Scientists in the UK have made a very important breakthrough their research on the development of an influenza drug specifically for the H5N1 bird flu virus that could be a real life saver if a serious outbreak hit the world. While they were happy with the breakthrough they warned the general public that many more years reserch would be needed before the drug would be ready to treat the dangerous H5N1 bird flu virus.

The scientists from the National Institute of Medical Research in London said that they have been looking at the virus and have found a chink in the armour of the cell structure in the form of a cavity in the neuraminidase section of the H5N1 virus. This cavity is an exciting breakthrough as it can be targeted by a drug development program to exploit the weakness.

The next hurdle however for the scientists is the development of the drug to get to this cavity and they need to move fast as flu virus change and mutate from time to time and it is essential that the scientists keep ahead of any changes in the cells structure of the H5N1 virus. The H5N1 virus would need to mutate 2 times in order to become possible to be transmitted from human to human but if it did so it would become a serious danger to mankind.

The human cases of bird flu so far have all resulted from contact with flu infected birds and not from inter human contact. Nevertheless the virus is still deadly and has killed over half of all the humans who have caught it. The drug Tamiflu made by Roche Pharmaceuticals is one of the best medicines to treat the H5N1 virus and can be ordered online at ukmedix. Tamiflu's main ingredient is oseltamivir. Relenza another drug made by GSK is in very short supply and is said also to give good results. Relenza is not so popular as it is inhaled and has not received the publicity of Tamiflu. Relenza's main ingredient is zanamivir.