blog

What would make avian influenza transmissible in humans? This is the question Yoshihiro Kawaoka and his team investigated in their much-anticipated study published in Nature earlier this year. The article, titled “Experimental adaptation of an influenza H5 HA confers respiratory droplet transmission to a reassortant H5 HA/H1N1 virus in ferrets”, was recommended by Faculty of 1000 Members Ralf Bartenschlager and Marco Binder of the Infectious Diseases Faculty, and the answer isn’t as frightening as you might think – while the thought of an avian flu pandemic has us all quaking in our boots, Kawaoka’s study serves a much greater purpose than just demonstrating a way to aid this deadly virus’ spread through the human population…

You can read the rest of this post on Terrapinn’s VaccineNation blog.