1919 pandemic casualty may hold clue to bird flu

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Dead aristocrat may hold key to bird flu

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press Writer Wed Feb 28, 3:43 PM ET

LONDON - Scientists want to exhume the body of a British diplomat who

died of Spanish flu during the 1919 pandemic in hopes of discovering

clues to fight a possible future global outbreak sparked by the deadly

H5N1 bird flu virus.

Sir Mark Sykes, best known for his work dismantling the Ottoman

Empire, was buried in a lead-lined coffin, which may have preserved

enough human tissue to yield useful information on how he died and the

nature of the avian flu that killed him.

" We're after an intact body, " said Oxford, a professor of

virology at Queen 's College. " Sometimes people who have been

buried in lead are very well preserved. If we obtain (the body), then

we can ask a lot of important questions about the way that Sir Mark died. "

Understanding more about the Spanish flu might help scientists design

better treatments for H5N1. Victims of Spanish flu frequently

experienced an overly aggressive immune response, which began to

attack their own bodies. The same phenomenon has been seen in human

H5N1 cases.

" The first thing we'll be looking at is the pathology of the lung —

whether he was overwhelmed by his own immune response, " Oxford said.

Spanish flu victims have been studied before — including Inuit bodies

recovered from the Arctic permafrost and corpses of World War I

soldiers. Experts estimate the Spanish flu killed more than 40 million

people worldwide.

Oxford said it was extremely difficult to locate flu victims who were

buried in lead-lined coffins, in part because few records were kept

about coffins. In addition, it can be difficult to find the

descendants of victims.

However, Sykes was a famous victim because of his diplomatic status,

and his coffin was photographed before he was interred.

Although permission has been obtained from Sykes' family, Oxford said

he still needs permission from Britain's health and safety body. He

said it would not be known how well Sykes' body was preserved until

his coffin was opened.

" These are all expectations and hopes that can be easily dashed, " he said.

An aristocratic, well-traveled and talented linguist, Sykes was chosen

to draw up the British half of a secret agreement to divide the Arab

provinces of the Ottoman Empire into French and British spheres of

influence, drawing lines which would eventually coalesce into the

borders of Iraq, Syria and Israel.

Sykes later returned to the Middle East to try to secure an

understanding among French, British and Arab officials there, a

marathon effort which taxed his endurance, Sykes' biographer

Adelson said.

" He'd spent weeks burning the midnight oil trying to get these

factions to agree, but he didn't succeed, " Adelson said, adding that

Sykes had lost weight, " so he was very vulnerable. "

Sykes traveled to Paris in early 1919, and he died soon afterward.

Although he was a Roman Catholic, Sykes was buried in a Church of

England graveyard at St. Sledmere church, near his ancestral home

about 200 miles north of London.

The Church of England has granted permission to unearth the corpse,

ruling that the possible benefit — and the family's approval —

outweighed the church's strong preference for leaving human remains

undisturbed.

http://news./s/ap/20070228/ap_on_he_me/britain_diplomat_s_corpse_1