Adrian Gibbs, an Australian scientist and one of the developers of the flu medication Tamiflu, recently said that the Influenza A (H1N1) virus was not a natural mutation but could have come out instead from a bio-experiment lab, and accidentally leaked in public.

The statement led to some serious concern by the World Health Organization (WHO), but the agency ruled out the possibility in no time at all.

“After analysis, we can say that the virus was created in a natural way and not in the lab,” said Keiji Fukuda, WHO Deputy Director-General. “Based on that evaluation by all of the laboratories, the conclusion is that this group of scientists feels that the hypothesis does not really stand up to scrutiny. The evidence suggests that this is a naturally occurring virus and not a laboratory-derived virus,” Dr. Fukuda added.

The United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) also stated that there is no evidence to support the statement of Gibbs.

According to the WHO latest update of May 17, 2009, 39 countries have officially reported 8,480 cases of influenza A (H1N1) infection. There are now 2,895 reported laboratory confirmed human cases of infection and 66 deaths in Mexico. There are 4,714 reported laboratory confirmed human cases and four deaths in the US.

Via Medscape Today