Posted on 08/02/2002 12:00:33 PM PDT by Reverenist133
By Michael Depp
BATON ROUGE, La. (Reuters) - The West Nile virus has killed four of the 58 people in Louisiana known to have been infected with the rare mosquito-borne illness, putting this year's outbreak on pace to become the largest ever in the United States, state health officials said on Friday.
"There is no sign that this is going to go down. This is only the beginning," said Dr. Raoult Ratard, an epidemiologist with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. "We'll probably end up with the worst outbreak."
(more)...
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Banning DDT to control global population [Free Republic]
... Banning DDT to control global population Government Front Page News Source: ECO-LOGIC
-----ON-LINE---- Published: Jan/15/2001 Author: Paul K. Driessen Posted ...
Bring back DDT [Free Republic]
... Bring back DDT Culture/Society Editorial Source: Jewish World Review Published: April
24 2001 Author: Betsy Hart Posted on 04/24/2001 06:02:38 PDT by SJackson. ...
Audubon's Fly-by-Night Pesticide Campaign [Free Republic]
... 30 years after its successful — but untruthful — campaign against the insecticide
DDT, the Audubon Society is targeting lawn chemicals used to control grubs ...
CENTER NAMES TEN TOP SCARE CAMPAIGNS THREATENING [Free ...
... The Banning of DDT is first on the list of the Center’s Chicken Little Awards, largely
due to the alarmist, false writings of Rachel Carson. "The sole purpose ...
Killing Mosquitoes Or Killing Humans? [Free Republic]
... long since been proven wrong. By way of just one example, she claimed that DDT spraying
could wipe out the US robin population. Instead, it actually increased ...
Billions Served (benefits of biotechnology the Greens won't ...
... Of course. This is a negative effect. We always have this. Take the case of DDT.
When it was banned here in the US and the European countries, I testified ...
Scams, Scalawags, and an all-too-gullible Public...famous frauds sold to America
Bring Back DDT, and Save Lives from the Wall Street Journal, July 28, 2000.
Bring back DDT, Jewish World Review, April 24, 2001.
Good idea. What do those cost, $495.00 per unit?
Sigh! And it has for so long been represented as a paradise.
Do you think USUV is a genetically engineered virus designed to kill people?
Don't know. The new variant has been sequenced and is 97% identical to the original. The original killed nothing, this one kills birds. It's not known what, if anything, it does to animals and humans.
Fri Aug 2, 4:39 PM ET
The West Nile virus has killed four of the 58 people in Louisiana
known to have been infected with the rare mosquito-borne illness,
putting this year's outbreak on pace to become the largest ever in the
United States, state health officials said on August 2, 2002. (Rich
Clement/Reuters Graphic)
http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/nm/20020802/westnile_0802_graphic.gif
Anyway, if someone went to the trouble to engineer a virus as a weapon, you'd think they would aim for something a bit more potent than this. It kills hardly anyone, doesn't even make most victims sick, and isn't contagious from human to human.
KAZAKHSTAN TERRORIZED BY MUTATED SPIDERS
2001-08-08 - Kazakhstan is panic-stricken. In Karaganda region rumours are spread about mutated spiders attacking people. Even doctors seem to believe these rumours. Now entomologists’ turn has come, though there is no doubt, that they will come to the same conclusion: as an influence of some factors, local insects have mutated.Pravda.RU - The number of karakurt spiders’ victims increasing - 2001-7-17
For the first time the mutants were noticed in Karaganda region two weeks ago, when a local resident arrived in hospital stung by a strange insect. After his description the doctors concluded, that the man had been stung by karakurt spider, in other words, by Black Widow spider, as it is called in the West. These spiders’ poison is several times stronger than the one of cobra.The most strange thing is, that karakurts have never lived on Kazakhstan territory – they prefer deserts to steppe, and besides, Kazakhstan climate is not right for karakurts. PRAVDA.Ru has already told about unexpected migration of karakurts from Kazakhstan to Altai region. In the city of Barnaul several people were stung by karakurts, the republic’s authorities even had to buy special serum in Uzbekistan (the medicine is sold only in the city of Tashkent).
