Disease controlled.

• Author: Fry, Kirk
• Position: Letters

Nicholas Thompson writes, "When a mysterious virus popped up in New Mexico a few years ago, scientists had little idea how to respond until realizing that its sequence closely matched a group of viruses endemic to Asia found in GenBank." ("May the Source Be With You," July/August)

Not so. The folks at CDC figured it out first in the wet labs using antibodies from serum of people infected with related viruses. Only later did they confirm the findings with similarity studies to the sequences of the virus.

However, Thompson's point is well taken. The HCV, HEV, and HGV Hepatitis viruses were each discovered by similarity studies of the nucleotide sequences.

KIRK FRY via email Nicholas...