Influenza virus H7N9 may be the next virus most likely to cause a pandemic. Earlier this year, the previously unknown avian virus emerged from the poultry markets of eastern China to infect more than 130 people, killing at least 39.
Now researchers report that a DNA sequence H7N9 has appropriated from another virus, among other factors, make it particularly worrisome. To understand how H7N9 might evolve into a pandemic-ready pathogen, the scientists summarized unusual characteristics of the virus, as well as the entire H7 family, in a review published in mBio, the online, open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.
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Read the full article here: Virologists Study H7N9′s Family Tree to Predict Pandemic Threat
