I am increasingly concerned about the anti-vaccination movement. It seems, on the surface, to be simply irrational. But when we dig deeper into this issue, we detect some rather frightful matters attached like barnacles to the bottom of this particular boat. First, some good news concerning vaccinations, especially the very wonderful news that we may eventually see a real vaccination against that terrible scourge, AIDS:.
Sinovac Shares Rose After Chinese Government Approved Vaccine (SVA) – FOXBusiness.com
Sep 03, 2009 (SmarTrend(R) News Watch via COMTEX) —-9/3/2009 – Sinovac Biotech Ltd. (NYSE:SVA) shares rose 6.6% in afternoon trading Thursday after the Chinese government approved its one-shot swine flu vaccine and issued a production license to the company to start making the drug. The vaccine is the first to be approved by the Chinese regulators. Sinovac and Novartis AG are the only company’s who have said their vaccine may protect people with one shot instead of two.
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OK: one of the favored conspiracy theories of the radicals who hate vaccinations is the mythology that governments want to kill you and me with a shot to the arm. Now, logically speaking, why would the Chinese government want to kill off all the Chinese people? True, the LDP in Japan seemed awfully indifferent to whether or not the Japanese people even survived or reproduced. But I assure everyone, China’s government wants its own people to be healthy and strong.
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Of course, the profits from pollution means ignoring health issues. But this seems to be rapidly clearing up as the government is responding to both international outrage but even more, internal fury over pollution. The good parents of Chinese children do not want them poisoned by factory or energy plant wastes just like, they want to have safe schools in earthquake zones. There is tremendous pressure on the communist leadership to protect the children and this pressure grows as China’s wealth increases.
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I would suggest that China is very intent on a safe vaccination that will protect the Chinese people from swine or any other flues. Historically, many of the worst viral outbreaks that killed millions originated in China. This is because, even 100 years ago, China had one quarter of the planet’s population and many of these people lived very closely with pigs, ducks, chickens and oxen. The intensive farming methods using these animals to grow, fertilize, crop and fallow farmlands is a huge intersection between germs and humans. The mutation rates of various diseases were very high due to the intermix of populations which were extremely close in proximity due to pens, leashes and flock control methods.
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The US government is doing exactly the same thing the Chinese communists are doing: trying to stop any possible pandemic. This is because, millions of deaths would be a grave problem for the US especially if it is children and young adults. If anyone imagines that vaccinations are being deviously designed to kill us, this begs the logical question, why? That is, if the germs will kill us, why use other methods? I find this illogical systematic thinking to be a key characteristic of many conspiracy belief systems. Indeed, the seem addicted to this sort of illogical thinking. If a government protect people, the irrational believers in conspiracies think this is a tricky way to really kill us. And if the government does nothing when danger approaches, ditto! This is beyond silly, it is stupid.
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New hope for Aids vaccine as scientists find ‘Achilles heel’ – Times Online
The search for an HIV vaccine has taken a major step forward with the discovery of a potential Achilles heel of the virus that causes Aids. .
Two powerful antibodies that attack a vulnerable spot common to many strains of HIV have been identified, improving the prospects for a vaccine against a virus that affects an estimated 33 million people and kills over 2 million each year. .
The discovery is important because it highlights a potential way around HIV’s defences against the human immune system, which have so far thwarted efforts to make a workable vaccine. The hope is that a vaccine that stimulates the production of these antibodies could remain effective against HIV even as the virus mutates. .
Scientists from the International Aids Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) are already examining the antibodies for clues to vaccine design. The new techniques used to discover the antibodies also promise further progress, as they should reveal other weaknesses in HIV that a vaccine might exploit.
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Hooray! This is good, good news! Africa and many island communities like Haiti are being ravaged by AIDS. It is destroying entire communities, literally. It is a slow death so people get sicker and sicker and can do less and less and this leads to a collapse in farming, trading and raising families. It is a complete disaster for the third world! And for anyone else! This disease has killed many millions of people and is a major plague. And I hope, will be terminated by a vaccination. We must thank the many scientists who devoted their careers to understanding this viral menace and mapping its internal structure.
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The anti-vaccination people will fight this one, tooth and nail. I can see it coming: they are irrational, dangerous and DEADLY. Many obvious liars take refuge within the antiviral community and work tirelessly to convince people to do something deadly to themselves. This is criminal.
