NEW STUDY REVEALS TIES BETWEEN GENETIC VARIANT AND SEVERITY OF FLU IN CHINESE PEOPLE

NEW STUDY REVEALS TIES BETWEEN GENETIC VARIANT AND SEVERITY OF FLU IN CHINESE PEOPLE

courtesy Reuters

New studies are bringing to light a connection between the severity of flu cases and a genetic variant in Chinese individuals.

In recent times many ethnic Chinese were found to have cases of flu that were more severe than in other parts of the world.  Finding what caused this, scientists surmised, could very well help in changing how people are treated.

The gene alteration, which is very rare in Causasian populations (<1%), has been successfully linked to the severity of flu cases. 

Research was done by collecting samples during the 2009-2010 swine flu pandemic.  Those individuals who were found to have discrete complications in the respiratory system and/or kidney failure were found to have a 69% incidence of the genetic variant.  Of the mild cases in the Chinese population only 25% possessed the gene.

In effect the genetic variant does not mean that each carrier individual will have the most severe form of the illness during a flu epidemic.  It just means that those carriers are more prone to experience the severest form of the illness.  However the gene itself does not make one more susceptible to catching the flu.  

Unfortunately the gene variant seems to make the carriers also more susceptible to be severely ill from other infections such as SARS and Dengue fever.  The silver lining, if there is one, is that when people recover, the individuals who have the gene variant seem to have a stronger immunity from the illness from which they recovered.

The caution here is that it is not that the bug gets 'stronger' in those individuals, but that the individual's own immune system responds more forcefully against the bug, which can cause organ damage or respiratory failure.

Such information could be valuable in the future in order to determine what populations should be prioritized for vaccinations. The variant in fact is not exclusive to the ethnic Chinese.

In addition, if and when timely genetic testing becomes available, the treatment could include a pre-screening for the variant before a course of medication is prescribed.

Source: AP press 2.3.13