Judging from the gradual tailing off of visitors to my bird flu symptoms page, it’s almost as if people have already forgotten the hype. This is probably mainly due to reduced exposure to bird flu in the mainstream press, and as they say no news, is good news.
Regardless, the science behind the scenes goes on and you can read my feature on the Tamiflu shortage in Nature online this week.
Meanwhile, news just in points to mutations in the viral polymerase gene as explaining how strains of influenza can jump the species barrier. According to Juergen Stech of the Institute of Virology in Marburg, Germany, writing in this week’s PNAS, polymerase mutations may be a pre-requisite to a pandemic, although he also points out that although convergent evolution in the polymerase gene plays a role, polymerase is not the whole story.
The mainstream media is quiet on the bird flu front at the moment, for as long as it stays that way, we’re probably flu free.