[News] Forget Avian & Swine Flu: Seal Flu strain identified

[Livewire]

And there's reason to worry.

The H3N8 flu has been associated with the deaths of harbour seals in New England last year.

Researchers say the virus may have evolved from a type that had been circulating in birds.

They say the discovery highlights the potential for pandemic flu to emerge from unexpected sources.


"We need to be very nimble in our ability to identify and understand the potential risks posed by new viruses from unexpected source”

Dr Anne Moscona Weill Cornell Medical College


Researchers were puzzled by the mysterious deaths from pneumonia of 162 harbour seals around the coast of New England last year.

Autopsies on five of the marine mammals indicate that they died from a type of H3N8 influenza A virus that is closely related to a strain circulating in North American birds since 2002.
Cause for concern

The scientists say this flu has evolved to live in mammals and has mutated to make it more transmissable and more likely to cause severe symptoms. The virus also has the ability to target a protein found in the human respiratory tract.

Dr Anne Moscona of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City edited the report and says that the new virus is a worry.

"There is a concern that we have a new mammalian-transmissable virus to which humans haven't yet been exposed. It's a combination we haven't seen in disease before."

While flu viruses have turned up in seals before, the researchers say this new virus may represent the first sighting of a new group with the potential to persist and move between species. The scientists had not considered that a bird flu infection could jump species to seals.

They argue that this highlights the fact that a pandemic influenza could emerge from a number of different routes.

"Flu could emerge from anywhere," said Dr Moscona, "and our readiness has to be much better than we previously realised. We need to be very nimble in our ability to identify and understand the potential risks posed by new viruses from unexpected sources."

The report is published in the journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

Source

Thoughts? The fact that it's mammalian based is a little alarming, but we weathered Swine & Avian flu rather easily.

[Bloodex]

Oh god, this is just scary. I remember the swine flu pandemic (or was it an epidemic? I forget.). This one just seems scarier given that, well, we don't know where it would exactly attack from. Well at least, not yet, hopefully people can find out.

[Bluerang1]

Oh it's already time for another pandemic.

[Katie the Friendly Ghost]

If I learned anything in high school biology it was proteins. When a virus targets the proteins, that's like DNA level, and if I recall, not very easy to counter/reverse. And then when it starts to mutate, it becomes harder to kill due to immunity, then we have a pandemic, to which I don't know a solution. Poor seals though. :(

Look at me trying to sound smart

[Sydian]

looks around > sees no seals > we're good



Anyway, umm...glad I'm not in high school and don't have to endure the stupid jokes again. Man, I remember that was the biggest thing in school. "SHE GOT SWINE FLU SO SHE AIN'T HERE" lol... I'm not gonna panic about it though.

[CarcharOdin]

Until I see more info on this, I'm going to take it at face value and anticipate another hype-fest like swine flu and SARS. Seasonal flu still kills more people annually than swine flu did in 2009.

However, the fact that this strain of flu can apparently target a human respiratory protein is somewhat worrisome, but I think more research needs to be done on this before anyone really comes to a solid conclusion. Viruses are tricky business due to having a high mutation and "reproductive rate" (I use 'reproduce' lightly since viruses technically aren't organisms), but so far it's looking like we need more data before we call "pandemic."

Also:

Dr. Holmes wanted to see more evidence for the idea that flu viruses can mix in seals. He also pointed out that H3N8 has never crossed from dogs or horses to people.

“Just because we find a seal with mammal-adapted H3N8 does not mean we’re going to get a human pandemic,” Dr. Holmes said. “At the moment, it’s hard to say what the threat really is.”

Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/31/sc...an-threat.html

I'm with the good doctor for now. We needz moar data. Still, bad news for Phoca vitulina at least. By the way, I live in Monterey Bay. We get plenty of harbor seals. I'll let you guys know if anyone around here catches anything.

Also, the title of this thread assumes I was actually still thinking of avian and swine flu. XD

[Livewire]

The only thing that unnerves me with this is that the strain is though to originate with birds, meaning an avian strain mutated into one that can effect mammals. Meaning it can happen again and hop to other species.

[Razor Leaf]

Not particularly concerned. It seems every year there's some sort of new disease that's going to kill us all and end mankind forever and etc. When Swine Flu, Bird Flu, etc. were first found we were in the same situation - we had no immediate and totally effective response for them and they were killing people. What, most likely for the sake of hype, was omitted was that the people who were killed were generally very young, very old or otherwise ill - in any case they were all at higher risk. Yet that turned out to be not much worse than a common cold for already healthy people, sometimes progressing into a mild flu case. And on the topic of colds...

Originally Posted by Katie The Friendly Ghost

If I learned anything in high school biology it was proteins. When a virus targets the proteins, that's like DNA level, and if I recall, not very easy to counter/reverse. And then when it starts to mutate, it becomes harder to kill due to immunity, then we have a pandemic, to which I don't know a solution. Poor seals though. :(

With some viruses this is a very legitimate problem - HIV springs quickly to mind. But with others, such as the common cold, while it's true that it's very hard to cure it's not a particularly bothersome thing. If this Seal Flu was in essence an airbourne HIV - something with very deadly effects - then yes I would certainly be afraid. But from what little I've heard about it, it's not. From what I've heard it's basically a seal cold that can get to people.

If anyone's got evidence that Seal Flu is actually a legitimate threat, though, I'd be happy to take all of this back.