The deadly bird flu virus is only two or three mutations away from being infectious between humans, an expert warned yesterday.
Such a virus would have a ‘devastating’ impact on the world’s population, similar to the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic which killed around 50million people.
In its current form, avian flu can only be transmitted between birds and from birds to humans.
But Professor Derek Smith, of Cambridge University, said studies showed it only needed five amino acid mutations – which happen naturally when the virus evolves – to become transmittable between people. Scientists have discovered two of these mutations are already common and a third has been seen in some parts of the world – meaning it would take just two more.
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