A study in ferrets — which have remarkably similar respiratory systems to humans — suggests that widespread immunity to H1N1 seasonal influenza virus may explain why exposure to H5N1 bird flu causes only mild symptoms in humans.
A study in ferrets — which have remarkably similar respiratory systems to humans — suggests that widespread immunity to H1N1 seasonal influenza virus may explain why exposure to H5N1 bird flu causes only mild symptoms in humans.
The fatality rate for H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza in humans historically has been high, with more than half of people dying. Why, then, is the current H5N1 bird flu outbreak — which has caused massive die-offs in wild birds, farmed poultry and even wild mammals — causing mostly mild symptoms in the people it has infected? New research, led by scientists at Penn State and the University of Pittsburgh and published today (July 23) in the journal Science Translational Medicine, indicates that immunity to a seasonal influenza virus known as pandemic H1N1 that began circulating in 2009, provides protection from severe illness from H5N1 in a laboratory animal model.
“Every person has been exposed to H1N1 as the virus caused a pandemic in 2009 and is now the predominant circulating influenza strain in one out of every three to four years,” said lead author Troy Sutton, associate professor of veterinary and biomedical sciences at Penn State. “Our findings suggest that this immunity is protective against the more recent H5N1 strain and may explain why we’re seeing fewer cases and less severe disease than we would expect.”
Read More: Pennsylvania State University
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