Three mutations could make bird flu a potential pandemic: study according to : Reuters

Wendy Barclay, a virologist and flu specialist also at Imperial, said the study's findings were important in showing why H7N9 bird flu should be kept under intense surveillance. They focused on the H7 hemagglutanin, a protein on the flu virus surface that allows it to latch onto host cells. The World Health Organization said earlier this year that all bird flu viruses need constant monitoring, warning that their constantly changing nature makes them "a persistent and significant threat to public health". "This study will help us to monitor the risk posed by bird flu in a more informed way, and increasing our knowledge of which changes in bird flu viruses could be potentially dangerous will be very useful in surveillance," said Fiona Culley, an expert in respiratory immunology at Imperial College London. James Gathany/CDC/Handout via REUTERSLONDON, June 15 Scientists have identified three mutations that, if they occurred at the same time in nature, could turn a strain of bird flu now circulating in China into a potential pandemic virus that could spread among people.




The H7N9 bird Flu virus has influenza scientists on edge, due to an unexpected surge of human infections — hundreds of cases — caused by the virus this spring. Bird flu viruses don't spread easily from ferret to ferret; if a modified H7N9 virus did, that would suggest it might do the same in people. Flu viruses attach to receptors found on the cells of their intended victims. Fouchier, who has done work trying to see how H5N1 bird flu viruses could adapt to infect people, was not involved in this study. Bird flu viruses attach to one type of receptor.

A bird flu pandemic looms but the US is holding back the fight

Leader: "Why bird flu risk is like the Grenfell Tower tragedy" The H7N9 virus has had its deadliest year since it emerged in 2013. The virus is thought to be causing milder, undiagnosed disease in far more people, and each infection is a chance for it to evolve. The idea that H7N9 could gain the ability to spread readily via humans keeps virologists up at night. Since October, 714 people in China have become seriously ill, almost as many as in the previous four years combined.


collected by :Lucy William
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