Scientists scramble to avoid pandemic and destroy killer ‘Asian flu’ virus

SCIENTISTS around the world are scrambling to destroy a killer “Asian” flu virus that could trigger a pandemic if it escapes after it was sent to laboratories around the world as part of routine test kits.

The World Health Organisation believes, however, that the chances of this are low.

Nearly 5,000 labs in 18 countries, mostly in the United States, were urged by the World Health Organisation to destroy samples of the dangerous virus because of the slight risk it could trigger a global outbreak. The labs received the virus from a US company that supplies kits used for quality control tests.