H7N9 is a virus worth worrying about

Once again an animal influenza A virus has crossed the species barrier to cause an appreciable number of human cases. Now, two months after the first known human infections with the H7N9 virus, the question is: which of the paths set by previous emerging influenza viruses will it follow? One predecessor, H5N1, generated alarm owing to its high pathogenicity in humans. It has proved to be a tenacious adversary, remaining endemic in poultry across large parts of Asia, but thankfully it has not adapted to humans and person-to-person transmission remains rare. A second, H7N7, caused a number of mostly mild human infections in the Netherlands in 2003, with some evidence of limited person-to-person spread, but extensive poultry culling controlled it. A third, the H1N1 swine influenza virus that emerged in 2009, successfully adapted to humans and caused a pandemic. So will H7N9 prove to be controllable? Will it remain entrenched in animals? Or will it, like the H1N1 virus, stably adapt to humans and cause a pandemic? The fine line between foresight and alarmism can only be drawn in retrospect. Nevertheless, my colleagues and I consider that H7N9 has many of the traits that make a new flu virus worrisome.

Detalles Bibliográficos

Autores principales:	Horby, P., Tatem, A.J., Huang, Z., Gilbert, M., Robinson, Timothy P., Wint, G.R.W., Hayden, F.G., Van Vinh Chau, N., Shindo, N., Carson, G., Gao, Z., Hongjie, Y., Hay, S.I., Farrar, J.
Formato:	Journal Article biblioteca
Idioma:	English
Publicado:	Springer 2013-04
Acceso en línea:	https://hdl.handle.net/10568/33541 https://doi.org/10.1038/496399a
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