1918 Flu pandemic unlocked!

[HOZ]

Researchers unlock secrets of 1918 flu pandemic

If you are wondering what a real pandemic can do...50 million killed!

Researchers have found out what made the 1918 flu pandemic so deadly -- a group of three genes that lets the virus invade the lungs and cause pneumonia. They mixed samples of the 1918 influenza strain with modern seasonal flu viruses to find the three genes and said their study might help in the development of new flu drugs.
The discovery, published in Tuesday's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could also point to mutations that might turn ordinary flu into a dangerous pandemic strain.

[octothorp]

Interesting development. If anyone wants background into the 1918 outbreak and the research into it, here's a great article from the New Yorker. I remember reading this almost a decade ago before any of the more recent avian flu hysteria, and it completely freaked me out.

http://www.gladwell.com/1997/1997_09_29_a_flu.htm

[Kybosh]

I have nothing constructive to add other than that particular journal (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) likes to call themselves PNAS. I giggle like a school schoolgirl every time a colleague tells me they enjoy the articles in PNAS or that they prefer PNAS.

[REDVAN]

I have mild asthma. I'd be screwed. Maybe I should have gotten the flu shot?

[SeeGeeWhy]

Anyone else concerned that they might be building the next Andromeda Strain?

[Locke]

Originally Posted by SeeGeeWhy

Anyone else concerned that they might be building the next Andromeda Strain?

Anyone else concerned that they've already built the next Andromeda Strain and while we're all worrying about they're building something worse already?

Wheres that tinfoil hat.....

[Rhettzky]

[chris lindberg]

Scary stuff, wash your hands everyone, all the time.

H5N1 is circulating among poultry in Asia, Europe and parts of Africa. It rarely affects humans but has killed 247 of the 391 people infected since 2003