Woo hoo, new flu!
Tired of swine flu? Good news! "A patient who saw a doctor in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, is suspected of having contracted a new strain of influenza, Nagoya city officials said Friday." Before everyone runs off half-cocked in all directions, can we just agree right now that we're going to call this one "Aichi Breaky Heart"?
Easy, now.
Flu viruses mutate constantly and new strains emerge all the time. A flu virus has eight genes. Let's say a person is infected with a known strain of flu. Then, let's say, that person becomes infected with a flu virus from, say, a pig.
What happens is that the person's cells are tricked into replicating virus A and virus B and as the viral DNA is churned out, new, novel flu viruses are assembled from the 16 genes now present in the body.
Just because a virus is novel does not have any implications regarding its virulence. Could be mild. Could be a killer.
That said, "Aichi Breaky Heart" is amusing.
No, we will call it that Aichi Aichoos.
the Aichi Aichoos. fuckingfingers…
Aichi H1N1
Aichi Double Hockey Sticks.
Mt. Fluji