A bird flu strain that claimed the life of a schoolgirl in Cambodia has evolved to better infect human cells, in a worrying sign. The Mail has the story.
Scientists on the ground who made the discovery said the finding “needs to be treated with the utmost concern”.
They added that there were “some indications” the virus had already “gone through” a human and picked up the new mutations before infecting the girl.
The 11-year-old girl, from Prey Veng province, last week became the first victim of H5N1 in 2023. Her father has also tested positive for the virus but has not developed symptoms.
Dr. Erik Karlsson, who led the team at the Pasteur Institute of Cambodia that decoded the genetic sequence of the girl’s virus, warned that it differed from that taken from birds.
He told Sky News: “There are some indications that this virus has gone through a human. Any time these viruses get into a new host they’ll have certain changes that allow them to replicate a little bit better or potentially bind to the cells in our respiratory tract a little bit better.”
But he added that the virus was yet to fully adapt to humans, saying it was fundamentally “still a bird virus”.
Dr. Karlsson said the new mutations were unlikely to have occurred in the girl, but probably existed in a “cloud” of viruses with random genetic changes inside birds.
The strain in its current form is unlikely to cause a major outbreak. Widespread transmission would require a mutation that allows it to bind to a receptor found on cells in the nose.
Genetic testing revealed that the girl had caught the 2.3.2.1c strain of H5N1, which is endemic to wild birds and poultry in Cambodia.
This differs from the 2.3.4.4b type that has spread rapidly around the world and infected many birds and mammals, but Dr. Karlsson said this was no reason to downplay the threat.
He added: “This was zoonotic spillover [of a virus infecting a new species] and needs to be treated with the utmost concern.”
Calling on the world to keep monitoring the virus, he said: “Something may be happening here in Cambodia and something may be happening on the other side of the world in South America, but we don’t really know what could cause the problem tomorrow.”
H5N1 has a human mortality rate of around 50%. There have only been around 870 cases among people ever, globally.
The 2.3.4.4b strain has devastated the world’s bird population over the past year.
More than 15 million animals have been struck down and killed by the virus itself, while governments have collectively culled more than 200 million worldwide to curb the virus’ spread, including 58 million in the U.S. alone.
Worth reading in full.
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The EPA has 1066 weather stations.
The New Norman?
I think the term “new normal” was invented a few years ago. The trouble is, “new” doesn’t last indefinitely (not even New Scotland Yard). The values of the output of the journalists mentioned are actually abnormal (even though it’s normal for them to grab hold of a story). Long term stability of any weather related measurement would be abnormal as well. However, the belief in our contribution to it all could be normal, even if not physically correct.
Fewer US Heatwaves now than 1930s
Stand in the Park Sundays 10.30am
Elms Field
near play area
Wokingham RG40 2FE
Not only will the residual heat from urban and airport infrastructure contribute to higher night-time temperatures, but the almost universal used of air conditioning in the USA ,to make comfortable sleep possible, with exacerbate it.
https://co2coalition.org/publications/nobel-laureate-john-clauser-elected-to-co2-coalition-board-of-directors/
A Nobel Laureate prize winner (Physics) firmly debunking the climate change nonsense.
Thanks to Dr Mike Yeadon.
Nice one – very useful.
There was an article in Time Magazine titled “Climate is Everything”. What they really mean is that everything that is wrong in the world, regarding equality, diversity, social justice etc etc and every left wing cause you can think of can be fixed by simply getting rid of fossil fuels and pretending to fix the climate. ————-So, to the liberal progressive, climate is indeed everything and they go to extraordinary lengths to convince you of that, with little or no evidence and a splurge of computer model projections full of assumptions that they refer to as “science”. But not the science as we have come to understand it. It is the post modern kind or “Official Science”
I checked out the weather forecast using AccuWeather, for various places around Europe for the coming week or so. Conclusion: The heatwave that has generated so much hysteria in the media is limited to a very select region along the Mediterranean coast, where these types of temperature are nothing new. Take a random spot-check of weather reports for anywhere outside this region, and it becomes obvious that the overwhelming majority of Europe is experiencing an absolutely normal summer, and an equal portion is having cooler than normal temperatures!
The same goes for reality checks (accurate weather reports) for the rest of the United States, that isn’t Death Valley or Arizona. This heatwave mania is codswallop.
Anything warm is “Global Warming”—————Anything cold is simply “Weather”
People shouldn’t be getting away with statements like We are not in a stable climate as this means absolutely nothing. It’s just idle fear-mongering, something like Things may seem ok to you at the moment but they could become much worse at a moments notice! We don’t know for certain they won’t!
Protect the planet! Turn off your TVs
“said we are not in a “stable climate”.”
That’s factual.
In fact the earth’s climate has always been changing naturally.
Climate change is normal and natural.
Humanity has always been adapting to a naturally changing climate.