Photo Gallery Containing Super-Flus
An image taken through an electronic microscope of the H5N1 virus, also known as the "bird flu." Virologist Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam has developed a new mutation of the H5N1 virus. Outside the lab, the disease has only been transmitted from animals to humans. Fouchier's mutation makes it airborne, creating the possibility of human-to-human transmission.
A lab assistant at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin holds a test tube of the H1N1 virus. A new strain of the H1N1 virus, commonly called the "swine flu," was declared to be a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2009.
Scientists at Philipp University in Marburg, Germany, conduct research in a lab with the highest so-called biosafety level, or BSL-4. Some virologists have called for research involving bird flu viruses to be conducted under such conditions.
A native-stained transmission electron micrograph (TEM) image of an influenza virus particle, released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2009. Dutch virologist Fouchier says he wants to continue research on his super-flu virus so he can help develop an "early warning system for pandemics."
The "swine flu" virus. Virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin combined the avian bird flu virus with the swine flu virus. The newly created superbug is highly infectious, though not particularly dangerous to the ferrets Kawaoka used in his experiments.
