Word: flu
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...reports of a more severe infection with higher mortality rates, we can map the changes that made the virus more severe and monitor its spread. That could help health officials formulate policies," says Hay. "But we are always playing catch-up with flu. It's impossible to stay ahead of this virus...
...Read "Was the Alarm over Swine Flu Justified...
...TIME graphic on swine flu...
...based on a recipe that Hay's team helped put together in April. As it takes six months to produce a vaccine, virologists must be on the lookout for "antigenic drift" - changes in the virus that would let it escape the immune responses induced by the vaccine. (Because the flu virus can mutate so easily, antigenic drift is not unusual...
...team is also on the lookout for changes in the virus that might make it resistant to the antiviral drug Tamiflu, which has been shown to reduce the severity of the disease caused by many flu viruses. Tamiflu works by inhibiting the neuraminidase enzyme (that's the N in H1N1) and preventing it from doing its job of helping the virus replicate once inside a human cell. But certain amino-acid changes in the neuraminidase can render Tamiflu ineffective. This usually happens over time following extensive prescribing of the drug, but it can also occur spontaneously. In the winter...