IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v389y1997i6651d10.1038_39218.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A pandemic warning?

Author

Listed:
  • J. C. de Jong

    (National Influenza Centre of The Netherlands, Erasmus University Rotterdam and National Institute of Public Health and the Environment)

  • E. C. J. Claas

    (National Influenza Centre of The Netherlands, Erasmus University Rotterdam and National Institute of Public Health and the Environment)

  • A. D. M. E. Osterhaus

    (National Influenza Centre of The Netherlands, Erasmus University Rotterdam and National Institute of Public Health and the Environment)

  • R. G. Webster

    (Saint Jude Childrens Research Hospital)

  • W. L. Lim

    (Government Virus Unit, Queen Mary Hospital, The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region)

Abstract

Introduction of new influenza type-A viruses, carrying different combinations of the viral envelope glycoproteins haemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N), have led to three major pandemics of influenza in humans this century. Phylogenetic evidence suggests that these viruses have originated from avian influenza A viruses, either unchanged or after reassortment with humaninfluenza A viruses. In aquatic birds, all of the known H and N antigenic varieties (15 varieties carry H, nine carry N envelope glycoproteins) apparently circulate in a genetically conserved fashion. Viruses carrying the H1N1, H2N2 and H3N2 combinations were responsible for the Spanish flu of 1918, the Asian flu in 1957 and Hong Kong flu in 1968, respectively1. An influenza A virus of the H5N1 subtype has now been identified in a human patient, raising discussions about its potential to spark a new human influenza pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • J. C. de Jong & E. C. J. Claas & A. D. M. E. Osterhaus & R. G. Webster & W. L. Lim, 1997. "A pandemic warning?," Nature, Nature, vol. 389(6651), pages 554-554, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:389:y:1997:i:6651:d:10.1038_39218
    DOI: 10.1038/39218
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/39218
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/39218?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Annemarie Bouma & Ivo Claassen & Ketut Natih & Don Klinkenberg & Christl A Donnelly & Guus Koch & Michiel van Boven, 2009. "Estimation of Transmission Parameters of H5N1 Avian Influenza Virus in Chickens," PLOS Pathogens, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(1), pages 1-13, January.
    2. Chimmula, Vinay Kumar Reddy & Zhang, Lei, 2020. "Time series forecasting of COVID-19 transmission in Canada using LSTM networks," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:389:y:1997:i:6651:d:10.1038_39218. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.