New H1N1 Strain Reported

[Guest guest]

http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1936175/new_h1n1_strain_reported/

New H1N1 Strain Reported

Posted on: Friday, 22 October 2010, 06:25 CDT

A slightly new strain of the H1N1 swine flu virus has started to show up in

Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, according to researchers on Thursday, who

said the virus could be starting to mutate.

According to Reuters Health. Ian Barr of the World Health Organization

Collaborating Center for Reference and Research on Influenza in Melbourne,

Australia and colleagues said more study is needed to determine if the new

strain will be more likely to kill patients and whether the current vaccine can

protect against it completely.

" However, it may represent the start of more dramatic antigenic drift of the

pandemic influenza A-(H1N1) viruses that may require a vaccine update sooner

than might have been expected, " the researchers wrote.

They are concerned that the new strain could potentially be more deadly and

possibly could infect people who have been vaccinated.

Flu viruses constantly mutate -- which is why people need to be vaccinated

yearly, to be protected from the common strains. Since H1N1 broke out in March

2009, it has been very stable with virtually no mutation. Scientists keep a

close eye on flu strains in case a possibly dangerous mutant emerges. H1N1 may

be the doing that now.

The WHO declared the H1N1 pandemic over in August, but it has now taken over as

the main seasonal flu strain circulating throughout the world, except in South

Africa, where H3N2 and influenza B are more common. The current seasonal flu

vaccine protects against all three flu strains.

The new variants in H1N1 were first detected in Singapore in early 2010 and have

now spread throughout New Zealand and Australia, the researchers report.

The variant has yet to become significant, they said. But there have been some

cases of people who were vaccinated and becoming infected, and also a few

deaths.

" Already this variant virus has been associated with several vaccine

breakthroughs in teenagers and adults vaccinated in 2010 with monovalent

pandemic influenza vaccine (protecting against only H1N1) as well as a number of

fatal cases from whom the variant virus was isolated, " they wrote.

The researchers said, however, that there is not enough evidence to tell whether

there could have been other factors making patients more vulnerable.

" It remains to be seen whether this variant will continue to predominate for the

rest of the influenza season in Oceania and in other parts of the southern

hemisphere and then spread to the northern hemisphere or merely die out, " they

wrote in the online publication Eurosurveillance.

H1N1 has been responsible for more than 18,000 deaths worldwide, according to

the WHO. Many of the deaths have been from pregnant women and young people. The

WHO says, though, it will take more than a year after the pandemic ends to

figure out the true death toll, which is likely to be significantly higher.

[Guest guest]

Viruses do mutate. Its kind of what they do as they try to better adapt to their hosts.

In a message dated 10/22/2010 5:18:20 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, no_reply writes:

New H1N1 Strain Reported

[Guest guest]

Viruses do mutate. Its kind of what they do as they try to better adapt to their hosts.

In a message dated 10/22/2010 5:18:20 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, no_reply writes:

New H1N1 Strain Reported