Scientists recreate Spanish flu to help understand bird virus

SCIENTISTS have made from scratch the Spanish flu virus that killed up to 50 million people in 1918, the first time an infectious agent behind a historic pandemic has been reconstructed.

Why did they do it? Researchers say it may help them better understand - and develop defences against - the threat of a future worldwide epidemic from bird flu.

Like the 1918 virus, the avian flu in Southeast Asia occurs naturally in birds. In 1918, the virus mutated, infected people and then spread among them. So far, the current virus has killed at least 65 but has rarely spread person-to-person.