They confirm a farm worker in Catalonia has contracted swine flu

The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) reports that, January 29 last yearspanish authorities Report of a possible human case of influenza A(H1N1) virus infection in a Workers on a pig farm in Catalonia.

After bronchitis was diagnosed, subsequent laboratory testing confirmed swine flu. Influenza A H1N1. ECDC reports that The patient has fully recovered To date, no new cases have been identified among close contacts or colleagues on the farm.

from healthy They reported what they believed to be the details of the case closure, as the patient is no longer monitored. On January 10, Catalan health authorities reported a case of swine flu in a 33-year-old man working on a farm in the province of Lleida. The onset date is November 25, 2023. Nasal and oropharyngeal secretion samples were collected on December 12, and the results Influenza A positive,

But subtyping is not possible.

The virus was sent to the Regional Reference Laboratory of Catalonia and identified as swine fever virus. No secondary cases were identified among close household contacts or among the nine farm workers. The case is progressing smoothly. Samples have been sent to the National Institute of Microbiology for confirmation The virus has been isolated and shared with a World Health Organization collaborating center.

As explained by Mara Montoya, researcher in the Viral Immunology: Therapeutics and Vaccines Group of the Margarita Salas Center for Biological Research (CIB-CSIC), and reported by SMC, “cases of swine influenza virus infection in humans are relatively frequent , and vice versa. People who have been exposed to infected animals. As long as we remain alert to the possible emergence of new “recombinant” viruses, it should not become a social alarm Or new viruses with mutations. “That’s why it’s so important to remain vigilant.”

Additionally, Montoya detailed that “the risk to the community is the same as circulating influenza viruses. The problem is when one of the pig or human viruses “recombines” with another influenza virus. “New viruses emerge from there, such as the 2009 H1N1 pandemic virus.”

Regarding the fact that the epidemic ended almost a month later, researchers José Ignacio Nez and Llilianne Ganges from the Institute of Agricultural Food Research and Technology (IRTA) said: “not necessarily”. In comments collected by the SMC, experts detailed that “humans may occasionally become infected with swine influenza viruses transmitted on pig farms, but this is uncommon.”

Likewise, “personnel who come into contact with animals must Maintain biosecurity measures It is recommended that they get a flu shot to reduce the chance of infection. On the other hand, the capacity for human-to-human transmission is very small,” said IRTA researchers.

The history of animal viruses spreading to humans

A different example is the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) pandemic. “This virus took on fragments of avian, human and pig viruses, jumped to humans and caused a pandemic. It spread around the world and humans discovered it. “We have spread it to pigs. In 2021, a Chinese research team published a scientific article discovering that a virus circulating in pigs had pandemic potential, but no outbreaks in humans have since been reported,” IRTA experts commented.

Anyway, it’s essential Understanding viruses circulating in pig herds to analyze its genome. “At IRTA-CReSA we study the evolution of swine influenza viruses to analyze whether it is able to evade vaccination, or how vaccination affects this evolution.”

“So we have shown that vaccination reduces the spread of the virus, although it does not prevent its replication, and most importantly, vaccination reduces the ability of the virus to rearrange when infected with two different viruses at the same time. This Influenza virus reassortmentThis is due to the fact that it has a segmented genome, which, coupled with its genomic variability, leads to difficulties in controlling influenza,” they emphasize.

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