Novel H3N2 Flu Viruses Infected Two Children
US - In separate instances, influenza A/H3N2 viruses circulating in swine picked up a gene from the pandemic 2009 H1N1 virus and recently infected two young children, one in Indiana and one in Pennsylvania, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports.
Both of the children recovered, though one was briefly admitted to hospital, and there is no sign that the viruses spread from the children to others but any evidence of ongoing transmission would require a rapid response, the CDC said.
The agency also said one of the children had no direct contact with pigs, which suggests he caught it from another person. Both children are under the age of five years.
The two viruses are similar to eight other swine-origin H3N2 viruses found in humans in the past 2 years, but they are unique in that they contain the matrix (M) gene from the 2009 H1N1 virus, the CDC reported in an early online posting in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). The two viruses are similar but not identical.
Lyn Finelli, DrPH, chief of the surveillance and outbreak response team in the CDC's influenza division, told CIDRAP News: "I don't think these [viruses] have pandemic potential; it looks like both of these are sort of dead-end transmissions."
Further Reading
Further Reading
6 September 2011
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