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Thread: The next pandemic - Page 4







Post#76 at 10-08-2005 12:45 PM by Roadbldr '59 [at Vancouver, Washington joined Jul 2001 #posts 8,275]
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Quote Originally Posted by Croakmore
Quote Originally Posted by JTaber 1972
Some hope here?

http://us.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/condit....ap/index.html

Researchers reconstruct 1918 virus
Scientists seek better understanding of bird flu


Wednesday, October 5, 2005; Posted: 9:03 p.m. EDT (01:03 GMT)

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- Scientists have made from scratch the Spanish flu virus that killed as many as 50 million people in 1918, the first time an infectious agent behind a historic pandemic has ever been reconstructed.
This "made from scratch" assertion bothers me a little, because they didn't make the genes from scratch. They bought them from a mail-order catalog. And, furthermore, this is not the first time a pandemic virus has been "reconstructed." In 2002, scientists made a polio virus from mail-order genes.

--Croak
Yeah it's scary! If our scientists can reconstruct pandemic viruses "for research purposes" from bits and pieces of preserved viral gene material, so can whitecoats working for terrorists :shock: .
"Better hurry. There's a storm coming. His storm!!!" :-O -Abigail Freemantle, "The Stand" by Stephen King







Post#77 at 10-09-2005 11:28 PM by cbailey [at B. 1950 joined Sep 2001 #posts 1,559]
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:shock:

Preparing for the Upcoming Influenza Pandemic

http://www.fluwikie.com/uploads/Cons...wGuideOct5.pdf
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." -- Theodore Roosevelt







Post#78 at 10-10-2005 01:19 PM by cbailey [at B. 1950 joined Sep 2001 #posts 1,559]
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Economists say avian flu could have huge impact

http://www.usatoday.com/money/econom...flu-usat_x.htm
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." -- Theodore Roosevelt







Post#79 at 10-11-2005 11:26 AM by Tom Mazanec [at NE Ohio 1958 joined Sep 2001 #posts 1,511]
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You know, if a pandemic starts the 4T we might see nanotech as the technological revolution of the next generation. "Never Again" could be the cry, and only nanomedicine would give us a chance to deal with microbes in an effective and timely fashion.







Post#80 at 10-14-2005 04:27 PM by The Wonkette [at Arlington, VA 1956 joined Jul 2002 #posts 9,209]
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From today's Government Executive
Systems cannot combat flu pandemic, health officials say
By Randy Barrett, National Journal's Technology Daily


The American health care system does not have the information infrastructure needed to effectively combat a flu pandemic, leading health experts said Wednesday.
The heart of the problem is not tracking influenza but getting critical information on outbreaks to doctors and local emergency responders and then back to crisis planners, Tara O'Toole, director of the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh, said at a Capitol Hill panel sponsored by Trust for America's Health.

"Right now we have a very clunky system to allow the medical [community] to communicate," O'Toole said. Digital patient data would help alleviate the problem by letting doctors quickly transmit and share information about illness. "Electronic health records are a matter of national security," she added.

Health experts are now warning of an inevitable flu pandemic based on the virus H5N1, which has devastated Asian chicken populations and infected 117 people who had direct contact with sick animals, according to the World Health Organization. Sixty of those people died. The 50 percent death rate is unprecedented in modern history, O'Toole said. By contrast, the 1918 Spanish flu killed only 2 percent of those infected.

The key to good communication about any spreading epidemic is accurate information, Jeff Duchin, chief of communicable disease control at the University of Washington, said in an interview with National Journal's Technology Daily.

"One of our challenges is to sort through the large amount of information coming across our screens to find out what is reliable," Duchin said. For example, recent news of a viral resistance to Tamiflu, a treatment for the flu, proved to be false. "You really can't put a lot of stock in a single report," he said.

Most epidemiologists depend on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for updated alerts. "Then you need to get the information to the front lines with doctors and hospitals," Duchin said.

Internet bulletin boards with backup systems on secure Web sites would help, he added, but many local responders work outside cyberspace. "A lot of folks are hard to reach," he said. "Not everyone is on the network."

