Abstract
H5N1 Viruses and Vaccines
Highlights
The establishment and spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses of the H5N1 subtype in birds and coincident infections in humans since 2003 have raised concerns that we may be facing an influenza pandemic caused by an H5N1 influenza virus
HPAI H5N1 viruses have been isolated from avian species in more than 50 countries
The H5 hemagglutinin (HA) is found in influenza viruses that typically infect avian species, so efficient personto-person spread could happen if the H5N1 virus reassorts, or exchanges genes, with circulating human influenza viruses giving rise to a virus with the H5 HA in a gene constellation that confers the property of transmissibility
Summary
The establishment and spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses of the H5N1 subtype in birds and coincident infections in humans since 2003 have raised concerns that we may be facing an influenza pandemic caused by an H5N1 influenza virus. Laboratory studies have found that reassortant viruses that derived the surface glycoprotein genes from an H5N1 virus and internal protein genes from an H3N2 influenza A virus were not efficiently transmitted and were somewhat less infectious to ferrets (an animal model for human influenza) than the wild-type H5N1 viruses [2].
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