Virus resistant to body's immune system could risk pandemic worse than COVID
The virus thrives during a fever, which has sparked concerns from scientists
A virus that is worryingly resistant to the human body’s immune system could risk a new pandemic that is even worse than Covid.
This comes after new research revealed that the human’s internal thermal defense system could be no match against the bird flu virus.
Experts from the University of Cambridge in the UK have conducted a study into how bird flu viruses found in the lower respiratory tract of the bird can impact the health of humans.
While the human body will react to the flu by causing a fever in a bid to fight it off, scientists found that certain strains of bird flu will thrive under these conditions.
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Dr Sam Wilson, who is a molecular virologist at Cambridge University and led the study, explained: “Thankfully, humans don’t tend to get infected by bird flu viruses very frequently, but we still see dozens of human cases a year.
“Bird flu fatality rates in humans have traditionally been worryingly high, such as in historic H5N1 infections that caused more than 40% mortality.”
Wilson went on to say: “Understanding what makes bird flu viruses cause serious illness in humans is crucial for surveillance and pandemic preparedness efforts. This is especially important because of the pandemic threat posed by avian H5N1 viruses.”
The team’s findings were published in Science, which detailed how the researchers edited the PB1 genes in the virus, which are the genes that help the virus to make copies of itself.
These were then altered to match genes that are found in influenza A viruses, which is the most common form of the flu that infects humans.
In the study, it detailed how 'nd because the avian-like virus resisted the elevated temperature defense, fever-resistant replication could help explain why avian spillover viruses and pandemic influenza viruses with an avian-origin PB1 cause more-severe disease in humans'.
Dr Matt Turnbull, who is a virologist at the University of Glasgow and an author in the study, explained: “It’s crucial that we monitor bird flu strains to help us prepare for potential outbreaks.
“Testing potential spillover viruses for how resistant they are likely to be to fever may help us identify more virulent strains.”
While the CDC has said that the risk of bird flu being passed onto humans remains and sparking a new virus outbreak is ‘low’, there are concerns as we head into winter.
This is because infections are more likely to occur during the autumn, which means people should remain cautious to avoid a new outbreak similar to that of the 2020 Covid pandemic.