Bird flu defence: lengthen your trachea

According to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, research published yesterday suggests one reason the bird flu virus hasn't yet established itself sufficiently amongst people to mutate into a strain easily transmitted between us may be how far it needs to get into our respiratory tracts before finding cells it can enter.

Virologists found that only cells deep inside the human respiratory system have receptors the H5N1 virus is able to use. People might be less likely to become infected than birds because it's harder for the virus to reach this far.

The BBC quotes a Reading University professor as saying it could explain why children have been more vulnerable than adults; there's less distance the virus needs to cover before it gets to their lungs.

If true, isn't the banality of that last explanation grotesque?

WHO says laboratories have confirmed H5N1 infection in 103 cases of human death from flu worldwide.