In an attempt to find information to fight a possible global outbreak of the
H5N1 bird flu virus, UK scientists are seeking to exhume the body of a British
diplomat who died of Spanish flu during the 1919 pandemic that killed more than
40 million people worldwide, media reports said Monday.
Famous for his work breaking up the Ottoman Empire, Sir Mark Sykes 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 John Oxford, a professor of virology at
Queen Mary'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."
Victims of Spanish flu frequently experienced an overly aggressive immune
response. 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. 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.
Although he was a Roman Catholic, Sykes was buried in a Church of England
graveyard at St. Mary 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.