Prairie Mary sends this link to a story suggesting another complication in the unfolding Bird Flu story: some people may be more susceptible to H5N1, genetically.
"Of the 205 reported cases of human infections since late 2003, many have involved blood relatives, such as father and children, mothers and daughters. Of the total infections, 113 people died in nine countries.
" "There have been family clusters. So there has to be certainly a genetic aspect to it," Robert Webster of the St Jude Children's Research Hospital told a bird flu conference organized by the Lancet medical journal in Singapore."
This is not actually all that surprising-- if genetic susceptibility were not a factor in survival, pandemics would long since have wiped out the human species.
2 comments:
We found the recent entry in your blog, related to the Bird Flu virus, to be thoughtful and well researched and have today added the More Flu entry of your blog, to the "Best Bird Flu Blogs:.." section of our web site: www.birdflubreakingnews.com .
Your entry could well be a help, in providing a balance against some of our less than serious, but never the less interesting posts:)
Thank you for this and we hope that we will have many further contributions from you.
The Best Bird Flu Blogs team.
www.birdflubreakingnews.com
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