Btoterrorism fears may stall crucial flu research. The publication of a study that shows mutations that would allow H5N1 bird flu to cause a lethal human pandemic has been delayed amid fears it could fall into the wrong hands. H5N1 kills more than half the people it infects, but cannot be passed from person to person. Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam,the Netherlands, reported at a flu conference in September that giving H5N1 two mutations, then passing the virus repeatedly between ferrets, led to a deadly H5N1 that spread readily in the air.
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