BREAKING BIG: POSSIBLE PATHOGEN DETECTED IN SARS CASE

PROMED ^ | 03-18-03

[Mother Abigail]

Paramyxovirus-like particles identified by electron microscopy

Numerous tests have been performed on the 3 patients admitted on Saturday 15 March to the Isolation Unit at Frankfurt am Main with suspected severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Tests from respiratory specimens for influenza A and B virus, respiratory syncytial virus, enteroviruses, _Mycoplasma pneumoniae_ and _Chlamydia_ spp. by antigen enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and/or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were all negative; antibody tests for dengue, influenza A and B, measles, hantaviruses, _Mycoplasma pneumoniae_ and _Chlamydia_ spp. were likewise negative or unremarkable so far; further test results are pending.

Particles morphologically resembling paramyxoviruses were seen in respiratory specimens (throat swab and sputum) obtained from the index patient, a doctor from Singapore, by the teams in Marburg and in Frankfurt am Main.

It remains to be seen whether this finding can be confirmed -- tests including low-stringency paramyxovirus PCR and tissue culture are currently under way in Hamburg, in Marburg and in Frankfurt am Main. It needs to be emphasised that at this time these preliminary results only indicate a suspicion. Furthermore, even if the presence of a paramyxovirus was confirmed, it is not clear at this stage whether this might represent the causal agent of SARS or rather a coincidental finding.

[Oberon]

Hey, CD... that stuff is going around the Mount. My wife's throat hasn't felt right for going on a month; a good friend of ours has been sick with it for about as long.

Best of luck to you. I recommend two ounces of forty-percent ethanol solution taken orally, followed by bed rest.

[TC Rider]

Hmmmm...they had found some evidence of chlamydia bacteria (parachlamydia *and* psittacosis) in some of the Chinese cases.

Does that mean that someone has been eating at the 'Y'?

[Bahbah]

"Polycarp is an MD, IIRC, but he's sworn off FreeRepublic for Lent"

I see he takes sacrifice seriously.

[deJaz]

Go too google and type in paramyxoviruses and you will get the info your looking for.Good Luck

[CholeraJoe]

Antibiotics don't work against viruses. If it is a paramyxovirus, it probably jumped species from swine. From:Mandel's Principles and Practice of Infectious Disease:

Recently, Hendra and Hendra-like (Nipah) viruses, which are newly recognized viruses of the family Paramyxoviridae, have been implicated as causes of serious respiratory and encephalitic diseases in humans

[Bahbah]

"To view a negatively-stained electron micrograph of paramyxovirus particles, click here."

So the little devils are invisible, are they?

[TC Rider]

Look for at least one colloidal silver enthusiast to poke his head in this thread before it's over. (It's like a tinfoil hat that you swallow.)

and then you turn blue?

[Constitution Day]

I'm going this afternoon.
I can't be sick for our rally on Saturday!

[xsmommy]

okay, jumped species. how does that happen? is is happenstance, or do you think it has something to do with bioterror?

[xsmommy]

is your munchkin sick? did you catch it from her?

[Oberon]

and then you turn blue?

You only turn blue if you're from north of the Mason-Dixon line. Otherwise you turn gray.

[hispanarepublicana]

Here's the info I Googled on this weird super-flu The Stand coincidence ! (Not sure it makes me feel any better).

About the Book: This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death. And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides -- or are chosen. A world in which good rides on the frail shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abigail -- and the worst nightmares of evil are embodied in a man with a lethal smile and unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg, the dark man.

[Constitution Day]

I caught it at work, and she caught it from me.
Mrs. CD is not sick (yet).

[CholeraJoe]

do you think it has something to do with bioterror?

Sorry, tinfoil hat not installed. Animal viruses jump species from time to time. Some cause trouble, some don't.

[Snowy]

Quit making me feel creepy!

[xsmommy]

so it is you and your ilk that goes species hopping that is the problem?? ; )

[BJClinton]

It doesn't look like it. Most of these are spread by close personal contact so a little quarantine of the infected people plus our modern medicine should be adequate.

I would, however, recommend plastic wrap and duct tape for the windows.

