No clear human-to-human transmission of #H5N1 has been documented yet, but “this feels the closest to an H5 pandemic that I’ve seen,” says Louise Moncla, a virologist at the University of Pennsylvania. “If H5 is ever going to be a pandemic, it’s going to be now,” adds Seema Lakdawala, a flu researcher at Emory University.
Others are more sanguine, noting that similarly menacing avian flu viruses, such as one called H7N9, have petered out in the past. “Why didn’t H7N9 end up being easily human-to-human transmissible and cause a pandemic?” asks Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “I feel like there’s really no way to estimate and it could go either way.”
A slew of recent findings all seem to suggest the risk of the current H5N1 clade in cattle and birds causing a pandemic is actually higher than previously thought. A study looking at blood samples from workers at H5N1-infected dairy farms in Michigan and Colorado found that many human infections go undetected, each one offering the bovine virus more chances to adapt to us. A preprint out this week indicates currently circulating clade 2.3.4.4b viruses are better at binding to human epithelial cells in the airways than previous versions of H5N1. And a Science paper out today shows in lab studies that a single mutation at one hemagglutinin site, dubbed 226L, is enough to shift the virus’ preference from the avian-type cell surface protein to human-type receptors. #HPAI #BirdFlu https://www.science.org/content/article/why-hasn-t-bird-flu-pandemic-started
Nonya Bidniss :CIAverified: /
npub185…9d426
2024-12-07 17:59:36
Author Public Key
npub185nt2n6kdmpv4899fdsmxtxlmmk32cc645meuflp439de3vxv3psz9d426Published at
2024-12-07 17:59:36Event JSON
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"content": "No clear human-to-human transmission of #H5N1 has been documented yet, but “this feels the closest to an H5 pandemic that I’ve seen,” says Louise Moncla, a virologist at the University of Pennsylvania. “If H5 is ever going to be a pandemic, it’s going to be now,” adds Seema Lakdawala, a flu researcher at Emory University.\n\nOthers are more sanguine, noting that similarly menacing avian flu viruses, such as one called H7N9, have petered out in the past. “Why didn’t H7N9 end up being easily human-to-human transmissible and cause a pandemic?” asks Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “I feel like there’s really no way to estimate and it could go either way.”\n\nA slew of recent findings all seem to suggest the risk of the current H5N1 clade in cattle and birds causing a pandemic is actually higher than previously thought. A study looking at blood samples from workers at H5N1-infected dairy farms in Michigan and Colorado found that many human infections go undetected, each one offering the bovine virus more chances to adapt to us. A preprint out this week indicates currently circulating clade 2.3.4.4b viruses are better at binding to human epithelial cells in the airways than previous versions of H5N1. And a Science paper out today shows in lab studies that a single mutation at one hemagglutinin site, dubbed 226L, is enough to shift the virus’ preference from the avian-type cell surface protein to human-type receptors. #HPAI #BirdFlu https://www.science.org/content/article/why-hasn-t-bird-flu-pandemic-started",
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