SWINE FLU PROBABLY FROM A LAB, ACCORDING TO SCIENTIST

Adrian Gibbs

Adrian Gibbs, an Australian virologist, believes the present swine flu disease was most likely made in a laboratory.

Swine flu expert Adrian Gibbs shock claim: Vaccine lab scientists created swine flu.

Gibbs was one of the first to analyse the genetic construction of the swine flu virus.

Gibbs believes that scientists created the H1N1 virus.

He has not ruled out other possible explanations.

He has handed over his research to state health organisations where it is being checked out by experts.

The World Health Organisation is investigating Gibbs' claim.



Swine flu may be from lab: Australian researcher Adrian Gibbs said.

Gibbs intends to publish a report suggesting the new strain may have evolved in eggs that scientists use to grow viruses and drugmakers use to make vaccines.

Gibbs said he came to his conclusion by analysing the virus's genetic blueprint.

Gibbs has studied germ evolution for four decades.

Gibbs wrote or co-authored more than 250 scientific publications on viruses during his 39-year career at the Australian National University in Canberra.

Gibbs said his analysis supports research by scientists including Richard Webby, a virologist at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, who found the new strain is the product of two distinct lineages of influenza that have circulated among swine in North America and Europe for more than a decade.

In addition, his research found the rate of genetic mutation in the new virus outpaced that of the most closely related viruses found in pigs, suggesting it evolved outside of swine, Gibbs said.

Some scientists have speculated that the 1977 Russian flu, the most recent global outbreak, began when a virus escaped from a laboratory.