And a pandemic outbreak of a new form will outrun current capacity to design and distribute vaccines. Los Alamos, a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory, is working with the University of California and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to build a database that will track flu virus forms in both animal and human populations, compile viral sequence data for analysis, organize related medical records from around the world and help in the design of new vaccines. There are many viral forms in nature that could initiate a pandemic of huge proportions, affecting young and old alike, and the most advanced and wealthiest countries would have relatively little refuge. That is why we are embarking upon a long-range, multidisciplinary effort of crisis prediction and management concerned with influenza. Three influenza pandemics have occurred during the past century alone.
Pigs also carry the virus.
Because pigs have receptors for both the bird and human forms, swine can transmit an avian flu strain to humans. The Los Alamos database will help track incidents and outbreaks of the myriad influenza forms in both animal and human populations. Armed with information about what forms of the flu are appearing or moving around the world, researchers will have a better chance of identifying new strains and advising health officials on where to commit limited resources. The database also will aid in the collection of international studies of influenza epidemiology. However, there are numerous stumbling blocks to gathering records from around the world.