Chinese genetics may explain how flu virus hits some groups harder

A genetic variant commonly found in Chinese people may help explain why some got seriously ill with swine flu, a discovery scientists say could help pinpoint why flu viruses hit some populations particularly hard and change how they are treated. Less than one percent of Caucasians are thought to have the gene alteration, which has previously been linked to severe influenza. Yet about 25 percent of Chinese people have the gene variant, which is also common in Japanese and Korean people. British and Chinese researchers analyzed 83 patients admitted to a Beijing hospital during the 2009-2010 swine flu pandemic. Of those with serious complications like pneumonia, respiratory or kidney failure, 69 percent had the genetic alteration. Among patients with mild illness, only 25 percent did. “It doesn’t mean you should panic if you have this gene variant,” said Andrew McMichael, director of the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine at Oxford University, one of...