New Virus Threat to Mankind: G4 Virus Found In China

                                                     Credit: Camera24

The new strain of virus that was found in china which is mutated form of 2009 H1N1 swine flu virus. It is particularly found in pigs of farmyards. It is rapidly spreading among the pigs and also infects humans if contacted. This clearly states that it’s a zoonotic virus like covid19.Scientists who have studied the new strain of the virus have warned authorities that if this virus is not handled properly then it could possibly lead to another human pandemic.

*  zoonotic virus – a virus that spreads from animals to humans

                As there is huge consumption of pigs in china, in every cuisine they eat in some way or the other has pork in it. So due to this there is a very high demand of pork. In order to fulfil this demand a very large industry of pig farming is currently operating in china, which is poorly maintained and is currently highly contaminated with G4 virus. This virus has infected many workers of the farm. They have shown symptoms like cough, fever, body pain.

When asked about the situation of virus spread China officially told that, it is trying its level best to contain the virus. But the reports suggest that farm workers are already infected. About 10% of the workers are infected, which means lakhs of peoples if China’s population is considered.

                                                     Credit: Al Arabiya

                      Scientists and health experts are concerned because in 2009 H1N1 swine flu infected almost 11%-21% of human population. About 5 lakh people died of it as estimated by centre for disease control (CDC) USA. Then after that W.H.O declared it as pandemic. But thankfully then we had vaccine of Swine flu H1N1 so the spread of the disease was controlled. But this swine flu vaccine seems to be not working on the G4 virus.

The original name of the G4 virus is G4 EA H1N1 flu virus. This virus can infect and reproduce in cells on lower lining of the respiratory tract. Tests have shown that any immunity gained from seasonal flu is not providing any protection against G4 virus.

                                                    credits:Manorama.com

Currently China after monitoring it is saying that this virus is only spreading from pigs to humans. Scientists said in their report that, this virus could rapidly mutate and can start transmission from human to human. It has a high chance of becoming a potential pandemic, scientists say as they have been studying the virus for 7 years. The research was done by scientists from China and USA on pigs from 2011 – 2018 in China. Tests were done, lung tissues were collected from farmed pigs that exhibited respiratory diseases and studied different strains of virus.

Then they published their report on website of proceedings of national academy of sciences (PNAS) of US. In this report they said that, they found the strain of G4 virus as a descendant of H1N1 swine flu virus.

                   It is seen many times that these zoonotic type of virus originate in China as they just don't spare a single species  to eat. The wet markets are as always a place from where the spread could take place.Many viruses and diseases over decades like Sars coronavirus in 2003, H1N1 Swine flu 2009 and now Covid19 in 2019.