Originally published August 2 2005
Flu viruses are mutating rapidly and becoming untreatable
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Flu viruses are mutating rapidly creating dangerous strains with no developed cure, researchers at the National Institutes of Health found.
They found that slightly mutated influenza A strains in New York that circulated between 1999 and 2004 gave rise to the so-called Fujian strain that caused a troublesome outbreak in the 2003-2004 flu season.
Such events probably are what lead to the occasional pandemics of flu that can kill millions of people, David Lipman and colleagues at the National Institutes of Health found.
They hope their findings, published in the journal Public Library of Science Biology, will help scientists better predict which viral strains will attack during upcoming flu seasons and design better vaccines.
Influenza viruses are notorious for trading genes back and forth and mutating.
Scientists previously believed that the gene swapping occurred gradually but the new study shows that several genes can be exchanged at once, causing sudden changes in important characteristics of the virus.
This is why a new flu epidemic sweeps the world every year, killing between 250,000 and 500,000 globally and 36,000 people in the United States alone every year.
Each year, experts must predict which strains will be most common and design a new vaccine to fight them.
Lipman and colleagues sequenced the genomes of 156 influenza A viruses, named H3N2, that were collected by New York State public health officials between 1999 and 2004.
They found "at least four reassortment events occurred among human viruses during the period 1999-2004" -- meaning there was an exchange of genes four different times.
The newly mixed viruses, previously unnoticed because of their low virulence, suddenly became capable of infecting thousands of people.
This suggests that scientists need to study circulating flu viruses more carefully because important mutations can occur suddenly and without warning, the researchers said.
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