G4 Flu virus
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Subject: Science and tech
Context:
Researchers in China have discovered a new strain of the influenza virus which they claim has the potential to turn into a pandemic.
Concept:
- The scientists identified the virus through surveillance of influenza viruses in pigs that they carried out from 2011 to 2018 in ten provinces of China.
- They found that the G4 strain has the capability of binding to human-type receptors (like, the SARS-CoV-2 virus binds to ACE2 receptors in humans), was able to copy itself in human airway epithelial cells
- While researchers have found that the virus can spread from animal to human, there is still no evidence about the passing to the G4 virus from human to human.