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Scientists Determine Structure of 1918 Flu Virus

Posted by timothy on from the reconstruction-junction dept.

Elusive_Cure writes "NIMR scientists have solved an 85-year old riddle by determining the structure of the flu virus which jumped from birds to humans in 1918 killing more than 20 million people worldwide. This is the same virus that took more lives than World War I and became the largest and deadliest influenza outbreak in recorded history."

2 of 32 comments (clear)

  1. I thought it was caused more by social conditions by GonzoDave · · Score: 4, Interesting

    postwar, rather than any inherent lethality

  2. What Sample? by waldoj · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I read Gina Kolata's Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic] a couple of years ago, so I'm quite interested to find out from where the sample was acquired. Kolata describes a couple of efforts to extract samples, one from the body of a woman buried in a lead-lined coffin, another from the body of a miner buried deep under once-frozen tundra near the Arctic Circle, in North America. Neither panned out.

    So, where'd they finally get the sample from?

    -Waldo Jaquith