(Image: Andrzej Krauze)
WHEN bird flu first burst onto the world stage in 2004, virologists were quick to warn of a deadly pandemic. That it has not happened yet has led to accusations they were crying wolf, and questions over whether the virus is even capable of creating mayhem.
We now know nobody is crying wolf and mayhem could be just around the corner. Two research teams have found that a handful of mutations allow H5N1 to spread like ordinary flu while staying just as deadly, at least in ferrets.
Given that ordinary flu can infect a third of…
