NIH Radio
Using evidence from the 1918 influenza pandemic – 1
Narrator: This is NIH Health Matters. I’m Joe Balintfy. NIH researchers are studying the 1918 flu virus that caused a pandemic. At the time it was the worst infectious disease outbreak in history that eventually killed 50 million people worldwide.
Taubenberger: We think the 1918 virus was actually a bird virus; somehow this bird virus adapted to humans.
Narrator: Dr. Jeffery Taubenberger is a senior investigator at the NIH. He’s been studying the genome or DNA of the 1918 flu virus for many years.
Taubenberger: Of course, we want to understand why that happened because we would hope ultimately to be able to prevent that from ever happening again.
Narrator: For more information on flu viruses including the 1918 pandemic, visit www.niaid.nih.gov. Health Matters is produced by the NIH, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
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