Flu drugs - pathway to discovery

Flu, caused by the influenza virus, has plagued mankind for centuries. In 1918-19 the virus, dubbed Spanish flu, killed about 40 million people worldwide. Since then there have been two other major pandemics - in 1957 'Asian flu' killed about two million people and in 1968 'Hong Kong flu' killed about one million people. Of great concern at the moment is a lethal avian influenza virus, or 'bird flu', which has killed millions of domestic poultry, some wild birds and some mammals, including humans. To date, however, people infected with this virus have not been able to infect other people. If this virus does manage to adapt genetically to do this, it will spread like wildfire throughout the world and the antivirals Relenza and Tamiflu look like being our best lines of attack. Here we discover how these drugs were developed and how they can be used effectively.