Salutations to all,
Quite a few news is emerging from the Influenza Network these days and some of them we do have to consider it individually.
H3N2, another flu virus has been identify in a patient returning from Mexico to B.C.(Canada). The H3N2 (Brisbane) version was particularly morbid in Australia las Flu season in the southern hemisphere. Something to watch upon in the next few days.
More important for individual reasons to wash our hands often is a study done in Switzerland that shows that flu virus can live up to 17 days on money.
Washing Hands and Washing hands is a great protection against catching the flu.
Second Strain Might Have Caused Some Severe Cases In Mexico, Investigators Say
Via NPR
Quote
A new discovery from Canada raises the question — has a new mutation in an ordinary flu virus been causing some of the recent respiratory disease hospitalizations and deaths in Mexico?
It’s too soon to tell, but scientists in Vancouver are wondering. They’ve found two mutations in H3N2, a regular seasonal flu virus that’s been circulating in North America since last fall.(The swine flu virus is a type of H1N1.
The new version of H3N2 has shown up in a number of nursing home patients in British Columbia, though not yet in the general community there.
And this week the Canadian researchers spotted it when they did a complete genetic analysis of a flu virus that sickened a Canadian traveler who had just returned from Mexico.
This raises the possibility that the traveler became infected in Mexico, says Dr. Robert Brunham, chief of the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control.
If so, the H3N2 virus circulating in Mexico may have the same two mutations as those being found in British Columbia patients who haven’t been to Mexico.
"In British Columbia, the H3N2 virus causes more severe cases of flu than H1N1 does," Brunham says.
"So we wonder if some of the severe cases in Mexico may have been caused by the variant H3N2 virus."
However, health officials have so far only done close genetic analysis on one Mexico traveler. So they can’t say how many of the others have the new version of H3N2.
These findings if confirmed in more cases will become a problem in the determination of the strains included in the next vaccine production for the Fall season in the Northern Hemisphere.
Snowy Owl