BRITAIN: A victim of the world's worst epidemic is due to be exhumed to help scientists trying to avert the spread of bird flu.
Scientists plan to remove lung samples from the body of 20-year-old Phyllis Burn, who was buried in London 85 years ago.
The army officer's daughter, from Strawberry Hill, south west London, was one of 50 million people killed by a devastating strain of influenza that swept across the world in 1918. Evidence points to the 1918 virus being a type of bird flu similar to the one now claiming human lives in Asia.
Scientists are desperate to know more about what caused the pandemic in order to avoid another disaster on the same scale. Investigation leader Prof John Oxford, from Queen Mary's School of Medicine in London, said: "The big question is was there something special about this virus that enabled it to kill 50 million people. Was there something special about the people that led them to die so quickly, or was it a combination of the two?
"No-one expects the 1918 virus to come back again, but there is the possibility of a new virus arising in the same way today."
Ms Burn was buried in a lead coffin, which, if properly sealed, would have been virtually airtight. -(PA)