Worrying Traits of H7N9 Bird Flu Strain Concern Experts

[editing is mine]
by Kathy Jones on  April 06, 2013

Experts say that a mutated bird flu virus that has killed six people in China displays worrying traits that warrant high vigilance.

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"I am cautiously worried," virologist John Oxford of the Queen Mary University of London told AFP.

"If there were four cases in Shanghai, I would be much less concerned, but because it is so geographically widespread I think it is trying to tell us something.

"It is not a deadly virus for chickens so it could spread in chickens without anyone knowing it. I suspect it's probably wider than we think."

-snip-

"Any influenza that jumps from an animal species to a human has pandemic potential," Alan Hampson, chairman of the Australian Influenza Specialist Group, said in a statement issued by the Science Media Centre.

"If it learns to spread in humans, if it actually acquires that ability, then it's a high likelihood that it will become pandemic."

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