So, at first Karaganda doctors did not pay much attention to this strange incident. Several days later, another strange thing appeared. The patient’s condition was developing in some other way, than it does after karakurt’s sting. Fever, loins’ paralysis and nephritis were being observed in him. At the moment, already seven cases of karakurt’s sting have been registered in the region. Sanitary inspectors organized a special expedition for catching the insects. As a result, several specimens got to doctors’ hands. These caught spiders really resemble Black Widow spider, though they are bigger. There are some other distinctions. Now sanitary epidemiological service supposes, people have suffered from mutating spiders. The caught spiders were handed over to entomologists, who have to make final conclusion. But it must be noticed, that articles about spiders very often appear in the press, though as a role they are seldom confirmed. For example a story about mutated spiders, which climbed out from cesspool in Ukraine and went to Russia. At that time, there were not any spiders, just scarabs well known to science were climbing out from the cesspool. Pravda.RU - Kazakhstan terrorized by mutated spiders
Actually, it's not known if this seemingly new variant does cause severe illness in humans.
Thing is, these viruses seem to be wandering out from their original "homelands", and they seem to be slightly different from the originals.
Here's another interesting one, this is unidentified but there's sort of a picture forming:
UNDIAGNOSED DEATHS - MADAGASCAR (FIANARANTSOA) (02) *************************************************** A ProMED-mail post ProMED-mail is a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases Date: Thu 1 Aug 2002 From: Pierre Bigras Source: Agence France Presse, Thu 1 Aug 2002 [edited] Madagascar: Death Toll Rises to 153 From Mystery Disease -------------------------------------------------------- At least 153 people have died in Madagascar in the past 2 weeks from a viral infection that has yet to identified by doctors, Health Minister Andry Rasamindrakotroka said on Thu 1 Aug 2002. The announcement came one day after he said 62 people had died in the southeastern village of Ikongo, around 500 kilometers (300 miles) from the capital, Antananarivo [see ref. below]. He said 89 people had died in the Alakamisy Ambohimaha region, and that at least 2 more people had perished in Ikongo. Rasamindrakotroka stressed that the figures were still coming in. The virus [or other infectious agent] that causes the illness has not yet been identified, but sufferers complain of flu-like symptoms that begin with a severe headache. The pain then spreads to the neck and chest and provokes a dry cough which, unless treated, results in death within 2 weeks. Doctors specialising in contagious diseases and members of the Pasteur Institute of Madagascar are at work trying to determine the cause of the outbreak. -- Pierre Bigras [As noted previously on ProMED, it is premature to assume that a virus rather than any other type of infectious agent is responsible for this outbreak of fatal disease. An arbovirus, such as West Nile virus, is one possible candidate. However, recent work indicates that the African isolates of West Nile virus are distinct phylogenically from the strain currently spreading in North America, which appears to have a European or Middle Eastern origin. - Mod.CP] [see also: Undiagnosed deaths - Madagascar (Fianarantsoa) 20020801.4906 1997 ----- West Nile Fever virus, lemurs - Madagascar: RFI 19970508.0952 1996 ------ Plague - Madagascar 19961023.1790 1995 ------ Plague - Madagascar (press report) 19950922.0873 Plague - Madagascar (2) 19951004.0908 Plague - Madagascar (3)19951011.0935] .......................................jw/cp/pg/jw *##########################################################* ProMED-mail makes every effort to verify the reports that are posted, but the accuracy and completeness of the information, and of any statements or opinions based thereon, are not guaranteed. The reader assumes all risks in using information posted or archived by ProMED-mail. ISID and its associated service providers shall not be held responsible for errors or omissions or held liable for any damages incurred as a result of use or reliance upon posted or archived material. ************************************************************ Visit ProMED-mail's web site at . Send all items for posting to: promed@promedmail.org (NOT to an individual moderator). If you do not give your full name and affiliation, it may not be posted. Send commands to subscribe/unsubscribe, get archives, help, etc. to: majordomo@promedmail.org. For assistance from a human being send mail to: owner-majordomo@promedmail.org. ############################################################ ############################################################
No. Like west nile virus, it's too inefficient.
There are all kinds of animal viruses that change species and attack men. Most require either direct contact, or a vector (flea, mosquito, etc).
The really dangerous illnesses would be lethal and spread worldwide quickly, killing more Arabs etc than Americans.
These things can occur spontaneously: and previous epidemics spread with armies and along trade routes. For example, malaria spread to ancient Rome with food shipments from North Africa, plague via the army fighting in Persia. Local bugs can spread to new populations where there is little immunity, and wipe out whole populations.
the real worry is something like the 1917 influenza epidemic, which crossed from (?)pigs and killed 40 million over the whole world in a two year period.
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