The 1918 virus is bird flu

After successfully replicating the pandemic flu virus in 1918, American scientists came to a shocking conclusion: the 1918 virus also belongs to the bird flu family, which claimed about 50 million lives in the past. Around the world. But H5N1 is much more toxic.

The 1918 " death " virus revival has just been published in two scientific journals of Science and Nature. The new achievement has a great significance when people are still groping for the secret of the 1918 pandemic: why the killer has a rapid movement around the world, why people die right away after 1-2 days of symptoms and factors that make it so destructive.

In 1998, a number of scientists from many countries around the world embarked on a special project, including the excavation of the remains of people killed and recreated by the 1918 Spanish flu virus. the culprit's gene. It took a long time to be ready to dig the cemeteries of the people of Spizberegn Island and a village in Alaska that seemed to disappear before the sweep of the virus. In addition, they had a medical record of US soldiers killed that year.

The team, led by Ann Raid and Jeffery Taubenberger of the US Army Pathology Research Institute, risked applying genetic techniques to replicate the virus after building eight genes of the killer. . Work is carried out in a special laboratory, ensuring absolute safety.

The result is really unexpected: Virus 1918 belongs to the sub-strain H1N1 and is the product of a sudden process of the gene of bird flu. The mutations that the 1918 virus helped to adapt to the human body (unlike the Asian epidemics of 1957 and Hong Kong in 1968 were those of human and chicken flu viruses).

The team compared the 1918 virus revived with the current strain of the same type and the H5N1 strain - the focal point that is confusing the risk of a new pandemic. The results showed that the 1918 virus contained an optimal genome, which helped it replicate quickly in lung tissue. According to Dr. Anna Sominina from the St.Petersburg influenza center (Russia), that is why infected people die from lung diseases such as edema, hemorrhage, bronchitis . poisoned by the current H5N1 strain. Even H5N1 subtypes are able to attack many organs other than the lungs. Moreover, it is inert to the current popular anti-influenza drugs in the world. The level of 1918 virus death is about 1%, while that of H5N1 ranges from 50 to 100% in many different countries.

One notable point is that the predecessor of the 1918 virus became poisonous after undergoing 10 important mutations in genes, allowing it to easily get used to the human body. Today, scientists have identified five key mutations of the H5N1 virus.

According to experts, the success of the American team is extremely important, helping people better prepare for a devastating pandemic that is approaching, creating momentum for the introduction of vaccines and rapid detection systems. new viruses.

While everything has not yet reached its destination , from the virus transformation activities as well as the development of human drugs and vaccines, scientists recommend that people need to be more attentive and active in exercising. , walking a lot, vitamin supplements, wearing pants more like the weather, flu vaccination. Especially away from work and school once "hearing" sees an early respiratory infection begin.

My Linh ( according to Pravda )