Scientist says body of British diplomat may help fight bird flu

London: Scientists want to exhume the body of a British diplomat who died of "Spanish flu" during a pandemic in 1919 in hopes of discovering clues to fight a possible future global outbreak sparked by H5N1 bird flu.

Sir Mark Sykes, best known for his work dismantling the Ottoman Empire, is believed to be buried in a lead-lined coffin, something 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 John Oxford, a professor of virology at Queen Mary's College, who has asked for permission to obtain the corpse.

"Sometimes people who have been buried in lead are very well preserved. If we obtain that (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 the Spanish flu experienced an aggressive immune response, which began to attack their own bodies.