Duchin said the footwork and relationship-building need to occur before a health crisis. "It's pretty old-fashioned; you have to put people on the ground [to establish trust]," he said.

Unfortunately, experts agree that local governments have little money for such planning, and consequently little work has been done to prepare for a pandemic flu outbreak. "Hospitals are not well-integrated into disaster preparedness plans," O'Toole said. "They are not ready."

Scientists are closely watching for changes in H5N1, which is now only two amino acids from being able to transmit itself from person to person. Experts also agree that containing such a pathogen is nearly impossible given modern travel habits.

"A quarantine is not going to work in containing this flu," O'Toole said.

Instead, government officials and health workers are hoping they can spot a pandemic early and slow the disease through the use of limited anti-viral drugs if it occurs this winter. "We must act now to get prepared," she said.
I want people to know that peace is possible even in this stupid day and age. Prem Rawat, June 8, 2008







Post#81 at 10-14-2005 06:19 PM by mandelbrot5 [at joined Jun 2003 #posts 200]
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Peter Kornbluth, a blogger on Beliefnet.com, suggests that if the pandemic happens all those of us who will not be receiving the vaccine (he believes that essentially this will be the blue states) consider smearing a "D" in lambs blood on their front doors. The "D" will stand for Democrat, those of us who didn't vote for Bush.







Post#82 at 10-14-2005 07:32 PM by [at joined #posts ]
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Quote Originally Posted by mandelbrot5
Peter Kornbluth, a blogger on Beliefnet.com, suggests that if the pandemic happens all those of us who will not be receiving the vaccine (he believes that essentially this will be the blue states) consider smearing a "D" in lambs blood on their front doors. The "D" will stand for Democrat, those of us who didn't vote for Bush.
Liberalism is a religion.







Post#83 at 10-14-2005 07:34 PM by cbailey [at B. 1950 joined Sep 2001 #posts 1,559]
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More information on the flu.



http://www.fluwikie.com/index.php?n=Main.HomePage

About the FluWiki

The purpose of the Flu Wiki is to help local communities prepare for and perhaps cope with a possible influenza pandemic. This is a task previously ceded to local, state and national governmental public health agencies. Our goal is to be:


a reliable source of information, as neutral as possible, about important facts useful for a public health approach to pandemic influenza

a venue for anticipating the vast range of problems that may arise if a pandemic does occur

a venue for thinking about implementable solutions to foreseeable problems
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." -- Theodore Roosevelt







Post#84 at 10-14-2005 09:12 PM by Virgil K. Saari [at '49er, north of the Mesabi Mountains joined Jun 2001 #posts 7,835]
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Dubya is its prophet.







Post#85 at 10-14-2005 11:59 PM by [at joined #posts ]
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Yup. Bush sucks, Got milk? And we're all gonna die.

Any questions... Corky Taylor... Ron Behagen et al?

I shall never ever forget, Minnesota. Never, $aari. :evil:







Post#86 at 10-15-2005 07:53 AM by Roadbldr '59 [at Vancouver, Washington joined Jul 2001 #posts 8,275]
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Bird flu? HAH!!!

And you were worried about bird flu? Watch out... here comes DOG flu! Wait till this puppy jumps from Man's Best Friend to humans. :shock:


Posted for informational purposes only.

Pet Owners Worry About Spread of Dog Flu
By JIM FITZGERALD, AP

CHESTNUT RIDGE, N.Y. (Oct. 14) - Every inch the pampered purebred, the fluffy white dog Curry stands like a statue for his haircut at the Best Friends Pet Resort and Salon.

He looks, and is, perfectly healthy. But Curry, a bichon frise, was one sick puppy a month ago. And the Best Friends kennel was forced to close for three weeks after more than 100 other dogs began showing signs of what turned out to be a new disease: canine influenza virus, or dog flu.

"He was extremely lethargic, having a hard time breathing," said Curry's owner, Margaret Ragi of Upper Saddle River, N.J. "The life just wasn't there in his eyes. We were really worried."

