Tuesday, 30 June 2020
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| Sumber Data :Kompas.com |
( Indonesia )
Para peneliti di China menemukan flu babi jenis baru yang dapat meluas menjadi pandemi.
Penemuan itu diungkap oleh sebuah penelitian yang diterbitkan PNAS, jurnal sains di Amerika Serikat (AS), pada Senin (29/6/2020).
Dilansir dari AFP, virus yang dinamai G4 ini secara genetik adalah turunan dari strain H1N1 yang menyebabkan pandemi pada 2009.
Virus ini memiliki "semua syarat penting untuk bermutasi dan menginfeksi manusia," kata para penulis yang terdiri dari ilmuwan di sejumlah universitas China serta Pusat Pengendalian dan Pencegahan Penyakit China.
Dari 2011-2018, para peneliti dari China Agricultural University (CAU) mengambil 30.000 tes swab hidung dari babi-babi di rumah jagal 10 provinsi China, termasuk di rumah sakit hewan
.
Tes massal itu berhasil mengumpulkan 179 jenis flu babi.
Mayoritas adalah jenis baru yang sudah dominan berada di babi-babi sejak 2016.
Para peneliti kemudian melakukan berbagai percobaan termasuk pada ferret, sejenis musang yang banyak digunakan dalam studi flu.
Ferret dipakai lantaran memiliki gejala flu yang mirip manusisa, seperti demam, batuk, dan bersin.
AFP mewartakan, virus G4 sangat menular, bereplikasi dalam sel manusia, dan menyebabkan gejala yang lebih serius pada ferret dibandingkan virus-virus lainnya.
Hasil tes juga menunjukkan kekebalan yang didapat manusia dari paparan flu musiman, tidak memberikan kekebalan terhadap G4.
Menurut hasil tes antibodi, sebanyak 10,4 persen pekerja di industri babi sudah terinfeksi.
Hasil tes pun menunjukkan 4,4 persen populasi umum tampaknya juga telah terpapar.
Dengan demikian, virus telah berpindah dari hewan ke manusia, tetapi belum ada bukti virus itu dapat menular antarmanusia.
Itu kekhawatiran kami bahwa infeksi virus G4 akan beradaptasi di manusia dan meningkatkan risikopandemi pada manusia," tulis para peneliti sebagaimana dikutip AFP.
Para penulis pun menyerukan upaya-upaya mendesak untuk memantau orang-orang yang bekerja dengan babi.
"Ini pengingat yang baik bahwa kita terus-terusan menghadapi risiko munculnya patogen zoonosis baru dan bahwa hewan ternak, yang berkontak lebih dekat dengan manusia daripada satwa liar, juga bisa menjadi sumber virus pandemi," terang James Wood, kepala departemen kedokteran hewan di Universitas Cambridge, dikutip dari AFP.
Infeksi zoonosis disebabkan oleh patogen yang melompat dari hewan ke manusia.
( English )
Researchers in China found a new type of swine flu that could spread to a pandemic.
The discovery was revealed by a study published by PNAS, a science journal in the United States (US), on Monday (6/29/2020).
Reporting from AFP, the virus called G4 is genetically a derivative of the H1N1 strain that caused a pandemic in 2009.
This virus has "all the essential requirements for mutation and infecting humans," said the authors, who are composed of scientists at a number of Chinese universities and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention of China.
From 2011-2018, researchers from China Agricultural University (CAU) took 30,000 nasal swab tests from pigs in slaughterhouses of 10 Chinese provinces, including in animal hospitals
.
The mass test was able to collect 179 types of swine flu.
The majority are new breeds that have been dominant in pigs since 2016.
The researchers then conducted various experiments including ferrets, a type of ferret that is widely used in flu studies.
Ferret is used because it has flu-like symptoms of humans, such as fever, coughing, and sneezing.
AFP reported, the G4 virus is highly contagious, replicates in human cells, and causes more serious symptoms of ferret than other viruses.
Test results also show that immunity that humans get from seasonal flu exposure, does not provide immunity against G4.
According to antibody test results, as many as 10.4 percent of workers in the swine industry have been infected.
Test results also showed 4.4 percent of the general population also appeared to have been exposed.
Thus, the virus has moved from animals to humans, but there is no evidence that the virus can be transmitted between humans.
"It is our concern that G4 virus infection will adapt to humans and increase the risk of developing epidemics in humans," the researchers wrote.
The authors also call for urgent efforts to monitor people who work with pigs.
"This is a good reminder that we continue to face the risk of new zoonotic pathogens and that livestock, which are closer in contact with humans than wildlife, can also be a source of pandemic viruses," explained James Wood, head of the veterinary department at Cambridge University quoted from AFP.
Zoonotic infections are caused by pathogens that jump from animals to humans.