When the COVID-19 epidemic was spreading rapidly in our country, on December 27, a piece of news from Russia was inexplicably alarming. According to media reports such as CCTV News, the Russian Consumer Rights Protection and Public Welfare Supervision Bureau said that day that cases of H1N1 influenza had been found in all regions of Russia, indicating that this influenza may break out throughout Russia.
Many people should be familiar with influenza A H1N1, because this influenza epidemic broke out in 2009~2010. It was called swine flu at the beginning, but in fact the virus that caused this influenza was just A A type of influenza virus (type A influenza virus), but it spreads easily among pigs. It was first discovered in pig farms in Mexico in 2009, so it was initially called swine influenza virus . On April 30, 2009, the World Health Organization changed its name to H1N1 influenza A.
Scientists discovered through genetic sequencing that influenza A h1n1 virus actually contains the nuclei of three influenza viruses: avian influenza , swine flu and human influenza. It contains glyconucleic acid gene segments and has the characteristics of both Asian swine flu and African swine flu viruses, so it is highly contagious and pathogenic, making it very difficult to deal with. From 2009 to 2010, this virus once caused an epidemic around the world, spreading to at least 214 countries and causing about 200,000 deaths.
However, although the H1N1 influenza virus was discovered in 2009, scientists have found that it actually first appeared much earlier than this time. Now scientists tend to believe that the H1N1 influenza virus actually broke out in 1918. Many friends know that the Spanish Flu, a descendant of the virus that caused the "Spanish Flu", swept across the world more than a hundred years ago, just like today's COVID-19 epidemic. It infected at least 1 billion people in the two years from 1918 to 1919, and caused 25 to 100 million deaths. You must know that the total population of the world at that time was only about 1.7 billion people. So if we trace the origin of this virus, we can also say that it (or its ancestor strain) caused the Spanish Flu in its early days.
Therefore, the influenza A h1n1 virus is actually a "century virus", and some people call it the "century virus". After that, the virus did not die out. Most of the time, it was prevalent on a small scale among humans, mammals and even birds. This virus can easily cause swine fever because it is a zoonotic influenza virus. It can easily lurk in the body of pigs. Time and place have dealt a blow to the survival of pigs. When humans' immunity to and was weakened, it came out to infect humans. There was an outbreak peak among humans in 2009 and 2010, and then it became silent again, but now it seems that it is ready to move again.
Influenza A H1N1 virus is also the ancestor strain of many other similar viruses, including h1n2, H1N7, H4N6, H5N1, H7N2, H7N9, etc.
How contagious and pathogenic is the influenza A H1N1 virus? Will it be worse than the new coronavirus? Objectively speaking, compared to other viruses, its transmission speed and pathogenicity are very fast, but it is slower and lower than the new coronavirus. The main way of transmission of influenza A (H1N1) virus is contact transmission. Uninfected people may be infected if they come into contact with infected people, or come into contact with things contaminated with the virus used by infected people.
This virus is slightly more pathogenic than other similar viruses, but lower than the new coronavirus. Healthy adults have strong resistance to it, and its symptoms are common colds, but the resistance of older children is relatively weak. People with genetic diseases or chronic diseases are more dangerous after infection. The probability of severe illness is not low, and severe cases can cause lung disease and even death.
In recent years, the spread of influenza A (H1N1) virus has been at a low point. However, starting last autumn, this virus and some avian influenza viruses began to break out again in Europe and the United States. Now this virus has been monitored throughout Russia, indicating that its transmissibility has reached a higher stage. So why are there suddenly more of this virus? The reason is not clear. Some Russian media believe that it is a biological warfare launched by some countries using the migration of migratory birds, but this is only one-sided speculation.
So how should we deal with the spread of influenza A H1N1 virus? Don’t worry, no virus has been found to be more transmissible than the new coronavirus so far, and we all have a lot of experience in preventing the spread of the new coronavirus. There is no need to go into details. So as long as we make good use of these experiences, it will be no problem to prevent it!
Reference:
"CCTV News" client December 28 article "Influenza A (H1N1) cases have appeared throughout Russia"
