Avian flu: Living with influenza

The epidemic has been spreading since 1997, but it was not until the summer of 2005 that the A H5N1 flu virus first hit the headlines. Since then the public has been kept well informed of the progress of a disease that is causing growing concern: multiple outbreaks on poultry farms in the Far East, with the widespread slaughter of birds; limited, but often fatal, cases of transmission to humans; and propagation of the virus among wild and migrating birds bringing the Asian epidemic to the EU’s borders. Most serious of all, this epizootic disease is raising the spectre of the appearance of a mutant virus that would be transmissible between humans. All of this begs the question as to what weapons are available to science and research to combat the threat.