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anti-vaccination moevment – The Skeptic’s Dictionary – Skepdic.com
The anti-vaccination movement (AVM) is at least two-pronged: one prong denies a causal connection between vaccines and the eradication or significant reduction of diseases like smallpox, polio, measles, and rubella; the other prong perceives vaccines as causing diseases, e.g., it claims that the MMR (mumps-measles-rubella) vaccine causes autism. Either way, the AVM proponents oppose vaccination against disease. .
One might consider a third prong of the AVM to be those who advocate homeopathic “vaccines” or isopathic preparations for such things as meningococcal disease, the “flu”, childhood illnesses, malaria, and HIV. Such people offer magic water in place of an actual vaccine developed and properly tested by scientists. They believe the water has been energized and has a selective “memory” of molecules long gone in the homeopathic dilution process. Most homeopathic vaccines are nothing but water or inert substances and cannot protect anyone from anything. They endanger people’s lives when they are offered as protection against diseases like malaria. They are sought out by people who do not trust real vaccines and who live according to the principles of vitalism and magical thinking. Thus, we might well say that those who recommend homeopathic vaccines are part of the AVM since, in effect, they oppose real vaccination against disease. .
One thing that unites these three prongs of the AVM is that each is selective in its picking of evidence to support its viewpoint and to denigrate one of scientific medicine’s major contributions to public health.
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timeline of the autism caused by vaccines scare – The Skeptic’s Dictionary – Skepdic.com
[This timeline is in response to Sharon Begley's Newsweek article that gives the impression that there has been a significant amount of publication in reputable journals in support of the vaccine/autism link. It is important to emphasize the need to look at all the evidence and accept what the preponderance of the data supports. All of us are susceptible to confirmation bias and too many of us go with our gut instinct rather than with the data. Your "mommy instinct" or gut feeling isn't as reliable as you think it is when it comes to complex causal matters.] .
Background: The anti-MMR-vaccine movement has two camps: one sees the vaccine as harmful, the other sees thimerosal (an ethylmercury based preservative) as harmful. In the US, the anti-vaccine movement began as one aspect of a larger movement that blames mercury and other neurotoxins in the environment for most neurological disorders. After thimerosal was removed from vaccines, the focus shifted to the quantity of shots given to children and to the speculation that some children are “especially sensitive” to vaccines. The evidence, as you can see for yourself by following this timeline, is overwhelmingly in favor of the notion that neither the vaccines nor their preservatives are harmful, but that not getting children vaccinated has harmful, sometimes deadly, consequences.
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I have gone from being annoyed by the anti-vaccination commentators who have posted one fake story after another here on my blog. Now, I will tell them all who they really are: FOOLS. I am utterly outraged by this movement and I recommend that everyone read the above timeline in the Skeptic article. Don’t worry about clicking on this story, it won’t rip your heads off. It is important to read because a lot of it is about the false calumny about autism and vaccinations. Autism is most likely a genetic problem. And incidentally, could also be aggravated by pollution. As I detailed in my mercury in fish story the other day.
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Some of my readers hate science. I can’t fix this problem. People love illogic and prefer magic, over science and can’t be fixed via arguments or logical expositions. If someone wants to be crazy, they will be crazy! But the problem is deep: people basically have a poor understanding of what science actually is. It is an ongoing logic systems argument which settles debates via assembling and then examining from all angles, all information relevant to the issues. Double blind testing is one area in science which is most important. Non-scientists who want to make ideological points, often ignore the double blind tests. They want to assemble ‘facts’ and then draw conclusions based on their pet facts.
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Also, if someone discovers something and no one can reproduce it or find it again, it is discounted. Since it isn’t happening twice. People seeking to have singular events hate this rule. Another tool of science is to test things over and over again, in a bigger and bigger pool and with more and more people participating. This way, hoaxes and misunderstandings are revealed.
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A great number of investigators took the autism/vaccination story very seriously. And after many years of hard work, have decided there is NO connection whatsoever. I lost one good commentator here, David, because he and his sister were convinced, based only on their singular observations, that the vaccinations caused his sister to deliver an autistic baby. David believes this business despite being told by professionals that the condition appears right after the third month, probably triggered by hormone changes, which happens to coincide with the first vaccinations. When it comes to family relations, people’s emotions overwhelm them and they have to react and then cling to the reaction.
