Free Republic

The World Health Organization has detailed the first evidence that the deadly bird flu virus mutated and spread from person to person within a family, but experts said Friday the genetic change does not increase the threat of a pandemic. The investigation said the H5N1 mutation occurred in a 10-year-old Indonesian boy who was part of the largest cluster ever reported. The index case is believed to have been infected by poultry. She then likely passed it to the boy and five other blood relatives. The boy is then thought to have infected his father, whose samples showed the same...

PORTLAND, Ore. — A new technology offers advance warning of the ability of a virus to infect humans. The technique could help stem the spread of bird flu, according to the inventors of glycan microarray technology. The Consortium for Functional Glycomics, a project of the National Institute of Health's National Institute of General Medical Sciences, is making the technology widely available to researchers for free. The microarray can pinpoint pathogens in a few hours that can infect humans. "Its like any other medical microarray, but instead of depositing little spots of DNA, we put down carbohydrates called glycans which virus...