There are fears that a flu pandemic is overdue, and experts are preparing for the inevitable. “This will come, it will be real and only if we plan can we reduce its impact,” Sir Liam Donaldson, the Government’s Chief Medical Officer, has said of the expected flu.

The body of a flu sufferer has been exhumed in the hopes that it will provide important evidence of the flu virus, and help researchers to prepare for a pandemic. Sir Mark Sykes died of the virus eighty-nine years ago at the age of 39. His body was preserved in a lead-lined coffin, which has dramatically slowed the decay of soft tissue, enabling scientists to get samples for their research.

Experts are looking for ways to deal with what they call the inevitable mutation of the bird flu into a lethal human virus. The epidemic of the early 20th century was a predecessor of the virus that is around today. Experts hope to find information of how the virus jumps from animals to humans, and Sir Mark Sykes may be able to do this for them from beyond the grave.

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