Scientists in China have identified a new strain of flu that has the potential to become a pandemic.
It emerged recently and is carried by pigs, but can infect humans.
Researchers are concerned that it could mutate further so that it could spread easily from person to person.
While it is not an immediate problem, they say, it has “all the hallmarks” of being highly adapted to infect humans and needs close monitoring.
As a new virus, people could have little or no immunity to the virus.
The scientists wrote in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that measures to control the virus in pigs, and the close monitoring of swine industry workers, should be swiftly implemented.
A bad new strain of influenza is among the top disease threats that experts are watching for, even as the world attempts to bring to an end the current coronavirus pandemic.
The last pandemic flu the world encountered – the swine flu outbreak of 2009 that began in Mexico – was less deadly than initially feared, largely because many older people had some immunity to it, probably because of its similarity to other flu viruses that had circulated years before.
Editor:(Omor Bazuaye)