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So the story spreads, vaccinations are evil. Despite the fact that the diseases these vaccinations protect us from kill, maim and create autistic-like damage to healthy babies! That is, these diseases can paralyze, kill, render deaf, put holes in hearts, etc and thus, are a grave danger in themselves.
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To immunize or not? | PressDemocrat.com | The Press Democrat | Santa Rosa, CA
The percentage of fully immunized students entering Sonoma County kindergarten classes has steadily dipped from 91.6 percent in 2002 to 87.7 percent last fall, according to state records. The statewide average is down by only 0.6 points over the same period. .
Roughly half of this year’s kindergartners who are not fully vaccinated have exemptions that cover all diseases. The other half are missing some vaccinations. .
The county’s nearly 4-point drop in the vaccination rate might seem small, but officials say it comes close to the level — about 85 percent — at which “herd immunization,” the safety in numbers from widespread inoculation, breaks down. .
In nine county school districts, six of them in the west county, the percentage of fully immunized kindergartners is below 80 percent, a Public Health Department analysis said. The figures exclude private schools. .
At six North Bay schools, all charter or private schools, more than half the families had received exemptions from the required vaccination regimen. Such concentrations of partially immunized or unimmunized students pose “a significant risk of an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease,” Maddux-Gonzalez said. .
State law allows parents, by merely signing a waiver form, to gain exemption from the vaccinations required to enter kindergarten at public and private schools.
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One child gets sick in the private schools and we get a mini-epidemic! Already, the rate of death and impaired health from lack of vaccinations is rising rapidly in ‘educated’ countries due to this global push to get parents to stop immunizing their children! If anyone is paranoid, wouldn’t they be upset that dangerous people are convincing gullible parents to expose their children to possible DEATH??? I used to live in northern California. This is where people believe the ridiculous idea that if you eat certain foods, viruses and bacteria will leave you alone or not hurt you. This is pure hogwash.
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I got a number of emails from enraged readers who did NOT want to hear this news. They wanted desperately to believe that if they ate carrots every day, they would never get very sick. I can’t help it: if I know something, I will say it out loud. History is crystal clear: no matter what you eat, you can be struck down by the Viral Kingdom in a flash.
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Autism Blog – Autism, scientology and the moonies « Left Brain/Right Brain
I never imagined when I started blogging about autism just how deep the rabbit hole of quackery went. It never ceases to amaze me how the relationships between some of the people deeply involved in the mercury militia start to unravel with some occasionally disturbing results. .
Over the last few weeks, I’ve come across some of the most disturbing relationships yet. As the title suggests, there seem to be disturbing links between some mercury militia members and the Unification Church (the moonies) and there are definite links between established scientologists and DAN! as well as other non-DAN! mercury militia resources. Most disturbing of all is the suggestion of a relationship between The Moonies and Scientology with an apparent agenda to encourage the mercury militia and possibly even help finance or otherwise aid the legal fight some parents are undergoing with relation to vaccines and autism.
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If anyone is paranoid, the words ‘Moonies’ and ‘Scientologists’ should make you scream and run like hell! And guess what, everyone: both of these groups work hand in glove with a number of the damn ‘NWO’ people you guys are blaming for everything! Why not connect some dots here? The movement to expose yourselves and your poor children to dangerous and deadly viral diseases….are these guys. And if you are truly paranoid, google ‘Scientologists’ and see what real darkness looks like! GAH! Get a grip!
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This is what happens when people are lured into cults. The anti-vaccination groups are CULTS. So are the Moonies and the Scientologists. There are many cults out there that want us to not take medicines and to not get vaccinations. I know that a number of Buddhist cults are the same way. As well as born again Christian cults or cults like the Mennonites, the list is very long. The fear of vaccinations is a key element in irrational religious cults. It taps into a dark part of the brain which is where religious beliefs lurk and it a grave danger to any rational consideration of reality.
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Sarah Palin Adviser’s Secret Scientology Plot to Take Over Washington – sarah palin – Gawker
John Coale, currently advising Sarah Palin on running for president in 2012, is a Scientologist. And according to a memo obtained by Gawker, Coale once plotted to use friendly politicians to advance the power-hungry cult’s agenda. .
