Posted on 03/23/2013 2:50:10 PM PDT by Daffynition
Salad labelled as "ready-to-eat" is more dangerous than beefburgers, one of Britain`s top food experts has said [snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at news168.co.uk ...
There are no known examples of a fluid based virus becoming pulmonary. That is there is no example of a pulmonary virus that retains any semblance to a fluid based virus, indicating fluid based origins.
But even assuming that someone managed to artificially weaponize HIV into a pulmonary form, there is another significant drawback. When novel lethal pathogens are introduced into a species, there is a lethality degeneration curve where, over time, the disease becomes less lethal, then non lethal but chronic, then not even noticeable.
The lethality degeneration curve for HIV is faster and steeper than is typical. And with a significant change to its fluid based form, it is questionable whether the pulmonary form would be lethal, or even dangerous.
And this also separates H5N1 apart from the pack. Because since its discovery it has not shown an lethality degeneration curve at all, outside of a clade in Egypt, which became a little less lethal because it mutated into a pediatric form.
This was indeed scary, because children are much more prone to infection by other strains of influenza, and this would give H5N1 the opportunity to share genetic information with them. The icing on the cake is that, because of a foul-up in a vaccination program against water borne parasites, an estimated 10% of their population have hepatitis.
Thanks for the ping.
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