New H5N1 virus maybe the next major public health crisis, worry epidemiologists

According to Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, US, the H5N1 (Bird Flu), has mutated inside this single patient to gain the ability to bind with human receptors in the upper respiratory tract

Hyderabad: Just when people started to move on with their lives putting behind the memories of Covid pandemic, there comes the H5N1 virus (Bird Flu), which has started to worry immunologists and epidemiologists worldwide about its potential to trigger the next major public health crisis.

The reason for the worrying, although H5N1 has been predominant only among small birds (poultry) and farm animals for several years, is a patient from Louisiana, United States, who was infected with a severe form of H5N1.

---

According to Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), US, the H5N1, has mutated inside this single patient to gain the ability to bind with human receptors in the upper respiratory tract.

Sounds familiar? Yes, this is how the Covid-19 virus also mutated inside infected patients and started affecting the upper respiratory tract, especially the lungs.

Epidemiologist and immunologist noted for his work on various mutations of SARS-CoV-2 and tracking the Covid pandemic, Dr Michael Mina, a few days ago took to X and posted “These types of mutations are truly what we should worry about. Mutations are anticipated to happen in a host who gets infected with a virus. The host may not be optimized for replication of the virus and so the virus adapts to the host”.

When the virus adapts to the host, it often become more fit within the host and starts to replicate faster than the less fit virus within the host. It is Darwinian evolution at high speed. If the more fit virus spread to another similar host (i.e. human), it can launch an outbreak, Dr Mina summed it up.

The mutation seen in the virus, immunologists believe, will help H5N1 to bind to the cell of the upper respiratory tract, which till now was not the case with this virus.

Angela Rasmussen, a noted virologist who specializes in emerging viral infections, on X said “The situation of H5N1 is grim. There has been an explosion of human cases. More sequences from humans is a trend that we need to reverse. We need fewer humans infected. Period”.

While it’s extremely difficult to see the future and predict a pandemic, these initial signs from the United States and even in Canada should be a wake-up call for immunologists and epidemic specialists in India, where hardly any genetic research in new variants of H5N1 is underway.