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| Avian flu virus may be evolving, experts say |
| 2005-05-02 |
| Ominous changes in the behaviour and the makeup of the H5N1 avian influenza virus in northern Vietnam has the flu world worried the virus may be getting better at infecting humans. In recent months the virus has sparked increasing numbers of small clusters of cases, suggesting more frequent occurrences of limited person-to-person spread. As well, it appears not to be killing as many of its human hosts - a biological change that cannot be assumed to be an entirely positive sign. "Both of those observations, if they're true, might indicate that the virus is evolving to be a more efficient human pathogen. A more effective human pathogen," says Dr. Scott Dowell, the senior official in Southeast Asia for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. "We've been following that very, very closely and continue to be quite concerned that that may be the case . . . . (But) there is frank scientific uncertainty about what it really means." Dowell is director of the CDC's international emerging infections program based in Thailand... |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |