A strain of swine flu that emerged recently in China has the potential to become a pandemic, according to a new study.
The new strain of the flu, which researchers called the G4 virus, is carried by swine but can infect humans if it mutates further, scientist claim.
According to the study published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the G4 virus genetically descended from the H1N1 swine flu that caused a global pandemic in 2009.
The findings of the study said that the virus shows “all the essential hallmarks of a candidate pandemic virus.”
The G4 virus was discovered by scientists during a pig surveillance program that ran from 2011 to 2018. In this study, they had collected more than 30,000 nasal swab samples from pigs across 10 Chinese provinces.
They noticed that the G4 virus kept appearing in pigs samples, year after year.
Following this, they also found through further tests that the virus can replicate quickly inside airway cells of humans.
The researchers warned that seasonal flu vaccines cannot fight the virus once it hits humans.
“Collectively, predominant G4 reassortant EA viruses are antigenically distinct from current human influenza vaccine strains, indicating that preexisting immunity derived from the present human seasonal influenza vaccines cannot provide protection against G4 viruses,” said the study.
It added that in some China provinces including Hebei and Shandong, more than 10% of swine workers and 4.4% of the general population tested positive for G4 in a survey from 2016 to 2018.
There is no evidence yet that can establish that G4 could spread from person to person, the researchers clarified. However, they warned that the virus could “pose a serious threat to human health.”
