- This topic has 1 reply, 5 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 1 month ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Some scientists and media sources predicted that H5N1 was the most likely candidate for the next pandemic strain, but now it appears that these were erroneous opinions.
The recent outbreak and subsequent panic illustrates how difficult it is for scientists to predict new pandemic strains and how the media implants erroneous data into the already paranoid minds of the worlds consumers.
It is believed that a further mutation would be needed in order for the H1N1 virus to cause the mass deaths that have been estimated by some. Analysis done so far suggests what they are dealing with is a mild virus and nowhere near as dangerous as the H5N1 avian flu strain that has caused scientists so much concern over the past decade.
One other reassuring aspect about what is known so far is that there is nothing to be worried about as yet with the center of the virus, called NS1, which is linked to the strength of the immune response the virus produces. In other more dangerous viruses, the NS1 protein can initiate a “cytokine storm”, which is a particularly severe immune reaction that can be fatal to healthy young people.
Scientists have also played down concerns that the milder H1N1 virus, could combine with the more dangerous H5N1 avian flu virus, causing a super virus that has the ability to both spread easily between humans and cause severe illness. This is unlikely, or at least just as unlikely as it ever was and the H5N1 virus has been around for a decade without combining with normal seasonal flu. The chance of swine H1N1 combining with H5N1 is as likely as any other virus strain recombining.
Professor Wendy Barclay, chair in influenza virology at Imperial College in London says initial indications suggest there is nothing about the genetic make-up of the new virus which is a cause for particular concern. The key to its potential lies largely in the H1 protein. “There are two aspects, one is which receptors the virus tends to bind to and what we see is that it is binding to the upper respiratory tract rather than deep in the lungs.”
H1N1
# Can spread between humans
# Attaches to receptors in the upper respiratory tract causing mild illness
# A pandemic is thought to be imminentWhen a flu virus binds to the upper respiratory tract, it tends to cause mild illness but can be easily spread as people cough and sneeze, Professor Barclay explains.
If a virus binds further down in the lungs, it tends to cause much more severe illness, as in the case of the H5N1 avian flu virus which has caused concern in recent years.
“With the H1 gene we also look at the cleavage site,” she adds. “The virus has to be cut into two pieces to be active and it uses an enzyme in the host to do that. “Most influenza viruses are restricted to the respiratory tract because they use enzymes in the lungs. “But some, like H5 viruses can evolve to cut into two pieces outside the lungs, so they can replicate outside the respiratory tract.”
It’s starting to sound like the “science” is nothing more than a sales pitch and part of the next big money grab out there! I’d say the drug companies, mask makers, and soap producers have had a nice little run the last few weeks! Another few BILLION dollars tossed into the giant black hole! Money we’ll have to payback at some point!
I guess after the stock market, commodities market, homeland security market, insurance market, derivatives market, and real estate market have already been churned for all they’re worth folks have to find another way to make money… so now we have the health threat market…. anything to take the money you have out of YOUR pocket and put it into THEIRS!
I can remember the last swine flu “pandemic” when Gerald R. Ford got innoculated on national TV. Since then we have had SARS and other avian flus that affected a very low % of the population vs. 1918 Spanish borne flu when 50 million died.
Pandemic means “occurring over a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the population”
25 allegedly dead of swine flue in Mexico – a country of 111 million people – is hardly “an exceptionally high proportion (0.00002%) of the population.”
More government sponsored hysteria…
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comBut that’s the plan Scott… as long as they can keep the “hysteria” going for the latest (insert your choice here) threat… they keep you looking to them to fix it… even if it isn’t broken! Making you think you really need them and all their silliness! All the while keeping you so busy that you don’t see the big picture and how your future is being stolen.
Sad to say it’s almost like the movie “The Matrix”… humans being kept alive in a pretend world to fuel the “machines”… in this case the machines are government…. which much like the movie were conceived and built to help improve mankind… only to take on a life of their own and enslave the human race!
Funny how science fiction becomes real life… but then again… Jules Verne showed us that many years ago!
Scientists now are stating the H1N1 swine flu virus is no more dangerous than seasonal flu.
U.S. officials are now recommending to stop closing schools when a case of swine flu is confirmed.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said “This virus does not seem to be as severe as we once thought it would be and schools should act accordingly. Sick students should be kept home for seven days, but the schools should feel comfortable about opening. Schools that have been closed can reopen”
Dr. Richard Besser, the acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said “closing schools in a pandemic has a definite benefit. But closing during a general flu outbreak is not required. When you get to situations that are approaching general flu, then the downside of closing schools outweighs the benefits.”
