HONG KONG - Scientists have identified a chemical compound that can stop the H5N1 bird flu virus as well as seasonal human flu viruses from replicating.

Finding new flu drugs is essential as flu viruses mutate and are adept at evading the limited antiviral drugs.

In a paper published in Nature Biotechnology, scientists from Hong Kong and Canada said they had found a chemical, nucleozin, which fought off both seasonal flu viruses and the H5N1 in mice as well as in cell culture.