HOW TO STOP A PANDEMIC

摘要

A few months ago, when researchers analyzed the genome of the devastating 1918 influenza, they found it to be a direct descendant of a common bird-flu strain, with just a few disparate amino acids here and there. The finding cast a chilling new light on the most lethal modern bird flu, known as H5N1, which has already killed at least 70 people in Asia but isn't transmissible between humans— yet. With just a bit of mutation, could H5N1 turn contagious and become the 21 st century's Black Plague?