A minor strain of the avian influenza, H9N2, could mutate to infect humans and cause a pandemic, according to experts. They claim that this strain of the bird flu virus has adapted to human cells, but cases of person-to-person transmission haven’t been reported yet.

This milder strain of bird flu is not getting the attention it deserves, according to health researchers. Kelvin To, a clinical microbiologist at the University of Hong Kong, said that despite the virus being the second most common strain of bird flu that infects people, it isn’t getting the recognition, as everyone focuses on the H5N1 strain infecting dairy cattle.

The vast majority of bird flu surveillance has been focused on the avian influenza virus H5N1, which has spread across most continents and can cause severe disease and death in people. Since 2020, H5N1 has killed about 21 people.

Accoridng to a report by Nature, H9N2 has caused 173 infections in people since 2015, mainly in China, says To, who presented his team’s research at the Pandemic Research Alliance International Symposium in Melbourne, Australia, on 27 October.

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Another expert says that H9N2’s prevalence may be broader than we know. Michelle Wille, who studies bird flu at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne, said that human infections are probably being missed because they do not result in severe infection or hospitalization in people, or because people are more commonly tested for the H5N1 instead.

While the virus would still need to undergo several more important mutations before it could readily and easily infect humans and be transmitted between them, Willie says it must still adapt to human pH levels from those of birds.

Nature also reported that H5N1 is adapting to new mammalian species, increasing the likelihood of a human pandemic for that strain, too.

According to The New York Times, while bird flu has entered a “new phase” and passed a worrisome milestone, a pandemic is not necessarily inevitable.

How deep does this go? Will we see a bird flu pandemic? Will it be planned? What are your thoughts? Leave us a comment!