Where does the virus come from? [SARS]

HKU-Pasteur Research Centre ^

[Stavka2]

Lets keep something in perspective, SARS the "epidemic" has killed a little over 100 people. The common flu virus, from which it is believed SARS mutated, kills some 4 thousand a year in N. America alone....this is nothing more then a media hype...sorry to say but when you count deaths from an "epidemic" in 2-5 per day range...it is not an epidemic. This is no different then the overblown reports of shark attacks in the summer of 2001, when in fact shark kills were down (56 instead of the usual WORLDWIDE 64). Nothing but media selling a panic. Watch, if terrorists or a natural disaster occurs...they'll forget all about this.

[Stavka2]

SARS is sporadic thanks to world travel...Hong Kong is a major world terminal...people get on and so do their colds and within 24 hours they can be in any cornor of the world.

[Stavka2]

By the way, if you look closely, most of those dieing are the young and the elderly, that in itself shows this is not a major epidemic, since those two groups have the weakened or under developed immune system and are always at risk with any flu/bug.

[Stavka2]

Viruses and Bacteria can not combine naturally from two strains...they are both asexual and reproduce from internal processes with no external contribution. Now...man made, that's a different story.

[exDemMom]

Viruses and Bacteria can not combine naturally from two strains...they are both asexual and reproduce from internal processes with no external contribution.

Yeah, I think I learned something about that while I was getting my PhD. Bacteria are not strictly asexual, and commonly share DNA. That's one way bacteria pick up resistance to multiple antibiotics. Bacteria can even pick up genes from other species of bacteria, e.g. the hemolytic strain of E. coli is deadly because (if I remember correctly from my microbiology classes) it picked up a gene from Shigella, the causative agent of dysentery; E. coli is normally an innocuous gut inhabitant.

I know somewhat less about viruses, but my educated guess would be that if two strains of virus infected the same host in the same tissue, they could easily recombine and end up with each other's genes. Such that if E. zaire and E. reston got together, the result could be truly horrific.

[exDemMom]

Sorry, I should have added that I am perfectly capable of giving bacteria and viruses genes that they do not naturally have. In fact, as soon as I post this reply, I will complete my little bacterial engineering experiment I started earlier today. Ta-ta.