BRITAIN: Scientists said they had made a breakthrough in the race to develop a drug for the H5N1 virus should it mutate into a form that can jump from human to human.
However, according to a report in the science journal Nature, the team working on the problem said it could take five years or longer to covert their discovery of a weak link in the N1 part of the virus, into an effective drug. The team of scientists led by John Skehel of London's National Institute of Medical Research, said they had found a cavity in the N1 or part of the H5N1 virus that could be exploited as a weak point.
Meanwhile, the US agriculture department said yesterday that two swans found in a game reserve area in Michigan do not have the potentially deadly strain of H5N1 bird flu which has killed 135 people, mainly in Asia. However, US government officials believe the birds have what they term "a low pathogenic strain of H5N1".