H1N2 Virus: Infant Found Carrying Rare Form of Swine Flu (VIDEO)
An infant in Minnesota has been found to have been carrying an extremely rare form of the swine flu known as the H1N2 virus.
Doctors are now monitoring the infant who was diagnosed with the rare virus in October, according to WCCO. It is only the second time that this particular strain of the virus has been documented.
The infant contracted the rare strand of the more prevalent H1N1 virus, which is common in pigs located in the Upper Midwest. Until this year, only one other case had been ever known to occur in humans and that was in 2007 in Michigan.
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Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told Fox News the general public has very little reason to panic or be alarmed.
"Discovery of these novel influenza viruses shows that our surveillance systems are working. And laboratory testing has advanced to where we’re now picking up infections that we’d likely not have picked up in the past."
The CDC estimates that back in 2009 as many as 6,000 people died in the United States during a seven month period from the H1N1 virus.
Infant Diagnosed with H1N2 VirusScientists eventually were able to develop a vaccine, one that is currently included in this year’s flu shot. But scientists acknowledge if a new deadly strain emerged it would once again likely take a long time for an effective vaccine to be developed.
Dr. Aaron DeVries of the Minnesota Department of Health told WCCO: “Typically influenzas change a little bit. When the virus changes substantially, that is when a pandemic can occur and that is what happened in 2009.”
The current flu shot does not protect patients against the H1N2 virus. But the Minnesota Department of Health says they do not think this strain of H1N2 is a serious threat, because the infant recovered quickly and no one around him got sick which suggests that it does not spread easily.
