According to CDC, people older
than 65 years (born before 1944), are less affected by H1N1 and it is due to the
fact that they had the prior immunity to the virus. Probably they had been
exposed to a virus similar enough to the new H1N1 for the developed antibodies
to still provide protection.
A
research group from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine tried to test this
hypothesis using mice. They were set as measure of the protection offered by
the antibodies developed against various lineages of human influenza, from 1918
to the present day.
More
research on this has led to the discovery that human and pigs have evolved in parallel
direction and hence antibodies against human lineages will be effective against
swine virus as well. Until 1943, the human and swine lineages have not diverged
so as to end cross immunity. This similarity is still present as proved by few
experiments. Hence people vaccinated in and around 1976 or infected with older
lineages have protective immunity against newly evolved H1N1.
Now
what exactly can be concluded from this? The results forecast some interesting
implications. Previously pigs were considered intermediate between birds and
humans. But with time it has been observed that they are usually the reservoirs
of the virus that infect us and the immune system has forgotten this. Now if these
viruses leap to human again and in due course while humans and pigs will
significantly diverge, these viruses will have another susceptible host for
themselves. Another point to be kept in mind is that youth should be targeted for
vaccination against the new strains of virus as aged population has already
grown immune to the same.
Although pigs and humans have
common origin, yet they have separated with different rate of evolution. While humans
have a heterogeneous population with lots of diversity, the lineages tend to
escape the previous immunity. On the other hand pigs have lesser life span and homogeneous population. So they tend to house the virus in them creating a safe reservoir.
“4th International Conference on Influenza and Zoonotic Diseases” will
encounter discussions on various topics delving deeper into the cause and
trying to find a solution together. Scientists and industrialists around the
globe will gather in Vienna, Austria
to share their ideas to discover a better solution to this fatal problem.
To know more and discuss the pros
and cons, visit: https://influenza.conferenceseries.com/
To join the conference contact: aiyanastewart2@gmail.com
