Genetic analysis shows that the avian influenza virus has mutated in a patient from the US state of Louisiana who contracted the country's first severe case of the disease, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported this week, UNN writes citing AP.
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Scientists believe that the mutations may allow the virus to bind better to receptors in the human upper respiratory tract - which they say is a concern, but not a cause for alarm.
Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease researcher at the University of Minnesota, compared this binding interaction to a lock and key. To get into a cell, a virus needs a key that turns the lock, and this discovery means that the virus can change to have a key that can work.
"Does this indicate that we may be closer to seeing a virus that is easily transmitted between people? No," Osterholm said. - "Right now, it's a key that's in the lock, but it doesn't open the door.
The virus causes sporadic, mostly mild illnesses in people in the United States, and almost all of those infected worked on dairy or poultry farms.
A patient from Louisiana was hospitalized in critical condition with severe respiratory symptoms of bird flu after coming into contact with sick and dead birds in a flock in his backyard. Earlier this month, officials said the person, who has not been identified, is over 65 and has a medical condition.
The CDC emphasized that there was no known transmission of the virus from the Louisiana patient to anyone else. The agency said that its findings on mutations are "concerning" but that the risk to the public from the outbreak "has not changed and remains low.
Nevertheless, Osterholm said, scientists should continue to closely monitor what is happening with mutations.
"There will be new flu pandemics, and they could 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.