Some good may have come out of the H7N9 influenza virus in China in 2013. An Australia-Sino collaboration during the outbreak of the bird-borne virus mechanism has uncovered how "killer" CD8 + T cells – part of the body’s active immune system that travel throughout the body hunting down specific pathogens – remember previously encountered virus strains. The team claims to have unravelled the requirements to initiate these immune responders no matter the influenza strain present. Now that could save hundreds of millions of lives:
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Neil