Could the body of a girl who's been dead for 85 years save us from bird flu?; TESTS ON VICTIM PHYL.

Byline: JOHN VON RADOWITZ

A VICTIM of the world's worst epidemic in 1918 is to be dug up to help experts battling the spread of bird flu.

Scientists plan to take samples from the lungs of 20-year-old Phyllis Burn who died and was buried in a lead coffin during a devastating outbreak of influenza which killed 50million people.

They believe the virus responsible could be a type of bird flu similar to the one now claiming lives in Asia.

Researchers are desperate to find out more about the pandemic 86 years ago in an effort to stop it happening again.

Investigation leader Professor John Oxford from Queen Mary's School of Medicine in London, said: "The big question is was there something special about the 1918 virus that enabled it to kill 50million? There is the possibility of a new one arising in the same way today."

While the modern-day bird bug cannot pass between people, there is grave concern it might mix with human flu to produce an infection that could sweep through countries, like the 1918 one did.

A key question is whether such a combination triggered the pandemic all those years ago.

Army officer's daughter Phyllis, from Strawberry Hill, South West London, will be exhumed at nearby Twickenham cemetery.

Her body will not be removed from the graveyard. Instead, researchers will work inside a tent covering the plot.

The professor hopes her internal organs will be sufficiently preserved to allow tissue to be taken from her lungs - if the coffin was properly sealed and airtight.

His team will look for fragments of DNA left by the 1918 virus that could yield important clues.

The disease was first spotted when large numbers of British soldiers fighting in the trenches of World War One began to fall ill.

It quickly gripped the planet as troops returned home after the armistice in November 1918.

Eventually, more people died from the disease than the 8.5million killed during the Great War.

The clues pointed to a bird virus, but not the same strain as the one troubling the Far East.

In Vietnam six people have been killed by the infection and two other cases have been confirmed.

Thailand says the virus has been detected in a third of its 76 provinces, including Bangkok.

And China is halting exports of poultry from regions suspected of being affected.

KFC will sell catfish instead of chicken in Ho chi Minh City to get round Vietnam's poultry ban which had forced its eight outlets there to close.

Imports of pet birds from countries hit by bird flu have been suspended, the European Commission said yesterday.

CAPTION(S):

GRIM: American victim of 1918 disease going to hospital; SLAUGHTER: Thai chicken is killed in bird flu battle