November 26, 2018
BiomedProtection identifies new pH1N1 influenza A using electronic biology platform
The electronic biology based platform, wEB, from BiomedProtection, LLC, was successfully used for prediction of the vaccine efficacy in the flu season 2017/2018 in USA (F1000Research, November 2017; doi: 10.12688/f1000research.13198.1). Previously, this platform enabled scientists in Germany to correctly predict mutations that enhance the human propensity of avian H5N1 flu viruses and infectivity of pandemic pH1N1 viruses in 2009 (PLoS ONE 8(4): e61572; doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0061572).
The same computational analysis of pH1N1 viruses collected at the beginning of the 2018/2019 flu season in USA, showed the potential emergence of novel pH1N1 viruses with significant genetic changes not detected in the last 9 years.
Based on our previous experience from 2009 pandemic, as well as our vaccine efficacy predictions for the last three flu seasons, we believe that these novel pH1N1 viruses might be more virulent in people while having a lower responsiveness to current flu vaccine. At this stage in the 2018/2019 flu season we recommend close monitoring of the evolution of these pH1NN1 viruses in order to prevent possible serious health consequences in the case of a new pandemic.
We will release detailed scientific data to the public in the next days, when our analysis is completed. BiomedProtection and its scientists feel obligated to inform public as soon as possible due to potential high consequence of influenza pandemic(s).
If you are interested in WEB platform for influenza viruses or want to analyze your sequences please contact us at: contact@biomedprotection.com
Novel #pH1N1 #viruses detected in #USA. 54% of pH1N1 viruses collected in USA in October 2018 (GISAID) are isolated from #children under 10.
— Veljko Veljkovic (@veleveljkovic) November 27, 2018
Data from the beginning of #flu season in USA and Canada show that dominant flu virus is #pH1N1 and that younger age-groups are affected more than in previous seasons, especially #children under 10.
This urges parents to urgently #vaccinate children.— Veljko Veljkovic (@veleveljkovic) November 27, 2018
According to the flu report for November 2018 for Canada: https://t.co/1BmqrVAHdd
(1) majority of #flu #viruses are pH1N1
(2) younger age-groups are affected more than in previous seasons
(3) number of pediatric hospitalizations is significantly higher than in recent years— Veljko Veljkovic (@veleveljkovic) November 27, 2018