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Science Races to Parse New Virus ( Swine Flu )
Wall street Journal ^ | April 27, 2009 | GAUTAM NAIK and BETSY MCKAY

Posted on 04/27/2009 10:02:54 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach

Avian flu and SARS rudely awoke the world to the possibility of a new pandemic. Could a seemingly more mundane bug now put the world to the test?

The swine flu virus that may have killed more than 80 people in Mexico and appears to have sickened hundreds more is still a mystery contagion. But this much is known: The virus is unusually made up of genetic material from avian, pig and human viruses; it can transmit from person to person; and in many people, it only triggers mild symptoms seen in garden-variety influenza.

The current virus is mainly sickening the young and the healthy, yet such bugs are notorious for their ability to evolve. "We are too early in our investigations to be able to address the lethality of the virus," said Keiji Fukuda, interim assistant director-general at the World Health Organization, said Sunday. "Properties of flu viruses can change -- they can go from mild to being more severe and can move from being more severe to less."

The WHO, a United Nations agency based in Geneva, said it may have been harder to detect the initial cases in Mexico because the outbreak started during flu season. But when Mexican officials noticed an increase in cases of pneumonia, including serious pneumonia, they launched an investigation and had the virus tested in labs in order to determine the actual strain.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: captaintripps; flu; influenza; mexicanflu; mexicanswineflu; mexiflu; pandemic; science; swineflu
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To: MeanWestTexan

That’s the most concise explanation so far.

The stuff on the cytokine storms is interesting.


61 posted on 04/27/2009 7:03:33 PM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: GOPJ

I have teenagers and wonder the same thing.

Further up in the thread, or maybe on another one, 2,000 units of Vitamin D are thought to be effective with the symptoms.


62 posted on 04/27/2009 7:06:47 PM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: Kozak

Ha, ha, very good! :-)


63 posted on 04/27/2009 8:03:52 PM PDT by Pining_4_TX
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Excellent posts all, Ernest.

Will be sharing them at home and at work.

Cheers!

64 posted on 04/27/2009 8:04:13 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: neverdem

Thanks for the ping!


65 posted on 04/27/2009 9:03:39 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: MplsSteve

You asked:

http://jollyrogerrevolution.blogspot.com/2009/04/if-you-sell-crack-join-gang-or-rob-mob.html

“Scientists” sometimes make strange things.


66 posted on 04/27/2009 9:12:33 PM PDT by Salamander (Like acid and oil on a madman's face, reason tends to fly away.......)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
I've posted the phylogenic trees for the HA and NA genes for the current influenza H1N1 strain here: here
67 posted on 04/27/2009 9:52:32 PM PDT by FreedomFighter1013 (Somebody better wake up down in Obama-land; it's not all about political favors)
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To: FreedomFighter1013; SunkenCiv; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Billthedrill; neverdem; nuconvert
This virus (or parts of it) has been around for some time:
Infection of a Wisconsin Man by a Swine-like Influenza Virus
Containing Avian and Human Polymerase Genes
this is from 2007
http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?s=c7441a7452003e698f5554e80124867c&p=96049&postcount=21

And the virus was detected in 1998 and part of the sequence was submitted 2003

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/29539579?report=genbank

If you protein BLAST http://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov the protein sequence of FJ966080 i.e. the PB1 for one of the present Mexican viruses the highest score, 1575, is for the Wisconsin man virus above.

68 posted on 04/27/2009 11:42:44 PM PDT by AdmSmith
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To: neverdem
Should I stock up on anti-psoriasis medications and allergy pills?
Who knew that an autoimmune condition could save me!
69 posted on 04/28/2009 12:15:08 AM PDT by rmlew ( The SAVE and GIVE acts are institutioning Corvee. Where's the outtrage!)
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To: metmom; GOPJ
Further up in the thread, or maybe on another one, 2,000 units of Vitamin D are thought to be effective with the symptoms.

You may be thinking of these two references to Vitamin D from a thread a few days ago.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2237216/posts?page=67#67

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2237216/posts?page=51#51

70 posted on 04/28/2009 1:20:34 AM PDT by Eagle9
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To: AdmSmith
According to Henry Niman: The Spanish flu of 1918 was a recombinant between swine H1N1 and human H1N1. In 2009 the swine is now in humans and will soon be recombining with human H1N1, so something similar to 1918 may appear in the fall of 2009.
http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=223968&postcount=45

Negative: It seems to be very contagious
Positive: It does not seem to be attacking the respiratory tract
Positive: It is probably very mild at present, I guess that many patients in Mexico died from secondary infections

71 posted on 04/28/2009 1:21:48 AM PDT by AdmSmith
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To: GOPJ

One thing to do is to have everyone of adult size (including older teenagers) take a Vitamin D supplement of about 2000 units a day. Alternatively they could stay in the bright sunlight 20 mins a day (or more if the skin is dark) with a lot of skin exposed (legs, arms, head). The latter is perfectly fine for little kids too. No sunscreen.

There is evidence that people with enough Vitamin D in their systems don’t get the flu. You can google it for more info.


72 posted on 04/28/2009 1:35:23 AM PDT by Yaelle
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To: Yaelle; nuconvert

If that is correct then there might be a massive reduction of Islamic fundamentalist: Burkas


73 posted on 04/28/2009 2:06:27 AM PDT by AdmSmith
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

A Pakistani, among those killed by flu
Sunday, April 26, 2009
The INER reported 15 deaths from the epidemic in National Institute of Respiratory Diseases

A Pakistani was the first foreigner to have died in Mexico, the victim of swine influenza. To his family, a group of about eight people, samples were taken for analysis and were given treatment with the antiviral oseltamivir. Sources from the Ministry of Health confirmed the death of Pakistan, which is part of the 20 deceased persons to whom it was found that the contracted swine influenza.

According to data collected by El Universal, Pakistani, which is not provided the name, joined the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases (INER) on April 16.

The Health Department detected its first case of swine influenza and released three days before the April 17 first epidemiological alert for an outbreak of atypical seasonal influenza. The alien died on Sunday April 19. His relatives were summoned to proportional one days after the medication and prevent the spread of the virus. INER in the 15 patients died, one at 11:30 am yesterday by a virus whose name did not clarify the institute’s director, Edgar Mondragon Armijo.

Excerpted

http://pandemicinformationnews.blogspot.com/2009/04/pakistani-among-those-killed-by-flu.html


74 posted on 04/28/2009 6:07:34 AM PDT by DvdMom
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To: sfimom

Swine Flu Article Ping ...


75 posted on 04/28/2009 6:08:42 AM PDT by DvdMom
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To: DvdMom

Thank you


76 posted on 04/28/2009 6:22:01 AM PDT by sfimom (I am John Galt. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nmERuCXTyw)
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To: sfimom; AdmSmith

AdmSmith posted this link with very good info

Most of those in Mexico are dying of Pneumonia which is what happens after the Influenza wrecks their lungs. From http://www.singtomeohmuse.com/viewtopic.php?t=3232&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=705


77 posted on 04/28/2009 6:34:17 AM PDT by DvdMom
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To: raybbr

The search engine did all the work.


78 posted on 04/28/2009 8:56:30 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Support Geert Wilders)
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To: GOPJ

I am ok on some computer advice ....medical is out of my league...you might look at #59.


79 posted on 04/28/2009 8:58:51 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Support Geert Wilders)
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To: AdmSmith; Berosus; Convert from ECUSA; dervish; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Fred Nerks; george76; ...

Thanks AdmSmith.


80 posted on 04/28/2009 10:05:02 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/____________________ Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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