Flu Hit South America Sees New Strain Emerge
Pastor Dale Morgan
Flu Hit South America Sees New Strain Emerge*
A child waits to be treated in a hospital in Santiago on June 17, 2009.
Chile has confirmed a third death from the H1N1 or swine flu virus,
while authorities declared a health emergency. According to the latest
statistics released on Tuesday, Chile's confirmed number of patients
with H1N1 flu soared by several hundred from 2,355 to 3,125. Photo
courtesy AFP
Brazil finds new strain of H1N1 virus
Brazilian scientists have identified a new strain of the H1N1 virus
after examining samples from a patient in Sao Paulo, their institute
said Tuesday. The variant has been called A/Sao Paulo/1454/H1N1 by the
Adolfo Lutz Bacteriological Institute, which compared it with samples of
the A(H1N1) swine flu from California. The genetic sequence of the new
sub-type of the H1N1 virus was isolated by a virology team lead by one
of its researchers, Terezinha Maria de Paiva, the institute said in a
statement. The mutation comprised of alterations in the Hemagglutinin
protein which allows the virus to infect new hosts, it said. It was not
yet known whether the new strain was more aggressive than the current
A(H1N1) virus which has been declared pandemic by the World Health
Organization. The genetic make-up of the H1N1 virus and its subvariants
are important for scientists. Pharmaceutical companies are working to
mass produce a vaccine against the current A(H1N1) flu. There are fears
though that it could mutate into a deadly strain, much in the same way
as the 1918 Spanish flu -- also an A(H1N1) virus type -- did when it
killed tens of millions around the planet. According to the WHO, 36,000
people in 76 countries have been infected with the H1N1 virus, causing
163 deaths.
by Staff Writers
Buenos Aires (AFP) June 16, 2009
The swine flu deaths of two people in Argentina and a mutation of the
H1N1 virus detected in Brazil have added to fears that South America is
entering a harsh winter beset by the flu pandemic.
While big pharmaceutical firms are ramping up efforts to mass-produce a
vaccine for H1N1, they are still months away from having enough stocks
-- too late for the Southern Hemisphere's winter flu season.
South America has already recorded five deaths from the disease: two in
Chile, one in Colombia last week and, most recently, those of a
three-month-old girl and a 28-year-old man with leukemia in Argentina's
capital Buenos Aires.
The number of infected cases is outstripping figures put out regularly
by the World Health Organization.
According to the latest statistics Tuesday Chile's confirmed number of
patients with H1N1 flu soared by several hundred from 2,355 to 3,125.
Other national health authorities also registered increases with
Argentina reporting 733, Peru with 113, Brazil 69, Ecuador 84, Venezuela
44, Uruguay 36, Paraguay 25 and Suriname 13.
Those figures are far overshadowed by the data from North America, the
apparent source of the pandemic.
Mexican authorities say they have had 109 deaths and 6,294 infected
cases. The United States on Tuesday added a nine-year-old boy to its
death toll, bringing it to 47, alongside 17,855 infected cases. Canada
has six deaths and 3,515 infections.
Central America and the Caribbean have also been hit, registering nearly
800 infections and three deaths (one each in Costa Rica, the Dominican
Republic and Guatemala).
Although the A(H1N1) virus has been classed as relatively mild since
first being detected in April, its unusually strong effect on the young,
on those with other underlying health problems, and on the poor have
made it a redoubtable challenge.
Some major drug companies have started producing a vaccine for
pre-clinical testing, but one of them, Switzerland's Novartis, told the
Financial Times it did not intend to give it away to poor countries.
US rival Baxter said Tuesday it should have its H1N1 vaccine
commercially available in July.
But there were underlying fears that the virus currently spreading
around the world through human-to-human contact might mutate further,
possibly into a more deadly form, as happened with the 1918 Spanish flu
which killed tens of millions.
Those fears heightened a little Tuesday, when a Brazil's Adolfo Lutz
Bacteriological Institute said its researchers had identified and
isolated a new strain of the A(H1N1) virus in a Sao Paulo patient.
It was not yet known whether that variant, called A/Sao Paulo/1454/H1N1,
was more aggressive than the more common type.
The institute said in a statement the mutation comprised of alterations
in the Hemagglutinin protein which allows the virus to infect new hosts.