Virus findings ‘not strong enough’ to affect strategy

A recent study that suggests the H7N9 avian influenza virus may be highly transmissible among humans is not strong enough to lead to any changes in the current H7N9 epidemic intervention strategy, said a senior Chinese scientist. A study published on the website of the US journal Science on July 18 said the new strain of bird flu virus is highly transmissible among ferrets, a widely used animal model for studying how flu might spread in humans. Consequently, it is possible the virus could efficiently spread among humans eventually, posing a pandemic risk, according to the study led by Chen Hualan, director of China’s National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory at Harbin Veterinary Research Institute. Zeng Guang, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, disagrees with that conclusion. “The findings are mainly based on animal tests in the lab that have not been witnessed or substantiated among the H7N9 human cases...