[TaxRelief]

Found this great diary excerpt of Spanish Flu researchers:

Sat, 20 Nov 1999

Update on the 1918 Spanish Flu project
undertaken in Longyearbyen, Spitzbergen in September 1998.
by Peter Lewin M.D., FI'79

Six Norwegian miners who died in 1918 of the Spanish influenza pandemic were exhumed. Although we had thought that these individuals were preserved frozen in the permafrost layer, they had over the years gradually been extruded from the permafrost and were found partially decomposed only a few feet from the surface.

We obtained over 100 tissue specimens from these individuals. Detailed virological studies undertaken in the United Kingdom have revealed no evidence of any live Influenza virus. However it can now be reported that Dr. Daniels at the Medical Research Council virological laboratories in London, one of our research team members has found evidence of numerous fragments of the Flu haemaglutini H1 gene. The isolated small RNA gene fragments seem to be different to that isolated from the US and Alaskan Spanish Flu Virus. It may be that there were two concurrent Pathogenic Flu viral infections in 1918. One North American and the other European possibly mutated from the later. RNA Viral fragments were found in two of the brains of the Spanish Flu Victims, and may be the first clue of the etiologic agent of encephalitis lethargica. This nervous condition developed in many Flu survivors and was associated with excessive sleep, behaviour disturbances and involuntary movements.

On going research will give us clues as to why the 1918 Flu Pandemic was so deadly, and lead to better vaccines and anti viral antibiotics to prevent such a scourge in the future.

Peter K.Lewin MD, FI79



August 16 - September, 1998

Peter Lewin M.D., FI'79 writes that the "Search for the Spanish
Flu" project, led by Canadian geographer Dr. Kirsty Duncan, is once again underway in Spitzbergen. The team, which includes medical archaeologist Dr. Lewin, is attempting to recover the bodies of seven miners who died of the "Spanish Flu" in the town of Longyearbyen in 1918. The bodies, which were buried in the permaforost, may contain intact and possible viable virus, which could once and for all confirm what infectious agent caused the terrible "Spanish Flu" epidemic. The agent is suspected to have been a very virulent form of Influenza.

Last year the team used ground penetrating radar to survey the graveyard and determine how deeply the bodies were buried, and hence what their probably state of preservation might be. The presence of the bodies within the Permafrost suggested that preservation would be good and plans were made to exhume the bodies and take tissue samples in the Fall of 1998. This stage of the expedition was written up by Malcolm Gladwell in the September 29th, 1997 issue of the New Yorker and by The Canadian Discovery Channel

The exhumation and sampling component of the project is expected to be successfully completed by the middle of September 1998. Although the bodies will not be thawed, the second stage of the project entails tremendous risk as the virus could still be viable in a frozen state. The researchers will wear Level IV containment suits and all necessary precautions will be taken to safeguard the samples. Large biopsy tubes will be screwed into the bodies and core samples taken of frozen tissue from lungs, throats and brains. The specimens will be transported under the strictest of isolation measures to Level 4 (Highest Level of Containment) Laboratories in the US, Norway and the UK and Canada. There detailed virological and bacteriological studies will be undertaken to characterize the agent, which caused from 20-40 million of deaths worldwide in 1918-19.

REPORT FROM THE FIELD
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 22:15:13 -0400
This is an update on our 1918 Flu project in Longyearbyen, Spitzbergen.

The second phase of our project was a great success with the discovery of the coffins and bodies of the seven young miners, who died in 1918 of the Spanish Flu.

The bodies were found only inches under the topsoil, and were notfrozen. They were partially decomposed and over 100 tissue and organ samples were taken for laboratory investigations.

The bodies over the years may have been gradually extruded from the permafrost, particularly in recent years with global warming. These factors are important as corpses of individuals who died many years ago with serious infectious disease like smallpox, may be extruded from the permafrost and become a serious public health problem in the future.

In the meantime our research group will be involved in a detailed virological study to characterize the 1918 Influenza Virus and possibly associated bacteria and other factors.

Our Project web site is: http://www.spanishflu.utoronto.ca/

[null and void]

ping?

Both on FR???

[xsmommy]

then the lot of you will need antibiotics if it's strep! knock wood, none of the xsfamily has ever had strep. we must have some sort of resistance. i don't know how else it could be possible, since they have been exposed and tested in the past.