First published photo of avian influenza virus

Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyeter on November 7 released the first close-up photos of the H5N1 avian influenza virus by photographer and scientific researcher Lennart Nilsson.

The photos showed the H5N1 virus as blue spheres looking for ways to destroy pink cells (see photo below).

The virus was taken with a microscope by Mr. Lennart Nilsson, with a sample provided by the World Health Organization, taken from two Hong Kong parents who were killed by the flu two years ago. Earlier, Mr. Nilsson had offered to take samples in the US lab for shooting but was refused.

Photographer Lennart Nilsson, 83, is a scientist at the Karolinska Research Institute based in Stockholm, Sweden. He was best known for his photograph of a human conception, published in the book "A Man Is Born" (A Child Is Born), published in 1965.

Photos taken by Mr. Lennart Nilsson were published in the Dagens Nyheter daily on November 7