This archive report was first published on 30 June 2020.
As the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists have sounded the alarm on another potential threat: a new Chinese strain of a viral infection known as G4 EA H1N1.
According to researchers, this strain has the potential to become a pandemic worse than the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic, with glue-like symptoms that could spread easily from person to person.
The G4 EA H1N1 strain is a combination of three flu strains, including one from European and Asian birds, the flu strain that caused the 2009 swine flu outbreak, and a North American flu that has genes from bird, human, and pig flu viruses.
Scientists have found that samples from Chinese workers in abattoirs and the swine industry have been infected with the new virus, and are concerned that it could mutate further and trigger a global outbreak.
As Prof Kin-Chow Chang, who works at Nottingham University in the UK, warned, 'Right now we are distracted with coronavirus and rightly so. But we must not lose sight of potentially dangerous new viruses. We, however, should not ignore it.'
Prof James Wood, head of the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Cambridge, added that the work 'comes as a salutary reminder' that we are constantly at risk of new emergence of pathogens, and that farmed animals may act as the source for important pandemic viruses.
