Officials are trying to track the contacts of the United Kingdom’s first human case of the different form of swine flu.
Recently, the U.K. Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced that, it had detected a single confirmed human case of influenza A(H1N2) v as part of a routine national flu surveillance.
Officials said since 2005, there have been many human cases of that strain which was reported globally, but none of them are genetically related to the recently identified case.
According to an information, the infection detected in the U.K. is a distinct clade (1b.1.1), which is different from recent human cases of influenza A(H1N2) elsewhere in the world but it’s almost the same to the viruses in U.K. swine.
Officials said that the people experienced a mild illness and fully recovered, but the source of their infection isn’t yet known.
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Case of variant influenza virus normally found in pigs identified in Manitoba
Meera Chand, the UKHSA’s incident director said that, they are working fast to trace close contacts and reduce any potential spread. In accordance with established protocols, investigations have started to find out how people got the infection and to assess whether there are any further related cases.
That includes an increased surveillance in surgeries and hospitals in North Yorkshire, a region of northern England.
UKHSA officials said that, H1N1, H1N2 and H3N2 are major subtypes of swine influenza A viruses in pigs and rarely infect humans, usually after direct or indirect exposure to pigs or contaminated environments.
A total of 50 human cases of influenza A(H1N2) v, the broader strain identified in the U.K. case, have been reported in many countries, including Canada.
In late 2021, Manitoba’s Department of Agriculture and Resource Development reported one human case of variant H1N2 in the province to the Public Health Agency of Canada and said it appeared to be an isolated instance, with no proof of human-to-human transmission.
The year before, Manitoba reported cases of variant influenza viruses found in two unrelated people in different communities. One was a case of human influenza A(H1N2) v and the other was a case of human influenza A(H1N1) v, along with an unrelated case of H3N2 variant influenza.
However, in 2009 a different strain sparked a pandemic. That H1N1 influenza A virus contained genetic material from viruses that were circulating in birds, pigs and humans in the 1990s and 2000s, and it exploded globally, becoming known as swine flu. H1N1 is now circulating in humans seasonally and is different from the virus strains currently circulating in pigs.
