breaking out again after pandemic restrictions. One of the viruses in circulation is H9N2, a subtype of the Influenza A virus. It primarily affects birds with a high prevalence in poultry such as chickens and turkeys and can easily jump to humans. It is highly transmissible and while it is known to cause mild illness, sometimes it manifests as a severe infection that can result in complications.
A new study from researchers in China and Nottingham has discovered that a subtype of avian flu virus, endemic in poultry farms in China, is undergoing mutational changes, which could increase the risk of the disease being passed on to humans. Researchers also say that the findings raise concerns of a potential epidemic or pandemic in the making and that concerted research is necessary to closely monitor such viruses in poultry and humans. This has raised some concern given that the coronavirus mutation resulted in a pandemic. However, at the moment there has been no confirmation of a new strain and there is no need to panic.
Some strains do nothing. But when mutations happen, the virus can attack the lungs as well as the heart, liver and kidney and trigger a dysregulated immune response.
So far, the respiratory viral infections in China have been mostly mild and not that fatal. The cases are being controlled. And since they are affecting children more, chances are they will fight it better. Thats because new research by the US-based National Institutes of Health (NIH) shows that children who had contracted SARS-CoV-2 had a strong, sustained antibody response to the virus and high levels of inflammatory proteins in the nose but not in the blood.
The infection is self-limiting and similar to any other flu virus, usually accompanied by pink eyes. The other symptoms include high fever, cough, sore throat, body and muscle aches, nausea, diarrhoea and a runny nose. Severe respiratory symptoms and conditions include shortness of breath, pneumonia and acute respiratory distress. In extreme cases, there might be seizures and septic shock.
Like all flu viruses, you should get tested after the first 48 hours of the onset of symptoms. A nasal and throat swab test helps in diagnosis.
Treatment is largely symptomatic with antivirals. Those with more severe symptoms may need nebulisation and steroids. Keep yourself well-hydrated, so drink plenty of fluids, take rest and wash your hands often, taking care not to pass on any germs. Do not self-medicate.
Those who have been near a poultry farm and have had contact with infected live or dead infected birds. Infected birds usually shed the virus in their saliva, faeces and mucus. The most vulnerable groups of people are pregnant women, those with co-morbidities and the elderly.
As the virus is present in droplets or dust, please wear a mask. Do not touch your face or nose cavity with your hands, which could be infected if you have touched somebody infected already. Go for properly processed poultry or meats but avoid eating anything that has raw poultry or blood. Avoid crowded places, especially farms and open markets, while travelling to other countries. For starters, we should resume airport screening for people coming in from affected countries.
The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First published on: 30-11-2023 at 10:58 IST
With winter at the doorstep and most gatherings taking place inside, respiratory viruses have begun to spread more rapidly.
In Iowa, across the country, and around the world, flu, RSV, and COVID-19 numbers have risen drastically in recent weeks, which has only been intensified by gatherings for Thanksgiving.
Getting vaccinated against the flu and COVID-19 is the best way to protect yourself and your loved ones from this rapid spread.
The flu and COVID-19 have created major issues for countries around the world this year.
Earlier this month, the Puerto Rico department of health declared a flu epidemic after reaching 900 hospitalizations and 30,000 cases of the flu.
China has caught the attention of the World Health Organization as it experiences a surge in infections caused by an overlap in respiratory viruses like the flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
In Iowa, flu and COVID-19 cases are rising sharply as the peak of respiratory season inches closer for the U.S. While Iowas numbers are not as high as the activity in southern states, Iowa currently has the most flu cases in the Midwest.
There is still time get vaccinated against the flu and COVID-19 to protect yourself from respiratory viruses this season.
Friday, Dec. 1, is the final day of UI Health Cares mandatory employee and volunteer flu vaccination campaign. Its quick and easy for employees and volunteers to receive their flu vaccination from the University Employee Health Clinic (UEHC) from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The flu vaccination is safe and effective. Thousands of UI Health Care employees have already joined the fight against the flu and COVID-19 by getting vaccinated this respiratory virus season.
Dont push off participating in this years campaign any longer, get vaccinated to become a 2023 Flu Fighter!
Flu or Influenza is an infection of the nose, throat, and lungs. It causes 20,000 to 50,000 deaths each year in the U.S.
The virus can cause severe illness, hospitalization, and death in people of all agesbut children under age two, adults older than 65, pregnant women, people with conditions such as heart disease, lung disease and diabetes, and people with weakened immune systems are more vulnerable and more likely to get severely ill.
These groups and everyone older than 6 months, can get vaccinated to better protect themselves. "While the vaccine isnt perfect, its a good tool," Pavia says. "Weve been recommending the flu vaccine to all children for almost two decades to prevent serious illness and hospitalization."
According to Pavia, you become more vulnerable to flu as you ageyour risk of severe flu goes up substantially in your 50s and even more so in your 60s and on. The CDC recommends that everyone six months and older get a flu shot every year.
