Combined infection with bird flu and human flu could lead to mutations of new viruses that could have dangerous public health consequences, agencies have warned.
Bird flu and some versions of human flu are very similar; bird flu is more formally known as avian influenza A(H5N1) and dominant strains of human flu include influenza A(H1N1) and influenza A(H3N2).
“If by chance a bird flu virus and a human flu virus infected the same cell, it would load one copy of each piece, but it wouldn’t be able to tell if those pieces had come from the bird virus or the human virus.”
When new copies of the virus would be made, said Wellington, pieces of segments might be used from both bird flu and human flu.
A new virus made from bird flu and human flu could be transmissible among humans but something we did not have immunity against, which could lead to a pandemic situation.
Authorities have cautioned that a combination of bird flu and human flu could result in the mutation of new viruses that could have harmful effects on public health.
This comes in the wake of reports that a Louisiana patient and a Canadian teen both experienced severe symptoms due to bird flu mutations, which could increase the risk of serious human infection, among other things.
The U. A. Although the flu vaccine only prevents seasonal flu, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns on their website that Americans should get it this season, especially those who are at high risk of contracting bird flu, such as farmworkers.
The CDC explains that this is because it can lessen the frequency and intensity of seasonal flu and may lessen the extremely uncommon chance of simultaneously contracting a human seasonal virus and an avian virus, as well as the potential risk that reassortment between the two could produce a new virus.
Even though they are extremely uncommon, these dual infections have the potential to cause the two distinct influenza A viruses to genetically reassort, creating a new virus with a distinct gene combination that could be a serious public health risk. “.
Influenza A (H1N1) and influenza A (H3N2) are the predominant strains of human flu, while bird flu is more officially known as avian influenza A (H5N1).
This indicates that all three of these flu variations are distinct forms of influenza A, and they all make use of the protein components neuraminidase (N) and hemagglutinin (H).
Recently, Dr. Melanie Wellington, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at the University of Iowa and a member of the Johnson County Board of Health in Iowa, was featured in a Johnson County Public Health YouTube video outlining the dangers of bird flu and human flu.
In the November 18, 2024, video, she described how “the genetic material of a flu virus enters a cell in multiple segments or pieces.”. “It uses one copy of each component when it wants to create a new virus.
It would load one copy of each virus if a human flu virus and a bird flu virus happened to infect the same cell, but it wouldn’t be able to determine whether the pieces were from the human or bird virus. “.”.
Wellington stated that bits of segments from both human and bird flu might be used to create new virus copies.
According to her, “a new virus could be created by combining the two existing ones, and it would be something different that no one would know how to react to.”.
Scientists and public health officials are concerned about this potential mutation. Humans could contract a new virus that is derived from bird flu and human flu, to which we are not immune, potentially causing a pandemic.
In a previous interview with Newsweek, virologist Professor Edward Hutchinson of the University of Glasgow stated: “The more times the virus interacts with humans, the more opportunities it has to adapt to growing in them. If it can mix and match its genes with a human seasonal flu, that could speed up this process.
“A pandemic occurs when a virus that causes influenza from another animal evolves to spread efficiently among people. “..”.
In the United States, there are currently 66 confirmed human cases of bird flu. A. and seven possible infections.
Since none of these infections are thought to have been spread from person to person and are all thought to be “spillover” infections—that is, they were brought on by contact with other animals like cows or birds—the CDC maintains that there is little risk to the public’s health.
