2023-04-29 16:00:18
Canadian researchers say direct contact with a new strain of bird flu would have deadly consequences in animals. Their fear is that the disease will spread to humans.
After the death of a woman in China in March 2023 due to transmission of H3N8, a new strain worries experts.
In a research, pre-published on April 20, 2023 in the journal Nature portfolioCanadian scientists claim that the H5N1 avian flu spreads “effectively” in ferrets, in which it might have “deadly consequences” and according to them, this deadly strain of bird flu may be “on the verge of spreading to humans”.
Public Health France supports this hypothesis:
“the increased frequency of transmission of these viruses to mammals of various species increases the risk of emergence of a new influenza virus better adapted to humans”.
The ferret has a respiratory system similar to that of humans. Canadian scientists therefore infected subjects with one of four strains of H5N1.
They discovered that the “direct contact” with one of these strains isolated from an infected bird led to “lethal consequences” on ferrets. According to them, the virus may have evolved “certain adaptations that allow a higher degree of replication, pathogenicity and transmission”.
The results appear to “clearly confirm that mammals can not only catch the disease individually, but also transmit it to others”
John Fulton, pharmaceutical industry consultant to the British newspaper warns:
“If an H5N1 isolate capable of sustained transmission were to jump from animal species to humans, it might likely cause a destructive infection”
and the impact would be “100 times worse than the Covid”
1682828041
#Avian #flu #researchers #warn #talking #threat #times #worse #Covid
