RESEARCH SCIENTISTS Deadly flu virus revived

In the outbreak in the early 1900s, the virus killed as many as 50 million.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. -- Terrence Tumpey stepped into the laboratory and glanced at the dead mice. Suddenly it hit him -- the significance of what scientists were attempting.
A few days earlier, Tumpey had infected the mice with genes from the 1918 influenza virus. The virus killed 40 million to 50 million people in the worst infectious disease outbreak in recorded history, then vanished.
For years, scientists had attempted to decipher the virus' genetic code from snippets of lung tissue preserved from flu victims.
At this point in 2001, they had identified two of the virus' eight genes and wanted to test the effect on mice. There was no mistaking the result.
"It brought a chill down my spine because I knew that I had this deadly virus," said Tumpey, a research scientist for the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In October, Tumpey and a team led by Dr. Jeffery Taubenberger of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology announced they had achieved a remarkable feat. Not only did they discover the virus' entire genetic code, they brought it back to life in a tightly controlled laboratory at CDC offices in Atlanta.
The virus that had swept the globe, infecting more than one-fourth of the world's population, existed on earth once again.
Aiming for prevention
Scientists hope to use the virus to discover how to prevent new pandemics, or at least lessen their devastation. In the best-case scenario, the scientific advances would come in time to help fight the avian influenza now spreading through Asia and parts of Europe.
Scientists worry that if the avian influenza mutates so that it is easily transmissable among humans, it could rival the 1918 virus in its deadliness.
Researchers say they already have some initial insights about why the 1918 flu spread so rapidly and what made it so deadly, although more work remains.
Though lauding the researchers' goals, critics question the wisdom of reviving the virus. They fear it could be accidentally or deliberately let loose into the population.
The scientists insist they have imposed tight security measures and say the potential to save lives makes the risk worthwhile.
It may be hard for modern-day Americans, used to the milder seasonal flu, to comprehend the devastation wrought by the 1918 virus.
So many people died, including 675,000 Americans, that it lowered the average life expectancy in the United States by more than 10 years.