Sequencing the 1918 influenza virus
Over 50 million people are thought to have died from influenza around the world in 1918
Witness History · BBC World Service
March 24, 20208m 58s
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Show Notes
Over 50 million people died from influenza during the 1918-19 influenza pandemic. Scientists trying to understand why that particular strain of flu was so virulent, dug into Alaska's permafrost to find traces of it to study. Kate Lamble has been speaking to Dr Jeffery Taubenberger who sequenced the genome of the so-called "Spanish" flu virus.
Photo: an influenza ward in 1918. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images.