Reuters reports that World Health Organization (WHO) chief Dr. Margaret Chan said on Friday that the H1N1 swine flu is likely to worsen and could mutate in "unpredictable ways." Dr. Chan also called the novel flu virus a "subtle, sneaky virus."
The virus must be closely monitored in the southern hemisphere, as it could mix with ordinary seasonal influenza and change in unpredictable ways, Chan told the WHO annual congress in Geneva.
"In cases where the H1N1 virus is widespread and circulating within the general community, countries must expect to see more cases of severe and fatal infections," she said. "This is a subtle, sneaky virus."
An international team of researchers who analyzed all eight genes of the new virus confirmed its sneakiness, saying it was so different from its ancestral strains that it must have been circulating undetected for years.
They confirmed it is a hybrid of two other mixtures -- one a so-called triple reassortant of pig, bird and human viruses, and another group of swine viruses from Europe and Asia.
The Reuters story also says that the U.S. Health and Human Services Department has set aside $1 billion for companies to develop a vaccine for the H1N1 swine flu. Dr. Nancy Cox, chief of the influenza division at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters that the results of study of the virus show a "global need for more systematic surveillance of influenza viruses in pigs." It does sound like a good idea to monitor pigs and pig farms for flu. The less viruses that sneak up on us the better.
The latest figures from the World Health Organization show that H1N1 swine flu has sickened over 11,000 people in 42 countries with 86 deaths. The WHO's H1N1 website can be found here. More H1N1 resources can be found here.