Lots of dog lovers are worried these days. Experts say the flu is spreading steadily through the nation's dogs, with no vaccine available to curb it. Perhaps 5 percent of its victims are dying.

Researchers recently found to their surprise that the virus had crossed over from horses to dogs, striking greyhounds at racetracks in 11 states. Now it has been found in pets, with cases documented in California, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon and Washington state.

"One-hundred percent of dogs will be susceptible," said Edward Dubovi, director of the animal virology lab at Cornell University. "I would expect to see this infection moving thorough groups of dogs until a large percentage gets infected and there are a lot of immune dogs."

Cynda Crawford, a veterinary immunologist at the University of Florida, said researchers are getting positive readings on 30 percent to 40 percent of the blood and tissue samples sent in by veterinarians who think they might be treating a dog with influenza. The symptoms include a cough, low-grade fever and a runny nose.

Exactly how many dogs have died is unclear. Crawford said many of the animals were young and otherwise healthy.

Many pet owners and veterinarians have been fooled because some of the symptoms mimic a common, less dangerous bacterial infection known as kennel cough.

As with human influenza, dog flu is most easily contracted in gathering places - kennels, dog shows, animal shelters, even dog runs in parks.

That has resulted in a lot of lonely dogs, as pet owners keep them home to avoid the flu. Several days after the kennel in Chestnut Ridge reopened, there were just six dogs in "doggie day care," down from the usual 17, and just 50 boarding, down from 150, said manager Kelly Kurash.

The suburban New York kennel had closed Sept. 10 after staffers realized that the illness going around was not kennel cough. Dogs were sent home or to hospitals, and one sheepdog died a few days later.

"We knew we were dealing with something more serious," said Deborah Bennetts, spokeswoman for the Best Friends chain, based in Norwalk, Conn. "It seemed to be spreading and some dogs were getting seriously ill."

Tests on the dogs confirmed the new virus.

Best Friends had the entire building disinfected and changed the air conditioner filters. When the kennel reopened Sept. 30, some dogs were turned away. At the 42 Best Friends kennels in 18 states, "we're not allowing any dog that has boarded within the last two weeks or has been at a dog show or some kind of group setting like doggie day care," Bennetts said.

Dubovi said researchers are at work on a vaccine, but it could be months before it becomes available.

Some vets fear another upswing in cases at Thanksgiving and Christmas, when, as in the late summer, many people go away and put their dogs in kennels.


10/14/05 13:51 EDT


Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.
"Better hurry. There's a storm coming. His storm!!!" :-O -Abigail Freemantle, "The Stand" by Stephen King







Post#87 at 10-15-2005 08:14 AM by Ricercar71 [at joined Jul 2001 #posts 1,038]
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Quote Originally Posted by Tom Mazanec
You know, if a pandemic starts the 4T we might see nanotech as the technological revolution of the next generation. "Never Again" could be the cry, and only nanomedicine would give us a chance to deal with microbes in an effective and timely fashion.
all medicine is "nano-medicine"

there are drugs and there are drug targets. this dynamic operates on its most fundamental level at the sub-micron scale.
------------------

"Oh well, whatever, nevermind." - Nirvana







Post#88 at 10-15-2005 08:23 AM by Roadbldr '59 [at Vancouver, Washington joined Jul 2001 #posts 8,275]
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Quote Originally Posted by Ricercar71
Quote Originally Posted by Tom Mazanec
You know, if a pandemic starts the 4T we might see nanotech as the technological revolution of the next generation. "Never Again" could be the cry, and only nanomedicine would give us a chance to deal with microbes in an effective and timely fashion.
all medicine is "nano-medicine"

there are drugs and there are drug targets. this dynamic operates on its most fundamental level at the sub-micron scale.
I think what Tom means are medical nano-machines that are actually developed on the level at which they operate. Nanomedicine as such may be what ultimately saves the day, protecting humanity from being completely devoured by a tide of hungry new microbes, viruses and prions. However, the idea of mechanical killer cells coursing about our bloodstreams also makes the hair on the back of my neck prickly... such infinitesmal machines would bear an uncomfortable resemblance to Borg nanocytes.
"Better hurry. There's a storm coming. His storm!!!" :-O -Abigail Freemantle, "The Stand" by Stephen King







Post#89 at 10-18-2005 10:30 PM by Roadbldr '59 [at Vancouver, Washington joined Jul 2001 #posts 8,275]
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Re: Bird flu? HAH!!!

