Race Against H7N9

This worrisome strain of influenza has the potential to reach pandemic proportions, but luckily it's not there yet. 

By Gemma Tarlach
Jan 7, 2014 6:23 PMNov 12, 2019 4:14 AM
H7N9.jpg
Potential pandemic influenza strain H7N9's gracile structure is captured in a negatively stained transmission electron migrograph (TEM). | CDC/Cynthia S. Goldsmith and Thomas Rowe

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It began somewhere in Mongolia, or the Korean peninsula. Researchers aren’t certain. A migratory waterfowl carrying multiple influenza strains nudged another bird, one with a different cocktail of influenza, and the viruses swapped pieces of genetic code in a process called reassortment. 

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