Thread: Flu threat
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Old 14-October-2005, 07:39 PM
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aurora aurora is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by parallaxicality
I'm not one for complacency concerning the next great plague, but surely the virus that caused the most devestating pandemic of the last century is a far more direct threat than a virus that has so far only killed sixty-four people worldwide, so recreating the one to understand the other seems a bit heavy-handed.
I think what hasn't been stated is that the main reason that the current virus has only killed 64 people is that so far it has not mutated to be able to be transmitted directly from human to human.

If it can manage to mutate so that it can, combined with the high death rate as pointed out by others in this thread, then the overall threat is very great indeed.

And from what I have read, the virus is mutating fairly rapidly, so it is not an idle worry that it will be able to eventually move from human to human.
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