Quote Originally Posted by Roadbldr '59
And you were worried about bird flu? Watch out... here comes DOG flu! Wait till this puppy jumps from Man's Best Friend to humans. :shock:


Posted for informational purposes only.

Pet Owners Worry About Spread of Dog Flu
By JIM FITZGERALD, AP

CHESTNUT RIDGE, N.Y. (Oct. 14) - Every inch the pampered purebred, the fluffy white dog Curry stands like a statue for his haircut at the Best Friends Pet Resort and Salon.

He looks, and is, perfectly healthy. But Curry, a bichon frise, was one sick puppy a month ago. And the Best Friends kennel was forced to close for three weeks after more than 100 other dogs began showing signs of what turned out to be a new disease: canine influenza virus, or dog flu.

"He was extremely lethargic, having a hard time breathing," said Curry's owner, Margaret Ragi of Upper Saddle River, N.J. "The life just wasn't there in his eyes. We were really worried."

Lots of dog lovers are worried these days. Experts say the flu is spreading steadily through the nation's dogs, with no vaccine available to curb it. Perhaps 5 percent of its victims are dying.

Researchers recently found to their surprise that the virus had crossed over from horses to dogs, striking greyhounds at racetracks in 11 states. Now it has been found in pets, with cases documented in California, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon and Washington state.

"One-hundred percent of dogs will be susceptible," said Edward Dubovi, director of the animal virology lab at Cornell University. "I would expect to see this infection moving thorough groups of dogs until a large percentage gets infected and there are a lot of immune dogs."

Cynda Crawford, a veterinary immunologist at the University of Florida, said researchers are getting positive readings on 30 percent to 40 percent of the blood and tissue samples sent in by veterinarians who think they might be treating a dog with influenza. The symptoms include a cough, low-grade fever and a runny nose.

Exactly how many dogs have died is unclear. Crawford said many of the animals were young and otherwise healthy.

Many pet owners and veterinarians have been fooled because some of the symptoms mimic a common, less dangerous bacterial infection known as kennel cough.

As with human influenza, dog flu is most easily contracted in gathering places - kennels, dog shows, animal shelters, even dog runs in parks.

That has resulted in a lot of lonely dogs, as pet owners keep them home to avoid the flu. Several days after the kennel in Chestnut Ridge reopened, there were just six dogs in "doggie day care," down from the usual 17, and just 50 boarding, down from 150, said manager Kelly Kurash.

The suburban New York kennel had closed Sept. 10 after staffers realized that the illness going around was not kennel cough. Dogs were sent home or to hospitals, and one sheepdog died a few days later.

"We knew we were dealing with something more serious," said Deborah Bennetts, spokeswoman for the Best Friends chain, based in Norwalk, Conn. "It seemed to be spreading and some dogs were getting seriously ill."

Tests on the dogs confirmed the new virus.

Best Friends had the entire building disinfected and changed the air conditioner filters. When the kennel reopened Sept. 30, some dogs were turned away. At the 42 Best Friends kennels in 18 states, "we're not allowing any dog that has boarded within the last two weeks or has been at a dog show or some kind of group setting like doggie day care," Bennetts said.

Dubovi said researchers are at work on a vaccine, but it could be months before it becomes available.

Some vets fear another upswing in cases at Thanksgiving and Christmas, when, as in the late summer, many people go away and put their dogs in kennels.


