Chinese virus sample failure raises bird flu epidemic risk

CHINA may cause a global pandemic with the latest strain of a deadly bird flu virus by failing to share samples with the UK, experts have warned.

Requests by UK researchers to Chinese authorities for samples of the evolving avian influenza virus, known as H7N9, have so far been ignored, The Daily Telegraph has learnt.

The news comes after revelations earlier this week by the US government that China has, for more than a year, refused its requests to share lab samples of the same strain. To date there have been 1,625 cases of H7N9 – a virus that usually affects poultry – in humans, including a spike in cases in 2017.

Most people who develop infections from H7N9 become severely ill – with up to 40 per cent of cases resulting in death. The number of cases prompted US researchers to request samples of the virus from Chinese authorities.

The virus is thought to be only a few mutations away from being able to spread freely in humans and was said by Jonathan Van-tam, England’s deputy chief medical officer, earlier this year to be a likely candidate for the next global flu pandemic.

“If the virus is going to jump, you want to be ahead of the game with a vaccine,” said Prof Ian Jones, an expert in virology at the University of Reading. “If the virus were to jump, it would become a pandemic strain.”

Under World Health Organisation rules, countries are required to share flu viruses that have the potential to cause pandemics but China has given no reason for its failure to deliver the samples. The Worldwide Influenza Centre in London said: “There is a better feeling of confidence with the actual virus in hand.”