By NewsDesk  @bactiman63

In a follow-up report on a second human H1N2v influenza case reported in Paraná state, Brazil, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a Disease Outbreak News report Monday.

Image by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay

The case is a 4 year-old female who lives on a farm which also functions as a swine slaughter in Irati municipality, Paraná state.

On 16 November 2020, the case had illness onset with a fever, cough, coryza, headache and dyspnea, and was provided ambulatory care on the same day at Darcy Vargas Hospital. She was treated with medication for fever and headache and has recovered. No symptomatic contacts were found among the case’s family.

The Parana State Laboratory detected an unsubtypeable influenza A virus and the samples were sent to the Oswaldo Cruz Institute (Fiocruz), the National Influenza Centre (NIC) in Rio de Janeiro for complete viral genome sequencing, where influenza A(H1N2)v virus was confirmed on 14 December.

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The A(H1N2)v virus is genetically different from other variant viruses previously detected in humans in Brazil in 2015 and in April 2020, based on preliminary genetic analysis conducted by Fiocruz NIC. The preliminary analysis shows that all genes are most similar to those from currently circulating influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses, except for neuraminidase which is most similar to those from influenza A(H3N2) viruses. Further characterization of the virus is underway. All influenza type A viruses detected by sentinel surveillance and viruses submitted from non-sentinel sites (hospital and peripheral laboratories) in Brazil are subtyped by properties of hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N) surface proteins. To date, no other human infections with variant viruses have been reported in Brazil.

This case is the third human infection of influenza A(H1N2)v virus reported in Parana state and in Brazil. The first case was detected in 2015 and the second in April 2020. These two confirmed cases lived in rural areas with pig farming and one case worked in a pig slaughterhouse.