THE bird flu virus spreading through Turkey could be accumulating mutations that are helping it adapt to humans. But fears of an imminent pandemic may be premature, as the virus is showing none of the mutations’ feared effects.
Samples of the H5N1 virus that killed Turkish teenagers Fatma and Mehmet Ali Kocyigit early this month have now been sequenced at the National Institute for Medical Research in London. Some of Mehmet’s virus had a mutation in a surface protein called haemagglutinin, which makes it better at binding to cells in the human respiratory tract as well as to cells in…
