Preparing vaccines and therapeutics that target a future mutant strain of H5N1 influenza virus sounds like science fiction, but it may be possible, according to a team of scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and a collaborator at Emory University School of Medicine.

Researchers from the U.S. and abroad used a contact ferret model to evaluate transmissibility of influenza viruses in humans and found that some strains currently circulating throughout the world may transmit better than others in mammals. The researchers report their findings in the July 2007 issue of the Journal of Virology.

St. Jude study shows intramuscular injection of peramivir for 8 days protected mice from lethal H5N1 influenza virus infection and inhibited virus replication, supporting the use of this drug to control influenza during a pandemic