H1N1 virus fatal when infection reaches deep into lungs

Medical records, autopsy reports, and microscopic slides of people with H1N1 who died between May and July 2009 (the early stages of the virus outbreak) show how the H1N1 virus can be fatal.

It was found that even the cell sacs at the deepest end of the lung formation have been swollen and damaged.

“Generally, flu stays in the upper airways,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.  “What this shows is clearly this virus has capability of infecting and causing inflammation and destruction of cells from the trachea, all the way down into smaller cells of the lungs.”

The discovery matches with the records of those that died during the 1918 and 1957 pandemics.

[via cnn.com]