Jude Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, used reverse genetics to produce a vaccine against the H5N1 avian flu virus.
Sculptor Lynne Yamamoto, better known for giant installations of pineapple plantations, was recently building a porcelain version of the avian flu virus, below a tower of toilets.
International public-health officials say they are as concerned about the coronavirus as they are about the new H7N9 avian flu virus that recently began sickening people in eastern China.
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His group will attempt to nail down exactly how many mutations - and which - are sufficient to make the H5N1 avian flu virus airborne, and whether these particular mutations can also make other bird flu viruses airborne.
But the virus doesn't appear to notably sicken infected birds, unlike H5N1, another avian-flu virus that is deadly in birds and occasionally infects people.
Now the same scientists in the Netherlands (including Osterhaus) are now creating the avian flu killer virus in the laboratories.
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Flavonoids and flu: Two plant-based flavonoids disease-fighting compounds found in many foods significantly impaired the infectious activity of H5N1 avian-flu virus in laboratory experiments and may form the basis of future influenza treatments, a report in Antiviral Research says.
This is true of the flu, hepatitis and AIDS. With the avian flu, we've modeled the virus on supercomputers, and we think we understand why it binds deep in the lungs--it's not communicable--you don't cough it up.
The H7N9 virus, a form of avian flu not before seen in humans, was discovered in pigeons being sold in the market.
There have been 11 laboratory-confirmed cases of the H7N9 virus, a form of avian flu which had not been seen before in humans.
H5 virus which is responsible for avian flu, a disease that has forced a mass slaughter of poultry in many countries and could, if it mutates, cause a deadly epidemic among humans.
But we have analysed the potential killer virus against the history of the 2009 Swine Flu and where a drugs cure for a future avian human-to-human killer virus will come far too late.
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The authorities appear to have learned the lessons of previous deadly virus outbreaks such as the H5N1 avian flu and Sars (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), and this time around have been quick to share information with the WHO.
Because of the virus subtype, it is less likely that avian flu would become transmissible from person to person, but still possible, said Dr. William Short at the division of infectious diseases at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
When the avian flu first surfaced in 1997, the big unknown was whether the virus could be transmitted from human to human.
This is less deadly than the previous avian flu outbreak in China six years ago (that H5N1 bird flu virus killed more than 300 people after spreading from China to other countries in 2006).
The virus, a hybrid of swine, avian and human flu, can jump from person to person with relative ease.
At Fouchier's facilities in the Netherlands, employees who work on avian flu wear "moon suits" and there's always a barrier between them and the virus, Fouchier said.
Citigroup's March report, entitled "Avian Flu: Science, Scenarios and Stock Ideas, " creates a road map for investors should the virus, also known as H5N1, evolve into a form that can spread between humans.
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