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Comment by Kerry Hay on October 4, 2013 at 3:53am

Scientists are recreating the 1918 Spanish flu virus. From the spring of 1918 to spring 1919 saw one of the worst epidemics -- perhaps even the worst -- in human history. The Spanish flu raced around the globe, killing 20 to 50 million people. That's a higher body count than World War 1. More than the "Black Death" in medieval Europe. The Human Virology website at Stanford University explains. 

An estimated 675,000 Americans died of influenza during the pandemic, ten times as many as in the world war. Of the US soldiers who died in Europe, half of them fell to the influenza virus and not to the enemy. The effect of the influenza epidemic was so severe that the average life span in the US was depressed by 10 years. The influenza virus had a profound virulence, with a mortality rate at 2.5% compared to the previous influenza epidemics, which were less than 0.1%.

To cut a long story short, scientists have added two 1918 genes into the mix. The resulting patchwork virus killed mice at a much higher level than current strains. The Sunshine Project, a watchdog organization fighting the development of biological weapons, warms; "This experiment is only one step away from taking the 1918 demon entirely out of the bottle and bringing the Spanish flu back to life."

http://www.kerryhay.spiderweb.com.au