Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 16 January 1998:
Vol. 279. no. 5349, p. 324
DOI: 10.1126/science.279.5349.324
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Research News

INFECTIOUS DISEASE:
Sequence Offers Clues to Deadly Flu

Gretchen Vogel

The Hong Kong "bird flu" that has killed four people, sickened more than a dozen, and prompted the mass slaughter of more than 1.5 million chickens in the last month is still perplexing to scientists. Researchers are trying to discover why this virus is so deadly and why, unlike most known avian viruses, it can infect human cells. Now, in a report on page 393, a team from the United States and Hong Kong provides the most careful look yet at the virus--a complete sequence of the genes that code for its surface proteins and partial sequences of the remaining genome. Although the sequence so far can't reveal all of the virus's biological tricks, it offers clues as to how the virus infects cells, and it lays the groundwork for understanding what makes the bird flu a killer.

Read the Full Text

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)