Flashback: Scientists Resurrect Deadly Flu Virus

[Fireweed247]

Scientists have resurrected one of the world's great killers in the laboratory, hoping that the genetic secrets within the 1918 influenza virus will help them predict and combat the next major microbial threat to mankind.

In a contained laboratory at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, scientists used reverse genetics to re-create the 1918 flu virus that killed 20 million to 50 million people, according to studies released Wednesday. Scientists say that although the 1918 strain probably does not represent a significant human health threat today, it can provide insight into dangerous types of contemporary influenza, such as the highly lethal avian strain now circulating among birds, which some scientists fear could evolve into the next catastrophic pandemic.

"This is truly a spectacular event," Dr. John Shanley, professor of medicine and director of infectious diseases at the University of Connecticut Health Center, said of the studies published in the journals Nature and Science. "To resurrect a virus and gain useful scientific information from it is remarkable."

An analysis of the genetic structure of the 1918 strain, also known as Spanish flu, reveals that it was an avian influenza, like the current H5N1 strain that has infected poultry and migratory birds in Asia and caused scores of human deaths.

The 1918 virus's jump from birds to humans, perhaps through intermediary animals such as pigs, was different from the two other outbreaks of pandemic influenza that occurred in the 20th century. Those pandemic strains in 1957 and 1968 occurred when novel influenza genes mixed with existing human influenzas.

http://www.uchc.edu/ocomm/newsarchive/news05/oct05/fluvirus.html

[Mojorabbit]

1. I believe we are immune to that one now. nt