A person infected with a pig flu strain has made a full recovery, but officials are investigating where they caught the virus and whether they may have passed it to other people
By Clare Wilson
27 November 2023
Flu viruses can occasionally jump from pigs to humans
VWPics/imageBROKER/Shutterstock
English health officials are tracing the contacts of a person in North Yorkshire who seems to have caught a flu virus from pigs called influenza A(H1N2)v, the first time such a transmission has happened in the UK.
The person had a mild illness and has since fully recovered, but public health doctors are investigating how they caught it, as viruses that cross from animals to people have the potential to cause pandemics.
However, this strain of flu has crossed from pigs to humans in other countries on 50 reported occasions since 2005, without triggering any such event.
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Paul Hunter at the University of East Anglia, UK, says it is reassuring that previous infections in humans caused by this type of virus don’t seem to have been more severe than seasonal flu strains.
“It clearly needs to be kept an eye on, but I’m not particularly concerned about it,” he says. If this virus does start spreading between people, this year’s flu vaccine should give partial protection against it, he says.
The virus in the North Yorkshire case is different to the previous human cases of influenza A(H1N2), but is similar to viruses in UK pigs, says the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).