China Is Downplaying G4 Swine Flu Virus Threat. What's The World Saying?

China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said the so-called "G4" strain of swine flu virus is nothing new and does not infect humans and animals easily, which rebuffs a study published earlier in the week, according to Reuters.

That study was conducted by a team of Chinese scientists and published by the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, warned that a new swine flu virus called G4 has become more infectious to humans. It had the potential to be a "pandemic virus".

Reuters (Representational)

Downplaying the threat

However, China's agriculture ministry said in a statement that the study has been interpreted by the media "in an exaggerated and nonfactual way."

An analysis by the ministry concluded that sampling of the published study is too small to be representative, while the article lacks adequate evidence to show the G4 virus has become the dominant strain among pigs.

The ministry said it drew its conclusions after holding a seminar on the G4 virus's impact on the hog industry and public health. Participants included Chinese veterinarians and anti-virus experts, as well as the leading authors of the PNAS study.

The participants concurred that the G4 virus is not new, the statement said. Furthermore, such a strain has been monitored continuously by the World Health Organization (WHO) and related agencies in China since 2011, the statement said, citing a senior WHO official.

Reuters (Representational)

In addition, the authors of the published study agreed that the G4 virus does not effectively replicate in the human body and cause disease, according to the statement.

The ministry's statement was authored by Yang Hanchun, a swine viral disease scientist at China Agricultural University who also serves the role of expert on a ministry anti-epidemic committee.

What the world has to say

So what's the world saying? In 2009, WHO declared the outbreak of type A H1N1 influenza virus a pandemic. There were 30,000 cases or so worldwide. The CDC in USA has termed swine flu as "a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza viruses that regularly cause outbreaks of influenza in pigs."

While it usually affects pigs, it can infect humans. But human to human transmission is limited. The symptoms are fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headaches, chills and fatigue.

Reuters (Representational)

So far the world has not really commented on the matter as it is busy dealing with Coronavirus. One hopes the swine flu threat does not escalate. We are barely being able to handle one pandemic, we do not need another one.