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The second possibility is one that virologists are loath to discuss openly but are definitely considering in private: that an Ebola virus could mutate to become transmissible through the air. You can now get Ebola only through direct contact with bodily fluids. But viruses like Ebola are notoriously sloppy in replicating, meaning the virus entering one person may be genetically different from the virus entering the next. The current Ebola virus’s hyper-evolution is unprecedented; there has been more human-to-human transmission in the past four months than most likely occurred in the last 500 to 1,000 years. Each new infection represents...

Scientists have created a life-threatening virus that closely resembles the 1918 Spanish flu strain that killed an estimated 50m people in an experiment labelled as "crazy" by opponents. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison used a technique called reverse genetics to build the virus from fragments of wild bird flu strains. They then mutated the virus to make it airborne to spread more easily from one animal to another. "The work they are doing is absolutely crazy. The whole thing is exceedingly dangerous," said Lord May, the former President of the Royal Society and one time chief science adviser to...

Flu experts have made a mutant version of the 1918 “Spanish flu” virus that killed tens of millions of people, sparking a new debate over whether such work is too dangerous. Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin says the experiments are important for helping scientists understand how new pandemics start, and for designing better flu vaccines.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpzxNoLZx0w

Results from 34 swine flu victims in New York were released by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in a December 7 bulletin. The swine flu symptoms and effects on the lungs of the victims were similar to the effects of the 1918 Spanish flu, which had an extremely high mortality rate around the world. Other reports of H1N1 infections deep in the lungs have been reported around the world, including Ukraine, China, Brazil, Norway, and the United States, in Iowa and Utah. These infections have been linked to a change in the receptor binding domain of the virus. Swine...

The body of Sir Mark Sykes - who died nearly 90 years ago from Spanish Flu - has been exhumed from his grave in the church of St Mary's, Sledmere, in a bid to help prevent a modern flu pandemic. The exhumation, on the morning of September 8, was carried out by a team led by one of the world's top virologists Prof John Oxford - Professor of Virology at Barts and The London, Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry. Prof Oxford previously told the Driffield Times: "If we can get samples, that will be wonderful for my team...

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,...

MADISON -- In a study of non-human primates infected with the influenza virus that killed 50 million people in 1918, an international team of scientists has found a critical clue to how the virus killed so quickly and efficiently. Writing this week (Jan. 18, 2007) in the journal Nature, a team led by University of Wisconsin-Madison virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka reveals how the 1918 virus - modern history's most savage influenza strain - unleashes an immune response that destroys the lungs in a matter of days, leading to death. The finding is important because it provides insight into how the virus...

The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than the Great War, known today as World War I (WWI), at somewhere between 20 and 40 million people. It has been cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history. More people died of influenza in a single year than in four-years of the Black Death Bubonic Plague from 1347 to 1351. Known as "Spanish Flu" or "La Grippe" the influenza of 1918-1919 was a global disaster. In the fall of 1918 the Great War in Europe was winding down and peace was on the...

Some folks suggested that we begin a thread similar to the Marsburg Surveillance Project for monitoring developments regarding Avian Flu.The purpose is to have an extended thread where those interested can post articles and comments as this story unfolds.If we're lucky, the story and this thread will fade away.

<p>WASHINGTON -- While official Washington has been poring over Harriet Miers' long-ago doings on the Dallas City Council and parsing the Byzantine comings and goings of the Fitzgerald grand jury, relatively unnoticed was perhaps the most momentous event of our lifetime -- what is left of it, as I shall explain. It was announced last week that American scientists have just created a living, killing copy of the 1918 ``Spanish'' flu.</p>

<p>While official Washington has been poring over Harriet Miers' long-ago doings on the Dallas City Council and parsing the Byzantine comings and goings of the Fitzgerald grand jury, relatively unnoticed was perhaps the most momentous event of our lifetime - what is left of it, as I shall explain. It was announced last week that American scientists have just created a living, killing copy of the 1918 "Spanish" flu. This is big. Very big.</p>

Scientists identify key factor in switch from birds to humans British scientists have solved a secret of an avian flu virus which killed up to 40 million people worldwide 86 years ago. They now know more about how a disease of birds switched to humans to trigger the most lethal outbreak in history. A team from the National Institute for Medical Research at Mill Hill, north London, used pathological samples taken from victims of the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918 to recreate the structure of a haemagglutinin protein vital in the leap between species. "This tells us more about the...

Details of how the Spanish flu virus that killed up to 50 million people in 1918 originated from a bird flu have been revealed by a study of the most destructive outbreak of disease in recorded history. Reassuringly, a reconstruction of parts of the extinct virus, also published in the journal, Science, suggests that the outbreak in Asia does not, at present, pose anything like the same threat. Because the virus kept key characteristics of its avian precursor, it could catch the human immune system off-guard, accounting for its high infectivity and the extraordinary mortality. The new understanding has come...

Bird flu virus claims 13th victim Agencies Tuesday February 3, 2004 A deadly strain of bird flu today took its 13th life when a seven-year-old Thai boy died in Bangkok after having tried to fight off the virus for more than a month. The boy, named by government officials as Virat Phraphong, from the chicken farming province of Suphanburi, had been suffering from pneumonia for a month before being put on a respirator at the Thai capital's children's hospital. Officials said that the dead boy's twin brother, who had briefly been hospitalised with suspected bird flu, had turned out not...

China's secret bird flu 'puts world at risk' By Adam Luck in Hong Kong (Filed: 18/01/2004) China is refusing to disclose the origins of a "bird flu" virus lethal to humans which could make Sars look like "a puff of smoke", say angry scientists and World Health Organisation officials. They fear that the country's notorious Guangdong province, from where the Sars virus began to spread last winter, could be the source of the flu, which has killed at least 13 people, most of them children, in Vietnam, South Korea and Japan in recent weeks. The Chinese authorities deny that the...

New bird flu could be worse than Sars The bird flu ravaging several east Asian countries - and which has been blamed for the deaths of at least three Vietnamese people - could precipitate a more serious global health crisis than Sars if it spreads by human contact, the World Health Organisation warned yesterday. The alarm came as Vietnam reported two more suspected cases and suggested that pigs could be involved in the transmission of the virus from chickens to humans. Millions of chickens and ducks have died or are being killed in Vietnam, Japan and South Korea, in efforts...

Lethal Virus from 1918 Genetically Reconstructed US Army scientists create "Spanish Flu" virus in laboratory - medical benefit questionable (Austin and Hamburg, 9 October 2003) – The 'Spanish Flu' influenza virus that killed 20-40 million people in 1918 is currently under reconstruction. Several genes of the extraordinarily lethal 1918 flu virus have been isolated and introduced into contemporary flu strains. These proved to be lethal for mice, while virus constructs with genes from a current flu virus types had hardly any effect. These experiments may easily be abused for military purposes, but provide little benefit from a medical or public...

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (news - web sites) may renew a warning against travel to Toronto if a feared upsurge in SARS (news - web sites) was confirmed in Canada's largest city and business capital, a WHO spokesman said on Wednesday. But there was "nothing automatic" about issuing a call to avoid unnecessary travel to Toronto, even if the suspected outbreak could push it further above some WHO trigger points for such alerts, spokesman Iain Simpson added. Canadian health officials said on Tuesday they were investigating 12 pneumonia patients at a Toronto clinic who had developed symptoms...

<p>We know what it is it. It is the SARS virus. But, to which virus family it belongs, we don't know yet," he added.</p> <p>Some researchers believe it is a new type of paramyxovirus, but studies from other labs suggest it may belong to another virus family.</p>