Guest Guest Posted June 4, 2006 Share Posted June 4, 2006 I caught a PBS "Secrets of the Dead" episode this week called "Mystery of the Black Death". I believe this episode was created in 2002, so the possibility of a "Bird Flu" was not addressed. Instead, they related it to the HIV infection, and found a genetic link that protects some people from getting the HIV virus *even when* they are exposed many times to the virus. The gene mutation is called "delta 32", and it is present in some Europeans and English, which means some Americans may also carry this mutation. I found the information very interesting, and wonder if this might explain some survivors of the 1918 "Spanish Flu". Read the article here, and click on to the rest of it: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/case_plague/index.html And Google has lots of stuff about "delta 32". Then here are their pages about their "Killer Flu" episode about the 1918 epidemic (also older stuff, from 2004): http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/case_killerflu/index.html I think I'll email them to see if they're making an update about Bird Flu. Link to comment
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