Coale is a prominent Washington power broker and husband to Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren. According to the Washington Post, he is running Palin’s political action committee behind the scenes and “guiding [her] political image in Washington.” .
In 1986, he masterminded a plan—which was never executed—for Scientology to get into the “MONEY and VOTES game” in order to “create power” for Scientology and win influence Washington, D.C…. .
…Coale denies playing any role in Palin’s political career aside from that of a friend who e-mails her once a week or so. And he insists that he has never used his political influence—in addition to Palin, his friends include the Clintons and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, among many others in Washington—to advance the aims of Scientology. “I don’t think I have ever said, to the Clintons or Nancy Pelosi, or anyone else, a word about Scientology. Not a word.”
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Read this and weep. Fox TV is big on cult beliefs. It encourages all sorts of irrational or outright stupid behavior. For example, in the healthcare debate, it promotes the false story about ‘death panels’ which is exactly what the Scientologists love. Fox TV is big on taking over normal outrage like the Tea Baggers who were turned on their heads and shoved into being anti-healthcare. A number of people who get government healthcare are screaming about healthcare reforms thanks to these creeps who run Fox TV. And the Scientologists know that if they sow fear and paranoia, they can harvest fools to use as tools.
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Ditto, a number of religious organizations. Religions love to pretend they heal people. So, while doctors toil using modern science and medicine to save lives of believers, their brethren stand around pray and then, if the doctors succeed, always crow that their particular god or belief was the true cure. Some religions are very doctrinaire and forbid modern medications and their believers die. Of course, when inflicted on innocent children who have no choice in the matter, this becomes criminal.
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Now, to round out the health news (before the regular crew here begins howling at the moon rather than at the Moonies) here is some news about the biggest pharmaceutical corporation breaking the law:
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Pfizer to pay record $2.3bn settlement | Business | guardian.co.uk
The government said Pfizer had promoted four prescription drugs, including a painkiller, Bextra, as treatments for medical conditions – but, crucially, the ailments were not ones for which those drugs had been federally approved. .
Use of drugs for so-called “off-label” medical conditions is not uncommon, but drug manufacturers are prohibited from marketing drugs for uses that have not been approved by the food and drug administration. .
Bextra, one of a class of painkillers known as Cox-2 inhibitors, was pulled from the US market in 2005 amid mounting evidence it raised the risk of heart attack, stroke and death…. .
…The government said Pfizer had promoted four prescription drugs, including a painkiller, Bextra, as treatments for medical conditions – but, crucially, the ailments were not ones for which those drugs had been federally approved. .
Use of drugs for so-called “off-label” medical conditions is not uncommon, but drug manufacturers are prohibited from marketing drugs for uses that have not been approved by the food and drug administration. .
Bextra, one of a class of painkillers known as Cox-2 inhibitors, was pulled from the US market in 2005 amid mounting evidence it raised the risk of heart attack, stroke and death.
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I happen to be a believer (yes, this is religious!) that people should feel pain. I was dying once and I heard a voice (yes, I have the same brain as everyone else) telling me, ‘If you feel pain, you are alive.’ So I muttered that to the nurse who told me about this, later. Well, pain is life! We need pain to feel the other feelings in our bodies. All pain killers also kill other feelings and this is very bad for us.
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So pain killers have to be used sparingly. I will endure immense pain in order to continue feeling my other feelings! But most people don’t like pain and want to live sans any pains at all. So they pop pills or use other substances to stop feeling ANYTHING at all! Since this is all about addictions, governments outlaw one painkiller (opium was an early one!) after another. But all of them are addictive because many humans love to avoid pain. I can’t get addicted to painkillers because I hate them.
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The Holy Grail is a painkiller that isn’t addictive. I think this will never be found due to humans loving painkillers too much. So here is a paradox: to really live life, you have to suffer lots of pain. And this is an unhappy thing. But then, all the real joys in life involve alertness and focus and nothing makes us more alert and focused than some pain.
http://emsnews.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/aids-vaccine-possible-at-last
Showing posts with label influenza. Show all posts
Showing posts with label influenza. Show all posts
Friday, September 4, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Economic Stress and swine flu..
Some researchers speculate that in 1918 immune systems were weakened by malnourishment and the stresses of life. The lower socioeconomic groups of Mexico had been very stressed by a collapse in the oil price and hence economic activity generally, the US recession in contruction, which has lead to vastly decreased remittances from family members working in the US.
