Songkran holiday

Don't be careless at all.

Because Covid has not disappeared from the world.

It's not just COVID that needs to be careful.

When there is news, a 56-year-old Chinese woman from Guangdong Province

Deaths from H3N8 avian influenza strains are rare in humans.

is the first in the world

The more it made many people worried.

It is the third Chinese person infected with the H3N8 strain of avian influenza, according to the World Health Organization.

It is believed to have come from contact with poultry in the fresh market.

And around the house there are wild birds.

Before falling ill on February 22, 2023 until suffering from severe pneumonia

He was hospitalized on March 3, 2023 and passed away on March 16, 2023.

The H3N8 avian influenza strain first emerged in North America in 2002 and has since spread to horses, dogs, waterfowl and seals, causing the seals on the northeast coast of the United States.

There were more than 160 deaths from pneumonia, while in humans the infection had not been seen before until April and May 2022, two Chinese people were infected but did not die.

Although the World Health Organization stated that

The H3N8 avian influenza virus has a low ability to spread rapidly between people.

But must be closely monitored and in 2022, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) found an outbreak of high-severity avian influenza (HPAI) in foreign countries continuously around the world, and in February of the same year, H5N1 and H5N8 in Vietnam

Two H5N1 bird flu cases were reported in Cambodia in February 2023, according to the World Health Organization, and over the past 20 years there have been 900 confirmed cases of avian influenza worldwide. and more than 450 deaths. Thailand has not seen anyone infected with avian influenza for more than 17 years since 2006.

Fear of H3N8 turning into a new version

Easier to get attached

In the case of a Chinese woman who died from the H3N8 avian influenza strain, "Dr. Anan Chongkaewwatana" Director of the Animal Health and Management Innovation Research Group

The National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC), as a virology researcher, said it was not a new case of severe pneumonia.

Maintained for a long time until finally died.

Which, according to the patient's information, has a congenital disease that makes the body unhealthy

And the H3N8 strain of bird flu used to have cases that jumped to infect people.

but quite a few

No one has ever been addicted to the point of death before.

This is the first reported case.

“Ask if you are worried.

Personally, I think H3N8 in its current form is still difficult to get from birds to people.

But since it is an H3-containing virus, it is the carrier of the virus into the host cell.

It's the same family of proteins as H3N2 that have spread in human populations around the world. The chances of H3N8 becoming a newer version are easier to infect people, for example, mixing with H1N1 or H3N2 and taking the genes that enhance the spread of the virus in humans more easily. come in

It might cause problems.”

The reason is because H1N1 and H3N2 are not necessarily present in people.

but other intermediate animals

There's also a virus with body swapping as well.

The more the body-switching in the intermediate beast becomes even more worrisome.

Because the appearance of the virus is different from what people have ever encountered and been infected, resulting in immunity to influenza that has been created.

It may not be able to help prevent or is so bad that you can't predict whether it will actually happen or not.

can only take lessons because H3N2 still hasn't disappeared from more than 10 years ago, it was H3 from birds and believed that H3N8 came from ducks and body swapping with H2N2 happened in pigs, not people

H3N8 gene deciphered from chicken to human

Dr. Anant cited a recent article in The Lancet Microbe published about the H3N8 virus, which found that it can jump from poultry to humans.

This is in line with the news that the patient has just died from the infection with the aforementioned virus.

But this study did not report on news deaths.

But it was the first two cases of pediatric infection with H3N8 that did not result in death.

Based on the virus genetic transcription data, it is believed that H3N8 infected 3 patients in China.

probably from the chicken

Because many strains of the H3N8 virus have been found in the chicken population.

when looking at the genes of each virus

To trace the history of the origin of the virus, it was found that H3 probably came from a bird virus from Europe that spread to Chinese ducks in 2019.

N8 comes from a North American poultry virus.

It is believed that these are migrant water birds from Russia or Japan, flying in 2020-2021, causing viruses from both groups of birds to infect intermediate birds.

This may be a chicken in China before 2022 until it was infected with the H9N2 virus and infected with 2 other viruses at the same time, becoming 3 species in one chicken.

“In chickens, fragments of viral RNA are exchanged for a new strain of virus that carries H3, N8 and other H9N2 genes, known as H3N8 hybrids.

even jumping over and sticking to people

And this study found that the H3N8 found in sick children is different from the H3N2 virus found in humans.

Uses 100% human specific receptor proteins, almost no poultry receptor proteins.

It shows that the virus has adapted perfectly to the human virus.”

In the H3N8 virus study, both human and poultry receptor proteins can be used.

The virus still prefers to infect poultry cells more than humans.

believe that it has not reached the point where it spreads well from person to person

But if it becomes more infectious and adapts to humans, there is a chance that H3N8 will have the same properties as H3N2.

and this study also said

Avian influenza viruses that carry N8, such as H5N8 and H10N8, have also been reported to infect humans.

Causing the chance that N8 will combine with other HA and get more strange-looking viruses, it is also something to keep an eye on.