A new virus has been discovered by scientists in China that is quite similar to the 2009 Swine Flu that caused a global pandemic. The new strain of the virus is named as ‘G4 EA H1N1 (commonly called G4 virus)’, it has human pandemic potential.
G4 Virus
- The G4 virus was detected by scientists at several institutions of China including the National Influenza Centre of China during a pig surveillance program.
- The surveillance program was conducted in between 2011 to 2018 by collecting above 30,000 nasal swab samples from pigs across 10 provinces of China.
- A total of 179 swine influence viruses were identified during the program, mostly didn’t pose such concern for human transmission.
- The new strain of the G4 Virus has sharply increased among the pigs since 2016 after which tests were conducted on the strain of the virus.
- The tests conducted found that the virus can cause zoonotic infection (animal to human) but there hasn’t been any evidence of person-to-person transmission of the virus yet.
- The G4 virus can replicate in human cells and the test results have further shown that the immunity developed by a human body against seasonal flu won’t be able to provide protection to the human body against the G4 virus.
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