I don't know anything about microbiology but can anyone explain in simple terms how all these different type of viruses or bacterias like the aids virus, anthrax, mad cow disease came into being.Does it have anything to do with micro-evolution? It does raise serious questions about where this brand new, never before seen virus came from, especially since it cannot be contracted from eating pork products, and has never before been seen in pigs, and contains traits from the bird flu and which so far only seems to respond to Tamiflu.
According to the Associated Press at least one financial analyst estimates up to $388 million worth of Tamiflu sales in the near future. That's without a pandemic outbreak.
More than half a dozen pharmaceutical companies, including Gilead Sciences Inc., Roche, GlaxoSmithKline and other companies with a stake in flu treatments and detection, have seen a rise in their shares in a matter of days, and will likely see revenue boosts if the swine flu outbreak continues to spread.
In February 2009, American pharmaceutical company Baxter was under investigation for distributing the deadly avian flu virus to 18 different countries as part of a seasonal flu vaccine shipment. Czech reporters were probing to see if it may have been part of a deliberate attempt to start a pandemic; as such a "mistake" would be virtually impossible under the security protocols of that virus.
The contaminated product, a mix of H3N2 seasonal flu viruses and unlabelled H5N1 viruses, was supplied to an Austrian research company. The Austrian firm, Avir Green Hills Biotechnology, then sent portions of it to sub-contractors in the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Germany.
The contaminated product, which Baxter calls 鈥渆xperimental virus material,鈥?was made at the Orth-Donau research facility. Baxter makes its flu vaccine, including a human H5N1 vaccine (for which a licence is expected shortly) at a facility in the Czech Republic. People familiar with biosecurity rules are dismayed by evidence that human H3N2 and avian H5N1 viruses somehow co-mingled in the Orth-Donau facility. That is a dangerous practice that should not be allowed to happen, a number of experts insisted.
While H5N1 doesn鈥檛 easily infect people, H3N2 viruses do. If someone exposed to a mixture of the two had been simultaneously infected with both strains, he or she could have served as an incubator for a hybrid virus able to transmit easily to and among people. That mixing process, called 鈥渞eassortment鈥? is one of two ways pandemic viruses are created in the lab.
Reassortment is the mixing of the genetic material of two similar viruses that are infecting the same cell. In particular, reassortment occurs among influenza viruses, whose genomes consist of eight distinct segments of RNA. These segments act like mini-chromosomes, and each time a flu virus is assembled, it requires one copy of each segment.
The H5N1 virus on its own is not very airborne. However, when combined with seasonal flu viruses, which are more easily spread, the effect could be a potent, airborne, deadly, biological weapon. If this batch of live bird flu and seasonal flu viruses had reached the public, it could have resulted in terrible consequences. Some scientists say the most recent global outbreak (the 1977 Russian flu) was started by a virus created and leaked from a laboratory.
A top scientist for the United Nations, who has examined the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Africa, as well as HIV/AIDS victims, has concluded that the current swine flu virus possesses certain transmission "vectors" that suggest the new strain has been genetically-manufactured. The UN expert believes that Ebola, HIV/AIDS, and the current A-H1N1 swine flu virus are biological warfare agents.
Another example of the less sterling integrity of Big Pharma is the case of Bayer, who sold millions of dollars worth of an injectable blood-clotting medicine to Asian, Latin American, and some European countries in the mid-1980s, even though they knew it was tainted with the AIDS virus. Well, viruses have always been around. Bacteria even get viruses and if you have ever seen those tulips that have stripes on the petals-- yup that's a virus! Not all viruses are pathogeneic or cause disease, some just chill and hang out. I'm not sure what the explanation is to why they exist though, I would have to ponder that one for a bit.
Now, as far as zoonotic diseases (diseses that can go between two different animals) and the influenza virus specifically. Influenza is very messy when it replicates itself, This is why each year the flu is a different strain and why it is so difficult to produce a vaccine that will work for the flu season. This messy replication is actually an advantage to influenza as it allows it to keep changing.
How did it jump from pigs and humans? Because it is adapted to both. It is somewhat strange to consider in the US that someone caught the flu from a pig, but if you consider that in this country (the US) we are quite removed from livestock-- they are kept on a farm.
In some other countries, families will have livestock such as chickens, etc.. They are in closer contact with these animals which allows more opportunity for the virus to "jump"
I believe Jared Diamonds book "Guns, germs and steel" talks about some aspect of the concept that societies that were in close association with livestock (such as Europe in the 1500s) versus Native Americans (who did not domesticate animals except for horses). He points out that there were not as many (if any) zoonotic diseases in the Native American societies as compared to Europeans.
But I digress. Interesting book though =)
Hope that helped. Swine influenza is caused by strains of the influenza virus that affect pigs, including H1N1 and H3N2 influenza viruses. Pigs that contract swine flu suffer from similar symptoms as human influenza:
* Coughing or barking
* Runny, mucous discharge from the snout
* Sneezing and other breathing problems and difficulties
* The infected animal goes off feed
The H1N1 strain of swine influenza has been known to be transmitted to humans, and intimate contact like sneezing or kissing can transfer the virus between people. Like most forms of influenza, swine flu among humans is highly contagious. The person harboring the swine flu virus may be contagious for up to seven days from the onset of the illness. Its a Bio weapon !!
Three weeks back Bird flu was reportedly transported by the Department of homeland Security in USA
http://www.ufoblogger.blogspot.com/2009/...
Who benefits from Swine Flu Pandemic?
The swine flu outbreak is likely to benefit one of the most prolific and successful venture capital firms in the United States: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Thomson Reuters Private Equity Week reported on Friday.
Shares of the two public companies in the firm's portfolio of eight Pandemic and Bio Defense companies -- BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX.O) and Novavax (NVAX.O) -- jumped Friday on news that the swine flu killed a reported 60 people in Mexico and has infected people in the United States
http://www.ufoblogger.blogspot.com/2009/... agree with upstair, it's a weapon between countries.
http://swineflu.fortune998.com.cnn/ |
