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In October 2003, an epidemic of influenza in chickens began sweeping through several countries in the far east (Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, China, South Korea, Cambodia). The virus is H5N1. The H5 molecule is common among bird influenza viruses but has not been seen on flu viruses that cause human epidemics. However, sporadic human cases of H5N1 (with an alarmingly-high fatality rate) have been occurring ever since.
So far, person-to-person spread seems to account for only a few cases. Most cases seem to have been acquired from close contact with infected birds.
However, there are reports that the virus has been found in pigs. This is very troubling as simultaneous infection of a pig by a human strain could provide the opportunity for genetic reassortment between the two strains with the creation of an H5 virus able to spread rapidly between humans.
Work is going forward on an H5N1 vaccine. However, this is a virus that kills chickens so it is not surprising that it does not grow well in the eggs used for vaccine production.
 The "Spanish" Flu
For almost a decade scientists have preserved lung tissue of a U.S. soldier who died from influenza in 1918;
In the 6 October 2005 issue of the journal Nature, they reported completing the task.
Why did they bothered? Because:
The knowledge of the genome of the 1918 virus may provide clues to help us avoid or at least prepare us for another pandemic. In fact, its genome turns out to resemble bird flu genomes more closely than those of human strains. If a bird flu virus could create the pandemic of 1918, what may we expect from the current rapid spread of bird flu?
But even with all of its genes now completely sequenced, why the 1918 strain was so deadly remains a mystery. But deadly it is. They have even been able to replace the 8 genes of a laboratory strain of flu virus with all 8 genes of the 1918 strain (using strict biosafety containment procedures!). The resulting virus kills mice faster than any other human flu virus tested.
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