Bird flu's deadly effects may give clues to treatment

The massive inflammation caused by the H5N1 strain of the avian influenza virus explains why the virus is so deadly, but it also provides clues to better treatments, experts say.

In a letter published online ahead of print publication on 10 September in Nature Medicine (www.nature.com/nm, doi: 10.1038/nm1477) the authors document how the immune systems of 18 Vietnamese people who contracted the infection in 2004/5 became stoked up to an extraordinary degree by the virus.

The Vietnamese doctors' comparison of these 18 people—13 of whom died—with eight patients with normal H3N2 or H1H1 human flu showed the extent …