VIROLOGY RESEARCH AND VIRULENT HUMAN PANDEMICS

The possibility that a devastating human pandemic could arise, causing massive loss of human life, is discussed. Such a major threat to the human species is likely to be a virus, and would spread by the respira tory route. It need not necessarily cause massive loss of life, but if it caused serious illness or incapacity it would still have a major i mpact. A possible source is from an existing respiratory pathogen, but it would more probably arise from an infection that is maintained in an arthropod or vertebrate host, but which at present either does not infect humans, or if it does it fails to be effectively transmitted be tween them. More research should therefore focus on the pathogenetic f actors and the viral determinants that promote respiratory transmissio n.