Catastrophic flu virus of 1918 is decoded

USA TODAY, October, 2005 by Steve Sternberg

Scientists have pieced together the 1918 flu virus, resurrecting for the first time the cause of a pandemic that killed tens of millions worldwide.

Two research teams report separately today that the virus, which was re-created using genetic information from a 1918 victim exhumed from Alaskan permafrost in 1997, offers clues to the virulence of the avian flu strain that has killed 65 people in Southeast Asia and is the focus of a global meeting of health experts today in Washington, D.C.

Doctors say the research might provide information that could help prevent the next pandemic. "We have to understand much better how pandemics like this evolve their virulence," says Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Like avian flu, the 1918 virus is closer to the current bird flu viruses than those adapted to pigs or humans. Studies in mice suggest that it's ...