Swine flu virus has mutated and re-emerged since December 2014 in India as a more virulent strain, according to the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
In 2009 we had the swine flu virus – caused by H1N1. Although it actually originated in Mexico, it passed to South East Asia infecting around 60 million people and causing approximately 12,500 deaths.
Since mid-December, it is estimated that the mutated H1N1 virus has infected more than 25,000 people in India, and it seems to spread more easily than before.
“Examination of the Indian H1N1 flu viruses that circulated in 2014 shows amino acid mutations that make them distinct (in terms of receptor binding, virulence and antigenic drift) from the A/California/07/2009 virus (2009 virus),” added Prof. Sasisekharan of the Koch Institute.
Sounds like a new vaccine could be imminent.
Source: Cell Host & Microbe