China acted quickly to prevent additional swine flu contamination as it suspended all flights into and out of Mexico after a 25-year-old Mexican man who arrived in Shanghai from Mexico City became the Asian country’s first confirmed case of the virus. As a result, 200 Chinese citizens were stranded in Mexico City and Tijuana. A China Southern Airlines flight was expected to fetch them Tuesday, state media said. The Mexican and Chinese governments have sent chartered flights to each other’s countries to pick up their respective nationals stranded or quarantined because of the global swine flu outbreak. An Aero México flight made several stops Tuesday throughout China to collect nearly 70 Mexican citizens who were being held in quarantine across the communist nation as part of its strict swine flu-control measures.Current update on swine flu in Costa Rica.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090509/ap_on_he_me/med_swine_flu
Costa Rica’s first reported swine flu death is of a 53-year-old patient who also had diabetes and chronic lung disease.
America’s two swine flu deaths; a toddler and a pregnant woman; each suffered from several other illnesses when they were infected with the virus, according to a study released Thursday.
The report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention presented a clearer picture of the complicated medical situations faced by those who have gotten swine flu and had the most serious cases so far.
A Texas woman was the first American to die, possibly from the disease; however, she had asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, a skin condition called psoriasis and was 35 weeks pregnant.
Additionally, the Mexican toddler who died during a family visit to Texas, .had a chronic muscle weakness, a heart defect, a swallowing problem and lack of oxygen.
The CDC report released by the New England Journal of Medicine also provided more detailed information on 22 people hospitalized with swine flu. Nine had chronic medical conditions, including the two who died and a 25-year-old man with Down syndrome and a congenital heart disease. Five of the patients had asthma alone.You might find this interesting:
Study prompts provinces to rethink flu plan?.
September 30, 2009, Globe and Mail (One of Canada’s leading newspapers)?http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/science/study-prompts-provinces-to-rethink-flu-plan…
A “perplexing” Canadian study linking H1N1 to seasonal flu shots is throwing national influenza plans into disarray and testing public faith in the government agencies responsible for protecting the nation’s health. Distributed for peer review last week, the study confounded infectious-disease experts in suggesting that people vaccinated against seasonal flu are twice as likely to catch swine flu.
The paper has since convinced several provincial health agencies to announce hasty suspensions of seasonal flu vaccinations, long-held fixtures of public-health planning. “It has confused things very badly,” said Dr. Ethan Rubinstein, head of adult infectious diseases at the University of Manitoba. “And it has certainly cost us credibility from the public because of conflicting recommendations. Until last week, there had always been much encouragement to get the seasonal flu vaccine.”
On Sunday Quebec joined Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Nova Scotia in suspending seasonal flu shots for anyone under 65 years of age. Quebec’s Health Ministry announced it would postpone vaccinations until January. B.C. is expected to announce a similar suspension during a press conference Monday morning.
Other provinces, including Manitoba, are still pondering a response to the research. Dr. Rubinstein, who has read the study, said it appears sound. “There are a large number of authors, all of them excellent and credible researchers,” he said. “And the sample size is very large – 12 or 13 million people taken from the central reporting systems in three provinces. The research is solid.”
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
TV host Andrew Castle: ‘my daughter almost died from Tamiflu’ ?August 11, 2009, Times of London (One of the UK’s leading newspapers)? http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/Swine_flu/article6791102.ece
The [UK] Health Secretary appeared on breakfast television this morning in a bid to reassure concerned parents after scientists warned that children should not be given Tamiflu.
Instead he was confronted by a GMTV presenter who claimed that the drug had almost killed his daughter. Andy Burnham insisted that the Government was right to advise children to take the anti-viral drug despite a warning from researchers at the University of Oxford who called on the Department of Health urgently to reconsider its pandemic strategy.
But he was tackled live on TV by Andrew Castle, Britain’s former top tennis player, who said his older daughter, Georgina, had a respiratory collapse after being given the drug as a precaution during the containment stage of the pandemic. “I can tell you that my child – who was not diagnosed at all – she had asthma, she took Tamiflu and almost died,” he said.
Georgina, 16, was given Tamiflu when five pupils at Alleyn’s School in south London were diagnosed with the illness in May. Castle, also a BBC tennis commentator, said he feared for his daughter’s life as medical professionals backed away from the potentially contagious child.
He said: “Nobody checked that she had swine flu beforehand. The Health Protection Agency just handed it out at Alleyn’s School in south London and a lot of kids suffered in the school very heavily. It almost cost my older child her life.” The study published yesterday warned that Tamiflu can cause vomiting in some children, which can lead to dehydration and the need for hospital treatment.
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.com
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
