The Killer Flu

More scary news about the current strain of avian flu that might mutate into a virus capable of being transmitted from human to human.

The CDC has recreated the virus of the Spanish Flu pandemic that caused 50 million deaths in 1918-19 and has discovered it originated from a bird flu virus:

US scientists have found the 1918 virus shares genetic mutations with the bird flu virus now circulating in Asia.

The recreated virus isn't dangerous, since it's contained in a laboratory, and was developed to carry out experiments to further understand the biological properties that made it so virulent.

The researchers say these mutations may have helped the 1918 virus replicate more efficiently.

At this stage, they say the H5N1 strain shares only some, and not all, of these mutations.

But these mutations may be enough to increase the virus' virulence - and give it the potential to cause serious human infection without first combining with a known human flu strain.

The researchers believe the 1918 strain was probably entirely a bird flu virus that adapted to function in humans.

A final word of advise:

Professor John Oxford, an expert in virology at Queen Mary College, London, said the suggestion that the virus had the potential to jump between humans without first combining with a human virus made it even more of a threat.

"This study gives us an extra warning that H5N1 needs to be taken even more seriously than it has been up to now," he said.