New study show surprising diversity of H5N1 virus

CIDRAP has posted a summary of a new study of H5N1 in Vietnam.

"H5N1 influenza viruses found in chickens seized at Vietnam's border with China in 2008 show a surprising level of genetic diversity, suggesting that the viruses are evolving rapidly and raising questions about disease surveillance and the effectiveness of prepandemic H5N1 vaccines, according to a team of Vietnamese and US scientists.

The findings suggest that the subgroup of viruses identified in the study has been circulating in the region either undetected or unreported for a "considerable amount of time," the report says. The viruses are in clade 7, a group that has not been found in an outbreak since one in China's Shanxi province in 2006. "

As a background for those of you who may not know much about the H5N1 viruses and what a clade is, I suggest the wikipedia entry on H5N1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H5N1

To read the whole entry from CIDRAP, go to:

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/avianflu/news/apr1409vietnam.html