Breaking: China Researchers Discover New Swine Flu With 'Pandemic Potential'

Chinese researchers have discovered a new type of swine flu that can infect humans and has the potential to cause a future pandemic, according to a steady released on Monday,though scientists have cautioned that the virus does not pose an immediate global health threat. 

The disease ,which researches called the G4 virus, is genetically descended from the H1N1 swine flu that caused a pandemic in 2009. G4 now shows "all the essential hallmarks of a candidate pandemic virus" ,said the study,published in the scientific journal  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). 

But Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University's public health school,warned the public not to "freak out". 

" Our understanding of what is a potential pandemic influenza strain is limited ", she posted on Twitter. " Sure ,the virus meets at lot of the basic criteria but it's not for sure going to cause a hypothetical 2020 flu pandemic or even be a dominant strain in humans ". 

Chinese researchers based at several institutions, including Shandon Agricultural University and the Chinese National Influenza Center, discovered the G4 virus during a pig surveillance program. From 2011 to 2018,they collected more than 30,000 nasal swab samples from pigs in slaughterhouses and veterinary teaching hospitals across 10 Chinese provinces. 

From the samples,researchers identified 179 swine influenza viruses ----but not all of them posed a concern. Some only showed up one year out of the program, or eventually declined to nonthreatening levels. 

China could release emergency pork reserves after losing 100million pigs to swine fever. 

Further tests showed that G4 can infect humans by binding to our cells and receptors ,and it can replicate quickly inside our airway cells. And though,G4 holds H1N1 genes ,people who have received seasoned flu vaccines won't have any immunity. 

G4 already appears to have infected humans in China. In Hebei and Shandong provinces,both places with high pig numbers more than 10% of swine workers on pig farms and 4.4% of the general population tested positive in a survey from 2016 to 2018

Source : CNN