Reply #6: The Story Is In the Sequence [View All]

[pandemic_1918]

I have been following the H5N1 pandemic at the molecular level, looking at the sequences and it tells a story that most don't want to hear. The virus has been recombining and getting deadlier and deadlier and not the case fatality rate is 70-80% (if you go into the hospital with avian flu, odds are 3-1 against you coming out alive).

As you noted, its pretty easy to see where the bodies are buried from 1918, but there is a solid chance that the H5N1 pandemic could be much worse.

http://www.recombinomics.com/1918_case_fatality_rate.html

It is an efficient killer, there is no vaccine, and anti-virals look pretty iffy.

http://www.recombinomics.com/H5N1_anti_virals.html

If the virus acquires efficient human to human transmission, chaos will ensue.