10/14/05 13:51 EDT


Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.
Post-script: I had a chat with one of my neighbors Sunday night, whose mom adopted an "orphaned" Katrina dog. The dog got sick in short order and died last week... apparently from the Dog Flu.
"Better hurry. There's a storm coming. His storm!!!" :-O -Abigail Freemantle, "The Stand" by Stephen King







Post#90 at 01-08-2006 12:35 AM by Andy '85 [at Texas joined Aug 2003 #posts 1,465]
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Just curiously, anyone paying attention to the developing situation in Turkey over the H5N1 strain of bird flu that appears to have taken the nation by surprise? Already three children have died from it and 50 are believed to be infected.

Could this be the spark of the next great pandemic?
Right-Wing liberal, slow progressive, and other contradictions straddling both the past and future, but out of touch with the present . . .

"We also know there are known unknowns.
That is to say, we know there are some things we do not know." - Donald Rumsfeld







Post#91 at 01-08-2006 12:43 AM by The Pervert [at A D&D Character sheet joined Jan 2002 #posts 1,169]
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Quote Originally Posted by Andy '85
Just curiously, anyone paying attention to the developing situation in Turkey over the H5N1 strain of bird flu that appears to have taken the nation by surprise? Already three children have died from it and 50 are believed to be infected.

Could this be the spark of the next great pandemic?
To answer your questions, yes and I hope not.
Your local general nuisance
"I am not an alter ego. I am an unaltered id!"







Post#92 at 01-08-2006 12:47 AM by John J. Xenakis [at Cambridge, MA joined May 2003 #posts 4,010]
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Dear Andy,

Quote Originally Posted by Andy '85
> Just curiously, anyone paying attention to the developing
> situation in Turkey over the H5N1 strain of bird flu that appears
> to have taken the nation by surprise? Already three children have
> died from it and 50 are believed to be infected.

> Could this be the spark of the next great pandemic?
If you'd like to track bird flu issues on a daily basis, here are two
good places:

Henry Niman's commentaries on his Recombinomics web site
http://www.recombinomics.com/whats_new.html

The Flu Clinic Forum
http://www.curevents.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=40

Sincerely,

John

John J. Xenakis
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com







Post#93 at 01-08-2006 01:01 AM by Andy '85 [at Texas joined Aug 2003 #posts 1,465]
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Interesting and informative sites, thanks.
Right-Wing liberal, slow progressive, and other contradictions straddling both the past and future, but out of touch with the present . . .

"We also know there are known unknowns.
That is to say, we know there are some things we do not know." - Donald Rumsfeld







Post#94 at 02-03-2006 02:30 PM by Straha [at joined Jan 2004 #posts 63]
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Its western involvement/trade in places like africa that's reponsible for new diseases coming out of there. The best solution is to just quarantine the continent, put a shitload of radioactive waste on the sinai peninsula then put alot of mines in the shores. IF we'd done that in 1945 we wouldn't hsave AIDS come out.







Post#95 at 02-08-2006 04:30 PM by Mr. Reed [at Intersection of History joined Jun 2001 #posts 4,376]
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Is a cure for AIDS on the way?

If this compound lives up to its hype, AIDS could go the way of polio.

Has BYU prof found AIDS cure?

