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Vietnamese Study Claims Bird Flu Virus Has Mutated

November 15, 2005

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When it comes to bird flu, health officials' great fear is that the virus could mutate to a form easily spread from human to human. A Vietnamese study now claims that nightmare scenario is one step closer – that the H5N1 avian virus has mutated to a form that can spread among mammals.

Taiwan says it has detected another bird flu strain that can infect people.

The World Health Organization immediately downplayed the claims, saying it would need to see more scientific evidence.

But the number of humans infected by the deadly virus continues to rise. Indonesia says a 20-year-old woman has died of bird flu and several other countries have also reported more suspected cases in people. China says it has more suspicious cases in people, while Thailand says a toddler infected with bird flu is recovering.

There are at least a dozen suspected cases as governments in Asia struggle to control outbreaks in poultry to prevent more people from catching the virus, which experts fear could trigger a pandemic.

The Vietnamese study, conducted by the Ho Chi Minh Pasteur Institute, says the H5N1 virus is adapting, and may soon be able to infect humans. Scientists there decoded 24 samples of the virus taken from poultry and humans.

Their conclusion?

"A mutation allowing the virus to replicate effectively in mammal tissue and become highly virulent" has occurred.

Even more disturbing, at least one of the scientists participating in the study told Reuters that the virus appears to have developed a resistance to Tamiflu - the anti-viral drug currently being stockpiled by governments preparing for a possible influenza pandemic.

Currently, the H5N1 virus spreads easily among birds. A small number of humans have become infected from birds, but the virus does not now spread from human to human. There is no known vaccine against the H5N1 virus, though Chinese researchers claim to have developed one that will immediately begin clinical trials.

Meanwhile, some South Korean scientists charge the bird flu hysteria is all a conspiracy by world governments to pump up pharmaceutical company profits.

"Avian flu has developed into a big issue because Western drug makers are blackmailing for their own profits," Rym Kyo-hwan, professor of Chungbuk National University's pharmaceutical college, told The Korea Times.

He said bird flu occurs mostly at breeding farms where chickens and ducks have weak immune systems because they are always confined in a small space.

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