Vietnam researches bird flu

New bird flu findings announced

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- Vietnam scientists say they've discovered why the H5N1 strain of bird flu is much more deadly to people than are other human flu strains.

The researchers compared people infected with various strains of influenza and found the bird flu virus triggers a massive inflammatory response that often proved fatal, the BBC reported.

The team from the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City looked at 18 people who infected with H5N1 and eight infected with normal human flu.

The researchers found the H5N1 patients had much higher concentrations of the virus than those infected with a normal influenza virus, the BBC said. The researchers said the highest viral loads -- found in H5N1 patients who died -- caused a release of proteins called cytokines that should control a person's response to infection.

Dr. Menno de Jong and colleagues concluded, "The focus of clinical management should be on preventing this intense cytokine response, by early diagnosis and effective antiviral treatment."

The study appears in the journal Nature Medicine.