Blood 'Key' to Cure

May 29, 01:41 AM

Current Headlines: By EMILY COOK

SCIENTISTS have made a breakthrough in the battle to find a cure for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu. Researchers took blood from four adult Vietnamese who had survived H5N1.

They found their antibodies cut the amount of virus in the lungs of test mice and almost completely stopped it reaching the brain or spleen.

Dr Cameron Simmons, from the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Vietnam was "optimistic" the antibodies could aid human victims. So far, H5N1 has killed millions of birds across the globe and claimed the lives of 185 out of 300 known human victims.

Experts fear it is only a matter of time before a deadly bird flu virus combines with human flu to produce a strain that can be passed from person to person.

It is feared a resulting pandemic could kill 100 million.

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