US pharmaceutical company Baxter admitted to distributing active Avian flu H5N1 in test vaccine material that were sent to 18 laboratories in four countries. H5N1 flu is the world’s deadliest, with a mortality rate of over 60% according to the World Health Organization (WHO).   H5N1 “has caused the largest number of detected cases of severe disease and death in humans” of all known flu types, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). While H5N1 is not highly transmittable, it was mixed with H3N2, a highly contagious form of human flu. This potential pandemic was averted in March when alert researchers discovered the equivalent of a biological weapon that could quickly kill over two billion people, according to published data in American Scientist, a leading journal. An August 2009 analysis in the Journal of Virology, “Reassortment between Avian H5N1 and Human H3N2 Influenza Viruses in Ferrets: a Public Health Risk Assessment,” confirms that the mix of H5N1 and H3N2 did indeed combine the two into a form that could be as deadly as H5N1 and as transmittable as H3N2.

Read More