Chicken flu in Hong Kong

1998/02/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Osasuna

Epidemiologists are about to go crazy in the Hong Kong area. A virus dross that causes chicken flu seems to be responsible for several human deaths.

The first known appearance of this disease, already known as “The Chicken Flu”, took place in May 97 and killed a three-year-old boy, after which three other people have died who claim that the list of infected patients is getting longer.

The virus is known as H5N1 because H (hemagglutinin) and N (neuraminidase) are the two superficial proteins of the virus. This virus, known in chicken farms, causes many problems in them, has caused significant losses in some farms, but it was never considered dangerous for humans.

The case of a three-year-old boy was critical for scientists to start knowing the circumstances of this virus. Although the child had a syndrome called Reye and the detection of the H5N1 virus aroused the curiosity and interest of researchers, direct death of the virus was not prevented.

Scientists noted at first that this virus produces mild discomfort in people in form and only in the elderly and sick. However, the latest deaths have shown that the kidnapping of scientists was too optimistic, since the virus death of healthy adults.

These people are considered to have been directly contaminated on chicken farms. Now, however, they try to find out if the disease spreads from one person to another and, given the characteristics of the virus, consider it so. In that case, scientists believe there
is reason to say that we are facing a pandemic.

Initial curiosity has become a fear. In fact, the virus dross that animals transmit to humans are generally severe, since our immune system does not know the new disease and therefore does not resist.

Common flu can be caused by many types of viruses, but they know the science and our immune systems well. Despite its enormous mutation capacity, changes are not enough to ignore our defense systems.

The case of the H5N1 virus that causes “chicken flu” is very special. In influenza family viruses, experts distinguish five types: H1, H2, H3, H4 and H5. The first three know human cells, while H4 and H5 types, at least until now, did not adhere to human cells. On the contrary, pigs suffer from all kinds of viruses, and this is one of the hypotheses handled by experts is that the transformations suffered by a pig contaminated by this virus have been enough to attack human cells.

The virus dross caused by pandemics throughout history have been from animal and pig farms. However, according to the latest news, the disease seems to come from a region near China, where farmers who have developed antibodies have been found. This information has not been given much credibility, as experts say that there is no adequate care in China and that local authorities would need external help to properly analyze it.

The National Institute of Medical Research in London has already begun investigating the vaccine for this slag, but from there they have opened a minimum of six months to continue working.