Compound could be long-sought breakthrough
By Bob Mims
The Salt Lake Tribune

Researchers, including a BYU scientist, believe they have found a new compound that could finally kill the HIV/AIDS virus, not just slow it down as current treatments do.
And, unlike the expensive, drug cocktails 25 years of research have produced for those with the deadly virus, the compound invented by Paul D. Savage of Brigham Young University appears to hunt down and kill HIV.
Although so far limited to early test tube studies, CSA-54, one of a family of compounds called Ceragenins (or CSAs), mimics the disease-fighting characteristics of anti-microbial and anti-viral agents produced naturally by a healthy human immune system.
Under a study sponsored by Ceragenix Pharmaceuticals, Savage and his colleagues developed and synthesized the compound for Vanderbilt University's School of Medicine. In his Nashville, Tenn., laboratories, Derya Unutmaz, an associate professor of Microbiology and Immunology, tested several CSAs for their ability to kill HIV.
While issuing a cautious caveat about his early results, Unutmaz acknowledged Monday that CSAs could be the breakthrough HIV/AIDS researchers have sought for so long.
"We received these agents [from BYU] in early October and our initial results began to culminate by November 2005. We have since reproduced all our results many times," he said. "We have some preliminary but very exciting results [but] we would like to formally show this before making any claims that would cause unwanted hype."
What studies to date show is a compound that attacks HIV at its molecular membrane level, disrupting the virus from interacting with their primary targets, the "T-helper" class white blood cells that comprise and direct the human immune system. Further, CSAs appear to be deadly to all known strains of HIV.
That would be a welcome development for the estimated 40.3 million people now living with HIV/AIDS globally, including nearly 5 million newly infected in the past year alone.
"We have devoted considerable resources to understand the mechanism of these compounds. We think this knowledge will enable us in collaboration with Dr. Savage to design even better compounds," Unutmaz said.
In addition to being a potential checkmate to HIV, the compounds show indications of being just as effective against other diseases plaguing humankind - among them influenza, possibly even the dread bird flu, along with smallpox and herpes.
Savage said he and his BYU research team had been studying CSAs for eight years, noting the compounds' value against microbial and bacteria infections. It was only a year ago they saw that CSAs killed viruses, too.
"They kill viruses very effectively and in a way paralleling our own, natural defenses," Savage said, noting that beyond the obvious use as a weapon against the AIDS pandemic, CSAs could help many others with non-HIV immune deficiencies.
Further, the compounds appear to have few limits on how they are delivered to patients. Although early indications are for application

Advertisement

of CSAs with an ointment or cream, pills or injections may also be developed - if the compound gets to market.
BYU and Vanderbilt have jointly filed a patent on CSA technology, which has been licensed exclusively to Ceragenix.
Ceragenix CEO and Chairman Steven Porter said only further research will tell, but he was optimistic about the application of CSAs in the war on HIV/AIDS. There are indications that it could help battle antibiotic- and antiviral-resistance strains of disease as they manifest themselves.
"We are encouraged . . . that CSAs may provide a completely unique family of anti-infectives, potentially active against a wide range of viral, fungal and bacterial targets, including those resistant to current therapies," he said.
Assuming continued positive test results in animal and eventual human trials, Porter estimates it could be three to seven years before the compound is available by prescription. That transition could be accelerated, however, if the Food and Drug Administration should decide to fast-track the drug.
That day is still a long way off, though. First, researchers plan to publish their results in scientific journals, seeking peer review and independent confirmation of their findings. Assuming no flaws are found, several rounds of testing would follow.
Most of the nation's leading AIDS experts were attending the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Denver on Monday. The event's policies prohibits on-site news conferences or releases during the conference, and efforts to reach scientists there were not successful.
Of the few AIDS research luminaries reached, all said they preferred not to comment on the Vanderbilt tests until full results are published.
bmims@sltrib.com





l Paul Savage and his Brigham Young University research team have invented CSA-54, a chemical compound that holds the promise of killing the HIV virus.

l CSA-54 is one of a family of compounds called Ceragenins that mimic the disease-fighting characteristics of a healthy human immune system.

l Tests at Vanderbilt University indicate the BYU compound also could be effective against influenza, small pox and herpes.

l Assuming continued positive results, CSA-54 could be available in three to seven years.
"The urge to dream, and the will to enable it is fundamental to being human and have coincided with what it is to be American." -- Neil deGrasse Tyson
intp '82er







Post#96 at 02-17-2006 04:40 PM by Earl and Mooch [at Delaware - we pave paradise and put up parking lots joined Sep 2002 #posts 2,106]
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In Nigeria, it's worse than I thought:

http://us.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/ander...oper.360/blog/
Quote Originally Posted by Jeff Koinange
Bird Flu has hit Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and the continent's biggest poultry producer, with a vengeance. In one part of the country alone, more than 140,000 chickens have been culled, and that's just the beginning.

