Winnipeg scientists to examine new flu virus

Canadian scientists are getting ready to start work on the worrisome new flu virus H-7-N-9.

Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg is expecting to get a sample of the virus from China next week.

The lab's scientific director, Doctor Frank Plummer, says China readily agreed to share the virus with the Winnipeg lab, where scientists hope to contribute to the international effort to decode the mysteries of this new flu.

Plummer says his lab provided China with samples of the H-1-N-1 virus at the start of the 2009 pandemic and that may have influenced China's decision on the H-7-N-9 request.

Plummer says Winnipeg scientists who work on H-7-N-9 will do so in laboratories with the highest levels of biosafety and biosecurity.

Plummer says his team wants to work on developing antibody tests for the virus and novel vaccines.

To date, 91 people have been infected by the new virus and 17 of them have died.