Spanish flu virus is medically known as H1N1...

For now the best medications to beat the H5N1 bird flu virus are Tamiflu and Relenza but in the future if the plans of the Professor of Virology at the prestigious Queen Mary's College in London go ahead a completely different way of tacking the virus may be discovered.

The idea is to exhume the body of a person who died in the last great bird flu pandemic and from using samples from this corpse they may be able to identify the make up of the now extinct virus. The research team has been given formal authorisation (a lengthy process) to dig up the body of Mark Sykes who was a British diplomat and whose death from the Spanish Flu (as the last bird flu virus was known) is well documented.

To bring up the body not only was the Church of England consulted and asked for permission but the 6 grandchildren of Mark Sykes were also sought out. They have all consented to the exhumation provided that no publicity is given to the event and that it is done in a quiet and dignified way. It is reckoned that the Spanish flu killed as many as 50 million people.

The coffin is not of the usual wooden type but is made of lead and appears to have been perfectly sealed. It is hoped that if no air has got into the coffin for all these years then there may be some vital evidence that can be gotten from the body. The Spanish flu virus is medically known as H1N1 and was extremely contagious among humans unlike the H5N1 so far.

With the evidence that is gleaned from this body it may just be possible to create a foolproof H5N1 bird flu virus that could render the need for vast stocks of Tamiflu and Relenza obsolete.