Viruses The pandemic destroyed one flu line – vaccination may be easier

Pandemian Many other respiratory viruses, such as influenza and RSV, have left people largely alone.

The almost two-year struggle against the coronavirus has taken up space from more familiar pathogens.

Travel bans, restaurant bans, telecommuting, hand washing and masks have hit viruses on a broad front.

Findings Influenza viruses have declined 99 percent worldwide since spring 2020, although testing has not declined.

It now appears that one entire line of influenza virus has become extinct, reports a microbiologist at the University of Melbourne. Marios Koutsakos with colleagues Nature Reviews Microbiology magazine.

The influenza viruses that cause disease in humans each year are divided into two main types, A and B.

Three out of four flu cases are usually caused by A viruses and a quarter by B viruses. Influenza B is further divided into two development lines, Victoria and Yamagata, the latter of which appears to have disappeared.

If this line of development has indeed disappeared from the face of the earth, vaccination against influenza is becoming easier.

The Yamagata line virus has not been found in tests since March 2020. There have been only 31 suspected infections in this line in the last influenza season, and sequencing has not confirmed them either.

Researchers according to him, it is not yet certain whether Yamagata has finally come to an end or whether he is just hiding somewhere to come back again.

Influenza B viruses are known to occasionally fall into silence, when they are barely detected, but then make a comeback.

In any case, the viruses of the Yamagata line are more prone to deadlocks than others.

They do not spread as easily from one person to another as the Victoria line viruses, and the epidemics they trigger spread more slowly. Thus, reducing contact will cut Yamagata’s supply chains more effectively.

Influenza lines has also been found to spread in different ways in different age groups. Of the B viruses, Yamagata typically infects people over 25 years of age. Victoria, on the other hand, is more of a child scourge.

As adults travel more, the travel restrictions of the pandemic are thus bitten more by Yamouta, according to Koutsakos and partners.

Published in Science 14/2021