New genetic-mapping technology IDs deadly virus

USA TODAY, February, 2008 by Robert Davis

A team of scientists unveiled a playbook Wednesday in the fight against infectious disease outbreaks: genetic mapping by computers to find bugs that slip past other medical tests.

The process, experts say, should facilitate much faster responses to deadly outbreaks.

"There is no doubt that this technology is going to play a major role in our defenses," says Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The coordinated global response, he says, showed "the way it should work" when a new killer bug emerges.

Fauci and other experts are particularly concerned about the threat of a pandemic as cases of bird flu mount around the world.

"This is new technology that has spectacular power," he says. "It's...