Avian flu linked to 1918 pandemic

Findings published in the journals Science and Nature yesterday by researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conclude that a variant of avian flu was responsible for the great pandemic of 1918, which is estimated to have killed 50 million people worldwide. In a series of a controversial experiments, researchers were able to resurrect the 1918 virus in a lab and study its characteristics. Their conclusion: the virus circulating in poultry populations in Asia is capable of doing the same things as the 1918 virus.

- see this article from The New York Times

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