Well the next potential pandemic is being warned about in Europe. In 2006 there was Bird flu, in 2008 Swine flu and now in 2012 there is possibly Seal flu. A FLU strain that has killed hundreds of seals could infect humans, experts have warned. The virus targets the respiratory system just like bird and swine flu, tests found.
People with asthma and low immunity are most at risk.
The flu was found in seals washed up in New England, US last year and has already killed at least 200.
The H3N8 virus started life as bird flu but jumped species. Now US scientists are trying to find out how it spreads so it can be stopped.
Research leader Anne Moscona of New York’s Cornell Medical School said: “There is a concern that we have a new mammalian-transmissible virus to which humans haven’t been exposed yet.”
Some 600 people died across the UK in the swine flu outbreak in 2009 and 2010 after it infected humans in contact with pigs then passed from person to person.
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