The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week that a genetic analysis indicates that the bird flu virus mutated inside a patient from Louisiana who suffered the first serious case of the disease in the country.
Scientists believe the mutations may allow the virus to bind better to receptors in humans’ upper airways, something they say is concerning but not a cause for concern.
Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease researcher at the University of Minnesota, likened this binding interaction to a lock and key. To enter the cell, the virus needs a key that turns the lock, and this discovery means that the virus may change to have a key that may work.
Is this an indication that we may be closer to seeing a virus that is easily transmitted between people? No, Osterholm said. “Right now, that’s the key in the lock, but it doesn’t open the door.”
The virus has caused sporadic, mostly mild illness in people in the United States, and nearly all of those infected worked on dairy or poultry farms.
A Louisiana patient was hospitalized in critical condition with severe respiratory symptoms from avian influenza after coming into contact with sick and dead birds in a backyard flock. Officials said earlier this month that the person, who has not been identified, was older than 65 and had underlying medical problems.
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The CDC stressed that there is no known transmission of the virus from the Louisiana patient to anyone else. The agency said its findings on the mutations were “concerning”, but the risk to the general public from the outbreak “has not changed and remains low.”
However, Osterholm says, scientists must continue to carefully follow what happens with mutations.
“There will be additional influenza pandemics, and they may be much worse than what we saw with Covid,” he said. “We know the pandemic clock is ticking. We just don’t know what time it is.”
& Edition 2024 The Canadian Press
