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A new strain of swine flu virus (H1N1) that has the potential to become a pandemic has been identified in China by scientists. It is infecting Chinese pigs. Currently it is not pandemic, but the research paper has merely forewarned of the possibility that the G4 virus might emerge into a pandemic in the future.
Named G4 EA H1N1, the swine flu strain has genes similar to those in the virus that caused the 2009 flu pandemic.
The researchers are concerned that it could mutate further so that it can spread easily from person to person, and trigger a global outbreak.
The last pandemic flu the world encountered – the swine flu outbreak of 2009 – was less deadly than initially feared.
The study was published in the US science journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PANS).
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