The swine flu virus could transform into a more serious “Armageddon virus” if it mixes with avian flu which is circulating in southeast Asia, a leading virologist said on Wednesday.
Health officials believe it is only a matter of time before swine flu reaches countries where avian flu is endemic, raising the prospect of the viruses merging into a lethal strain.
John Oxford, a virologist at Queen Mary, University of London, said an Armageddon virus was a worst-case scenario, but could not be ruled out.
“My concern is that in the rush and worry over pig flu, we forget about avian flu. There’s a temptation for everyone to stampede in response to the immediate threat and take their eye off bird flu and that could easily bounce back to bite us,” he said.
Fears that a bird flu pandemic was imminent led many countries to draw up the emergency plans that have swung into action this week. In Britain, the antiviral drugs Tamiflu and Relenza were stockpiled in anticipation of bird flu emerging from Asia.
This year, the bird flu virus, known as H5N1, has infected seven people in China and killed four. All three people who contracted the virus in Vietnam this year have died. A further 16 cases have been reported in Egypt, though none have been fatal.
The swine and avian flu viruses could merge if both infect the same animal at the same time. The most lethal result could be a virus that is as infectious as swine flu and as deadly as avian flu.
If the swine virus does change dramatically as it spreads, it will cause an even greater headache for manufacturers who are already expecting to face difficult decisions over which vaccine to prioritize. Most companies have just begun making seasonal flu vaccine for the winter, but may have to stop.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
RSS