How close is the next pandemic? Chinese researchers have some answers

China’s top infectious disease expert says a strain of avian influenza virus is adapting and could make the leap from birds to mammals

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A study led by China’s top virologist has raised concerns that a strain of the virus H2N2 recently found in the wild now has the ability to infect humans. Photo: Reuters

Published: 2:28pm, 5 Dec 2024Updated: 12:50am, 6 Dec 2024

New evidence has emerged from research in China that the world could be on the brink of another pandemic as cases of bird flu surface across some regions in poultry, cattle and humans.

Avian influenza A viruses are divided into subtypes based on a combination of two proteins found on their surfaces – hemagglutinin and neuraminidase – referred to as HxNy.

Only two subtypes of avian influenza A – H1N1 and H3N2 – are known to circulate between humans, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States.

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Chinese study finds new evidence that the world could be on the brink of another pandemic

A study led by China’s top virologist has raised concerns that a strain of the virus H2N2 recently found in the wild can now infect humans, raising the need for higher surveillance.

Many more strains of the virus have been found in birds and other animal populations around the world, some of which can infect humans.

George Fu Gao, an immunologist who served as director of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention from 2017 to 2022, has published a paper with his team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences that investigated the particular strain of the H2N2 virus.

Decades ago, another strain of H2N2 was responsible for the “Asian flu” pandemic, which broke out in 1957 in southern China and quickly spread around the world, claiming more than 1 million lives, according to the CDC.