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Insight and Health

A bird flu pandemic looms but the US is holding back the fight

Just two mutations could turn H7N9 flu into a deadly airborne strain, but restrictions meant to protect us from a possible pandemic are making it harder to combat the next one

By Debora Mackenzie

20 June 2017

bird flu patient in China

Bird flu won’t go away by itself

AFP/Getty Images

BIRD flu is back. The H7N9 virus has had its deadliest year since it emerged in 2013. Since October, 714 people in China have become seriously ill, almost as many as in the previous four years combined.

More than a third of those people have died. The virus is thought to be causing milder, undiagnosed disease in far more people, and each infection is a chance for it to evolve.

The idea that H7N9 could gain the ability to spread readily via humans…

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