Better scratch "flu" off your list of reasons for calling in sick. Thanks to U.S. researchers who found the "Achilles Heel" of the flu virus, that sort of thing might just become a thing of the past. Piercing the flu virus with an arrow (or simply targetting it with some antivirals) would stop the virus replication process, hence we can all get a clean bill of health.

The weak spot was found by examining a 3D structure of a nucleoprotein responsible for spreading the flu virus. It turns out that even a minor change in the structure will stop the virus in its tracks. The nucleoprotein, when altered, will not function if it fails to link to another nucleoprotein.

Finding the flu virus weak spot will usher in new techniques to develop new drugs and antivirals to arrest the spread of the virus. This is welcome news in light of some reports of a bird flu virus resistance to current antiviral Tamiflu. What's more, the breakthrough would pave the way for scientists to discover a new class of drugs that will be used against self-replicating viruses such as HIV.