In a move that can only be described as incredibly reckless, scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control have been conducting experiments in which they infect ferrets with both the H1N1 swine virus and the H5N1 bird flu virus to see if they will "reassort" and create a new hybrid flu virus. The rationale for these reckless experiments is that scientists want to know if a combination of H1N1 and H5N1 could become a "super flu" that would be both easily transmissible from human to human and highly fatal at the same time. Considering the fact that the World Health Organization says that over half of the people who have contracted H5N1 have died, the prospect of such a "super flu" developing is more than a little frightening. Of course scientists tell us that experiments such as this one are "perfectly safe", but the truth is that we all know that sometimes these experimental viruses do get out. If a lab-created H5N1/H1N1 hybrid does get out, what would that mean for humanity? (Read More).....
There is a disturbing new report out of Vietnam that appears to indicate that one family there has tested positive for both the H5N1 bird flu and the H1N1 swine flu. According to the report, poultry belonging to the family has also tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu. H5N1 has been circulating in Vietnam for several years, and now H1N1 has gotten a strong foothold there. Some infectious disease experts are now concerned that Vietnam could become the type of "fertile breeding ground" where we could actually see a reassortment or recombination where the H5N1 bird flu virus and the H1N1 swine flu virus combine to form a completely new strain. In fact, one of the top virologists in the world said that if such a reassortment happens, he will "retire immediately and lock myself in the P3 lab." Why would he be so concerned? It is because such a recombination could potentially create a "super strain" of the flu that would be as fatal as H5N1 but as easily transmissible as H1N1. If such a strain developed we could really be looking at a doomsday scenario. (Read More).....

Three people in Egypt are believed to have been infected with the H1N1 swine flu virus as well as the H5N1 bird flu virus. These are the first ever reported cases of both strains of the flu showing up in a human at the same time. If these two viruses recombine to form a "super flu", could this be the beginning of the "worst case scenario" that top virologists have been warning about? (Read More).....
Even as fears over a swine flu pandemic are beginning to subside around the world, some top virologists are speculating on what is next for the the H1N1 virus. (Read More).....