Study links current seasonal flu with 1918 pandemic virus

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https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2022/05/11/seasonal-flu-1918-pandemic/7541652203272/

Today's H1N1 flu -- commonly known as the swine flu -- appears to be a direct descendent of the influenza virus that caused the catastrophic 1918 pandemic, a new analysis shows.

Genetic data drawn from 1918 flu samples recently discovered in Germany suggests that all genomic segments of the seasonal H1N1 flu could be directly descended from that terrible initial strain, the researchers said.

"The subsequent seasonal flu virus that went on circulating after the pandemic might well have directly evolved from the pandemic virus entirely," said senior researcher Sebastien Calvignac-Spencer, an evolutionary biologist with the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin.

If correct, this new theory contradicts other hypotheses that have held that today's seasonal flu emerged through different viruses sharing their genetic code, the study authors noted.

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