(Bloomberg) — Stay-at-home orders, border closures, mask-wearing and other measures aimed at slowing the spread of Covid-19 have contributed to the global disappearance of a well-known winter virus. Now, Scientists say a world free of the second virus is possible with better vaccines.
For decades, influenza epidemics have been driven by four strains. Ian Barr, deputy director of the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Center for Reference and Research on Influenza, said one of the viruses, the so-called Yamagata influenza B lineage, had struggled to compete before the pandemic and has since March 2020 It never appeared again. Organized in Melbourne.
COVID-19 restrictions gave him ‘the final blow that knocked him out’ Barr said in an interview.
The elimination of this strain eliminates a cause of death and illness, especially among children, and a component of the annual flu vaccine.
It also suggests that it may be possible to eliminate its type B analogues in the future, A strain known as “Victoria”.
Unlike influenza A, which has a broad host range and risk of causing a pandemic, influenza B viruses lack animal hosts and could more easily survive better vaccines, the scientists write in “Influenza A.” Eliminate, these vaccines not only prevent the disease but also prevent transmission. An article published in a newspaper last week.
generally, These strains account for 23% of annual influenza cases worldwide, including 1.4 million hospitalizations.annual health care costs in the United States alone are approximately $1.3 billion.
“Theoretically plausible eradication of influenza B viruses could eliminate this considerable clinical and economic burden,” Florian Krammer, professor of vaccinology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, and colleagues wrote in the article.
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