WE MIGHT not be able to stop it yet, but at least we’re getting a better idea of what makes the H5N1 strain of bird flu so deadly when it is transmitted to humans.
The virus was already known to trigger toxic shock by causing the immune response to run amok. Now Malik Peiris and his colleagues at the University of Hong Kong report that it does so by inducing certain pro-inflammatory cytokines, chemicals that set off a range of non-specific immune reactions against viruses, in the cells lining the bronchi and alveoli in the lungs.
Viruses that jump from…
