Dear All
Please see news in Science below. It appears that with as small as three amino acid mutations, avian flu virus could be airborne and spread to mammals without any intermediate host. In this case, we are perhaps glad that there is an eight-month long debate on this possibility !
Sowdhamini
Public at Last, H5N1 Study Offers Insight Into Virus's Possible Path to
Pandemic
Summary
Please see news in Science below. It appears that with as small as three amino acid mutations, avian flu virus could be airborne and spread to mammals without any intermediate host. In this case, we are perhaps glad that there is an eight-month long debate on this possibility !
Sowdhamini
Science 22 June 2012:
Vol. 336 no. 6088 pp. 1494-1497
DOI: 10.1126/science.336.6088.1494
Vol. 336 no. 6088 pp. 1494-1497
DOI: 10.1126/science.336.6088.1494
- News & Analysis
Avian Influenza
Public at Last, H5N1 Study Offers Insight Into Virus's Possible Path to
Pandemic
Summary
Depending on your point of
view, the study that appears on page 1534 of
this week's issue of Science marks another good week for public health
experts trying to protect a vulnerable world from a new influenza pandemic—or
for future bioterrorists bent on unleashing one. The paper describes how a
handful of mutations might give the H5N1 avian influenza virus, which typically
infects birds, the potential to move easily between mammals and touch off a
human flu pandemic. It appears after more than 8 months of often fierce
international debate over whether the results should be made public—and whether
researchers should have conducted the experiments at all.
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