- Argentina - Portal público de noticias de la República Argentina.
The Malbrán Institute succeeded in identifying the virus circulating in the country, which almost no differences recorded in the northern hemisphere. It is a breakthrough for the development of the vaccine.
Scientists at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, a branch of the National Laboratories and Institutes of Health (ANLIS) "Carlos Malbrán" managed to decode the complete genome of two influenza A virus H1N1 isolated from cases of severe respiratory illness that are occurring at present in Argentina, where no differences with other currently circulating in the northern hemisphere.
The viral sequences obtained will be made available to relevant national health authorities, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to develop a vaccine effective in preventing this disease.
"What we discovered specialists ANLIS-Malbrán that this genome is complete, do not find significant differences between the genomes found in other parts of the world as to say that this virus is different," explained Dr. Fernando Avellaneda, secretary Policy , Regulation and Institutions of the Ministry of Health of the Nation.
The official emphasized that the work of researchers is very important because it also serves as a basic input to identify the amount of strain that has the World Health Organization, the one that provides information to the laboratories so they can produce shots. "
Finally, adding that disclosure also serves as a basic input to physicians in daily attendance, especially those that serve seriously ill patients to understand that they are faced with the same virus but with a different patient who suffers consequences for different things Today, there are not so clear. "
Background research
Early last May, and from the identification of the first positive case of Influenza A (H1N1) in Argentina, began to work on the characterization of the genome of these viruses, from the collection of sequences of segments HA, NA, NS and M seven virus recovered in cell cultures.
Preliminary analysis of the sequences obtained to suggest that the virus circulating in Argentina has a low number of changes of amino acids, when the comparison with other viruses circulating in other parts of the world. Was not detected nor the presence of changes that might generate resistance to the antiviral oseltamivir, used to treat the disease.
The professionals who are part of the Department of Virology Institute Malbrán, led by Dr. Elsa Baumeister, responsible for this research with the cooperation of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University (USA), as well as with the cooperation of private companies (Quintiles and Roche 454 Life Sciences). Both research centers are part of networks of WHO and PAHO to study these viruses. The studies also took part, Dr. Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University and Columbia Dr. Viviana Molina, Director, INEI-ANLIS.
Through the rapid collaboration among public health institutions, academic and private, are able to obtain results that may be used as a basis to try to respond to the concerns generated in the severity of the influenza epidemic in Argentina.
According to virologists who worked on the investigation will be necessary to obtain a greater number of genomes and pathogenicity studies in models of cell cultures and animals to get a definitive answer as to the pathogenicity of the strains circulating in our country.
This information is preliminary results achieved within a broader project working between two institutions which provides for the molecular study of more strains obtained during the outbreak and in particular cases of severe or fatal.
Source: Ministry of Health.
Automatic translation by Google Translator.
