A new report published in BioEssays explains the nature of “the pandemic.”

The study questions the traditional understanding of the process by which at least two different strains of a virus (or different viruses), such as influenza combine to form a new subtype having a mixture of the surface antigens of the two original strains.

This process is known as an “antigenic shift.”

According to Professor Hans Dieter Klenk from Philipps-Universität Marburg: “H1N1 emerged in February 2009 in Mexico and swept around the globe within 6 months. The conventional ideal is that pandemics are fuelled by new strands which emerge in the human population, yet it was because H1N1 did not conform to this ideal that its spread was so unexpected.”

Professor Klenk’s continued: “It was widely believed that a pandemic occurs when a virus with a new HA, or a new HA and a new NA that are not recognised by the human immune system emerges and spreads throughout the population. [T]his is known as antigenic shift.”

The 2009 “H1N1” pandemic revealed such an antigenic shift can result from a shift within the lineages of the existing subtypes.

“There are 16 HA and 9 NA subtypes, which differ significantly, but contain multiple lineages that were always believed to be too similar to allow antigenic shift. However, this is exactly what occurred in 2009,” said Klenk. “From studying the influenza outbreaks of 1918, 1957 or 1977 it looks as if pandemics only occur when a new HA or NA subtype enters the population. This meant that vaccination against the previous viruses offered little protection against infection by the new strain. However, the 2009 outbreak overturns this rule, revealing that a pandemic may not depend on the introduction of a virus with a new HA subtype. This means future research should not simply monitor one or a few viruses and that plans to deal with pandemics must be flexible enough to handle the unexpected.”

Additional Source: AlphaGalileo.org