Canadians crack gene code of flu virus

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Canadians crack gene code of flu virus

A World First

_http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/story.html?id=1570596_

(http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/story.html?id=1570596)

Sharon Kirkey, Canwest News Service Published: Thursday, May 07, 2009

 

Canadian scientists have sequenced the human swine flu virus in a Winnipeg

laboratory.

**This is the first complete sequencing of the H1N1 flu virus and it's

vitally important to our understanding of this outbreak,** Federal Health

Minister Leona Aglukkaq said yesterday.

Genetic sequencing involves decoding the basic building blocks of the

virus.

**This is a world first and a real validation of Canada*s scientific

excellence,** Ms. Aglukkaq said.

Samples of virus taken from Nova Scotia and Ontario and samples from

Mexico appear to be a genetic match. The team found nothing to explain at the

genetic level why the virus is causing severe pneumonia and deaths in Mexico,

while cases in Canada and the United States have been mostly mild.

**That*s one of the big questions that everybody has been asking,** said

Dr. Frank Plummer, scientific director general of the National Microbiology

Laboratory in Winnipeg.

**It*s likely not the virus itself that is explaining the differential in

severity of disease between Mexico and the rest of North America.**

Cracking the genetic code of the virus moves scientists an important step

closer to understanding how swine flu spreads and changes over time, how

long it has been in the human population and where it originated. It will

also help in the development of a vaccine.

The genetic sequences of the three viruses have been sent to GenBank, a

public database where genetic sequences can be studied and compared by

scientists around the world.