In Russia, the world's first case of human infection with influenza A(H5N8) has been identified, the creation of a vaccine has begun!

Vector has started creating a vaccine against H5N8 avian influenza

In the scientific center "Vector" began to create a vaccine against avian influenza H5N8. This is reported by RIA Novosti.

According to the director of the center, Rinat Maksyutov, the rapid decoding of the outbreak of the disease allowed us to start developing a test system and a "candidate vaccine strain" today.

Earlier, the head of Rospotrebnadzor Anna Popova said that seven employees of a poultry farm in the south of Russia for the first time in the world identified a new strain of avian flu. According to her, scientists from the Vector center found the virus in the genetic material of Russians.

The second was the Russian vaccine against coronavirus is "Apiversion" from the center Vector. It is developed on the basis of artificially synthesized proteins. The first in the country registered "Sputnik V" from the Gamalei Center. Earlier, on February 20, Russia registered the third coronavirus vaccine — "KoviVak", developed at the Chumakov Center.


In Russia, the world's first case of human infection with influenza A (H5N8)
Avian flu is not yet transmitted from person to person, said the head of Rospotrebnadzor Anna Popova

MOSCOW, February 20. /TASS/. A new type of avian flu has been detected in seven employees of a poultry farm in southern Russia, the head of Rospotrebnadzor, Anna Popova, said at a briefing on Saturday.

"Scientists of the Vector center have isolated the genetic material of this type of avian influenza from seven employees of a poultry farm in the south of the Russian Federation, where an outbreak was registered among the poultry population in December 2020," she said. The head of Rospotrebnadzor noted that this was the first confirmed case of human infection with the avian influenza A(H5N8) virus in the world.
According to her, all measures to protect people and animals were carried out in a short time, all risks were minimized and this situation did not receive further development.

"All the people, all the seven people I'm talking about today, are doing well, their clinical course was very light. But at the same time, our scientists were able to see changes in the human body and the immune response to the encounter with this virus in all seven employees of this poultry farm. Today they feel good, and at that moment they felt good, the disease ended quite quickly, " she said.

Human-to-human transmission
Cases of transmission of a new type of avian influenza virus from person to person have not yet been recorded, Popova said.

"So far, we see that the new pathogen of avian influenza A (H5N8) is able to be transmitted from birds to humans - it has overcome the interspecific barrier. But today, this variant of the flu virus is not transmitted from person to person," Popova said.

According to the head of Rospotrebnadzor, "time will tell how quickly subsequent mutations will allow him to overcome this barrier."

"This scientific discovery of our scientists, Institute "Vector" Rospotrebnadzor can prevent researchers, practitioners, and the public and citizens around the world to take timely and necessary measures to counter the new threat on much any of the new high level of counteraction and prevention. We have time for this today, " said the Chief sanitary Doctor of Russia.

The head of Rospotrebnadzor also said that Russia has sent information to the World Health Organization (WHO) about the first case of infection of people with a new type of avian flu.

"Data on the world's first case of human infection with influenza A(H5N8) has already been sent to the World Health Organization. This happened a few days ago, as soon as we became absolutely confident in our results, " she said. "Vector of Rospotrebnadzor has already placed in the international GISAID database the data of full-genome sequencing of the A(H5N8) virus with those mutations that allowed it to overcome the interspecific barrier," Popova added.

The main task of science
Popova said that the big task of science is to track the interspecific transition of the virus in time, as happened with the discovery in Russia of the world's first case of human infection with avian influenza.

"An important problem of today's epidemiological science and practice is the control, monitoring and study of the possible interspecific transition of various microorganisms, primarily viruses, from animals to humans. We know of several such examples, and one of the most recent is the example of the coronavirus, COVID-19, which came to humans, apparently through an animal. We have examples of swine flu and avian flu, and it is a big task of science to see the beginning of this interspecific transition in time. All the previous cases, unfortunately, were recorded only when a person started to get sick and get seriously ill, " she said.

Popova explained that one of the tasks of Rospotrebnadzor is to track the pathogens of avian influenza, control them, in order to quickly and early identify the beginning of the interspecific transition.