Desperately seeking the source of H7N9 bird flu

• Autores: Debora MacKenzie
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 2915, 2013, pág. 14
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • The new H7N9 bird flu strain continues to spread across China. As New Scientist went to press, more than 120 cases had been reported across 10 provinces, and 24 deaths. Yet no one knows where the virus started, which hampers efforts to contain it. But a promising new antiviral drug may help tackle flu in the future. In an attempt to find the source, Chinese labs have tested 68,000 samples since early March. They have been taking swabs on farms and live animal markets, both from birds and the surfaces they've been in contact with. Only 46 of those samples, scattered across central and eastern China, carried the H7N9 virus: 44 from markets selling live poultry, one from urban racing pigeons and one from a wild pigeon.