How close is the next pandemic? Chinese researchers have some answers

Research in China has provided new evidence that the world could be on the brink of another pandemic as cases of bird flu emerge across some regions in poultry, cattle and humans.

Avian influenza A viruses are divided into subtypes based on a combination of two proteins found on their surfaces – hemagglutinin and neuraminidase – referred to as HxNy.

Only two subtypes of avian influenza A – H1N1 and H3N2 – are currently known to circulate between humans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States.

A study led by China’s top virologist has raised concerns that a strain of the virus H2N2 recently found in the wild now has the ability to infect humans, pointing to the need for increased surveillance.

Many more strains of the virus have been found in birds and other animal populations around the world, some of which can infect humans.

George Fu Gao, an immunologist who served as Director of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention from 2017 to 2022, has published a paper with his team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences that investigated the particular strain of the H2N2 virus.

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Китай Природа и Погода

следующий пандемия китайский ученый ответ доказательство порог исследование птичий птица