China Ignores UK Request to Share Samples of Flu Virus with Pandemic Potential
August 29th, 2018Via: Telegraph:
Requests by UK experts to Chinese authorities for samples of the latest strain of a dangerous and evolving avian influenza virus, known as H7N9 have so far been ignored, the Telegraph has learned.
The news comes on the back of revelations earlier this week by the United States’ government that China has, for over a year, refused its requests to share lab samples of the same strain of avian influenza virus.
To date there have been 1,625 cases of H7N9 – a virus which usually circulates in poultry – in humans including a spike in cases in 2017, which prompted US researchers to request samples of the virus from Chinese authorities.
The virus is thought to be only few mutations away from being able to spread freely in humans and was said by the England’s deputy chief medical officer, Jonathan Van Tan, earlier this year to be a likely candidate for the next global flu pandemic.
