Post-mortem studies have illustrated findings consistent with an overwhelming systemic inflammatory response syndrome, including diffuse alveolar damage, acute tubular necrosis and atrophy, disseminated intravascular coagulation, and multiorgan damage [70, 71] . Interestingly, the virus has been isolated from the lungs, intestine, spleen, and brain, suggesting viremia, but active replication of the virus has been limited to the lungs [71] . This overwhelming inflammatory response, with acute lung injury and ARDS as the predominant features, coincides with the findings of preferential binding of the avian influenza A viruses to α-2,3 linkages in type II pneumocytes of the lower respiratory tract of humans and a vigorous cytokine response, including increased interleukin-6, interleukin-10, and interferon beta release [11, 12, 70, 71] .