Mutated H5N1 virus created in Netherlands research lab
Rotterdam - The University of Rotterdam researchers in the Netherlands have created a mutated H5N1 bird virus. Made in the lab, the virus could not only go pandemic but is considered lethal to over 50% of those it affects.
To put it in plain English, a virus with the potential to kill up to half the world's population has been made in a lab, genetically altered to become much more contagious. The fight between academics and bioterrorism experts is whether or not to publish the recipe for anyone to replicate the virus, and whether the research should have been done in the first place.
"This shows clearly that H5 can change in a way that allows transmission and still cause severe disease in humans. It's scary," says Peter Doherty, a 1996 Nobel prizewinner for work in viral immunology, in the New Scientist article, "Five easy mutations to make bird flu a lethal pandemic."
Read more:
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/316682
What a great idea, it's like the island of Dr. Moreau, meets The Twelve Monkeys, meets Outbreak; what could possibly go wrong?
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