British Nursing News Online

WWW.BNN-ONLINE.CO.UK

Friday, 19 April 2024

Wednesday, 30 November 2005 12:10

BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk

£10 million to study bird flu

The Medical Research Council has announced a £10 million plan to set up research programmes into bird flu and other emerging infectious diseases in a bid to encourage the sharing of valuable medical information and science between countries.

The funds will be used to establish how people become infected with bird flu, how it spreads, and whether drug resistant strains are emerging. The programme will also look at how hospitals are treating patients and which approaches work best.

The MRC sent a delegation to China and Vietnam earlier this month amid concerns that new cases were not being reported but Sir John Skehel, director of the National Institute for Medical Research, who travelled with the researchers, said he was satisfied that this was not the case.

Professor Colin Blakemore, MRC chief executive, said he was still hopeful that the virus could be prevented from crossing over into the human population this winter.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The situation certainly hasn't gone away. Infection amongst birds is certainly spreading with migration of birds as expected this year, as it has to some extent in previous years.

"Mutation could happen at any time and anywhere there are infected birds.

"We know that the virus can transmit to human beings if a mutation were to happen, or if the virus were to be recombined with a conventional seasonal flu virus.

"There's always a possibility of transition into pandemic form."

- 0 comments on this story

Sponsored by The Nursing Portal