In farm after farm we visited for tonight's show, we witnessed disturbing scenes of chickens being slaughtered without proper supervision or equipment, with health officials using blunt knives, without gloves or protective suits, the animals' blood spraying the officials' clothes and bodies.

In some cases, the birds were dumped into pits and set alight. But in others, they were simply tossed into shallow pits and left there to rot in the hot African sun. This, scientists say, poses a problem. Uninformed locals, many of them poor, illiterate and living in remote areas, have been dipping into the pits and coming up with armloads of dead and possibly contaminated chickens. They told us they felt the whole culling exercise was a waste of what they called good meat and that they would take the birds home and cook them for their hungry families.

Health officials fear this could be the beginning of a potential pandemic, as this is one way the bird flu virus can mutate from animals to humans. And in open-air meat markets like one we visited in downtown Kano, chickens continue to be a big seller, with locals telling us they believe bird flu is a myth and that until they see evidence of humans being infected, they won't stop buying and eating chickens.

That may be too late. Although no one in Nigeria has died of bird flu, the virus has already killed more than 90 people around the world. Unfortunately, Nigeria seems to be providing the perfect uncontrolled environment for the H5N1 virus to thrive.
"My generation, we were the generation that was going to change the world: somehow we were going to make it a little less lonely, a little less hungry, a little more just place. But it seems that when that promise slipped through our hands we didnīt replace it with nothing but lost faith."

Bruce Springsteen, 1987
http://brucebase.wikispaces.com/1987...+YORK+CITY,+NY







Post#97 at 02-18-2006 09:50 PM by Croakmore [at The hazardous reefs of Silentium joined Nov 2001 #posts 2,426]
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The rumblings deepen. I see evidence of pre-hysteria over bird flu in the highly credible Toedo Blade: Bird flu pandemic deemed inevitable. I'm not sure what to think of it, but I am alarmed that both Science and Nature have covered it so intensively.

--Croakmore







Post#98 at 03-02-2006 12:02 PM by Croakmore [at The hazardous reefs of Silentium joined Nov 2001 #posts 2,426]
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Several days ago I emailed this inquiry to the Washington State Dept. of Health:

"There is a very good chance that avian flu will be brought to us on the wings of starlings, crows, pigeons, seagulls, and geese. These highly mobile flocks of birds will be the transport agents of avian flu, not unlike the way rats served as such agents of the Plague in the Dark Ages. Has the Department of Health considered any measures for managing the populations of these wild birds that now seriously threaten our health?"

So far, no reply. If I don't hear from the Dept. soon I will accuse the state of Washington of anticipating bird flu with the same ignorance shown by those of the Dark Ages who let the rats run free.

--Croakmore







Post#99 at 03-06-2006 03:04 PM by Tom Mazanec [at NE Ohio 1958 joined Sep 2001 #posts 1,511]
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03-06-2006, 03:04 PM #99
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Post#100 at 03-06-2006 03:53 PM by The Pervert [at A D&D Character sheet joined Jan 2002 #posts 1,169]
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03-06-2006, 03:53 PM #100
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Quote Originally Posted by Croakmore
Several days ago I emailed this inquiry to the Washington State Dept. of Health:

"There is a very good chance that avian flu will be brought to us on the wings of starlings, crows, pigeons, seagulls, and geese. These highly mobile flocks of birds will be the transport agents of avian flu, not unlike the way rats served as such agents of the Plague in the Dark Ages. Has the Department of Health considered any measures for managing the populations of these wild birds that now seriously threaten our health?"

So far, no reply. If I don't hear from the Dept. soon I will accuse the state of Washington of anticipating bird flu with the same ignorance shown by those of the Dark Ages who let the rats run free.

--Croakmore
I expect management of wild birds belongs to the equivalent of the Department of Natural Resources, not the Dept. of Health. Consequently, you might be dealing with a turf battle.

Why not find out if there are legislative committees that oversee those departments? Write to the members of those committees. You might get more response from at least one of them than from two bureaucracies that usually have no reason to talk to each other.
Your local general nuisance
"I am not an alter ego. I am an unaltered id!"
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