CDC officials expect to see more severe cases in the U.S. as well - and as better epidemiological work is done in Mexico, we'll probably hear about more mild cases there too.
The true severity of the H1N1 swine flu virus is an open question. The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic began with a fairly mild wave of infections in the spring, but the virus returned a few months later in a far more virulent form. That could happen with the current swine flu as well. "It's quite possible for this virus to evolve," said Fukuda. "When viruses evolve, clearly they can become more dangerous to people."
CDC officials expect to see more severe cases in the U.S. as well - and as better epidemiological work is done in Mexico, we'll probably hear about more mild cases there too.
The true severity of the H1N1 swine flu virus is an open question. The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic began with a fairly mild wave of infections in the spring, but the virus returned a few months later in a far more virulent form. That could happen with the current swine flu as well. "It's quite possible for this virus to evolve," said Fukuda. "When viruses evolve, clearly they can become more dangerous to people."
Advice ignored: 65m hogs are concentrated in 65,000 facilities.
Six years ago, Science dedicated a major story to evidence that "after years of stability, the North American swine flu virus has jumped onto an evolutionary fasttrack".
Since its identification during the Great Depression, H1N1 swine flu had only drifted slightly from its original genome. Then in 1998 a highly pathogenic strain began to decimate sows on a farm in North Carolina and new, more virulent versions began to appear almost yearly, including a variant of H1N1 that contained the internal genes of H3N2 (the other type-A flu circulating among humans).
Researchers interviewed by Science worried that one of these hybrids might become a human flu (both the 1957 and 1968 pandemics are believed to have originated from the mixing of bird and human viruses inside pigs), and urged the creation of an official surveillance system for swine flu: an admonition, of course, that went unheeded in a Washington prepared to throw away billions on bioterrorism fantasies.
But what caused this acceleration of swine flu evolution? Virologists have long believed that the intensive agricultural system of southern China is the principal engine of influenza mutation: both seasonal "drift" and episodic genomic "shift". But the corporate industrialisation of livestock production has broken China's natural monopoly on influenza evolution. Animal husbandry in recent decades has been transformed into something that more closely resembles the petrochemical industry than the happy family farm depicted in school readers.
In 1965, for instance, there were 53m US hogs on more than 1m farms; today, 65m hogs are concentrated in 65,000 facilities. This has been a transition from old-fashioned pig pens to vast excremental hells, containing tens of thousands of animals with weakened immune systems suffocating in heat and manure while exchanging pathogens at blinding velocity with their fellow inmates.
Last year a commission convened by the Pew Research Center issued a report on "industrial farm animal production" that underscored the acute danger that "the continual cycling of viruses … in large herds or flocks [will] increase opportunities for the generation of novel virus through mutation or recombinant events that could result in more efficient human to human transmission." The commission also warned that promiscuous antibiotic use in hog factories (cheaper than humane environments) was sponsoring the rise of resistant staph infections, while sewage spills were producing outbreaks of E coli and pfiesteria (the protozoan that has killed 1bn fish in Carolina estuaries and made ill dozens of fishermen).
Any amelioration of this new pathogen ecology would have to confront the monstrous power of livestock conglomerates such as Smithfield Farms (pork and beef) and Tyson (chickens). The commission reported systemic obstruction of their investigation by corporations, including blatant threats to withhold funding from cooperative researchers .
This is a highly globalised industry with global political clout. Just as Bangkok-based chicken giant Charoen Pokphand was able to suppress enquiries into its role in the spread of bird flu in southeast Asia, so it is likely that the forensic epidemiology of the swine flu outbreak will pound its head against the corporate stonewall of the pork industry.
This is not to say that a smoking gun will never be found: there is already gossip in the Mexican press about an influenza epicentre around a huge Smithfield subsidiary in Veracruz state. But what matters more (especially given the continued threat of H5N1) is the larger configuration: the WHO's failed pandemic strategy, the further decline of world public health, the stranglehold of big pharma over lifeline medicines, and the planetary catastrophe of industrialised and ecologically unhinged livestock production.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/27/swine-flu-mexico-health
Since its identification during the Great Depression, H1N1 swine flu had only drifted slightly from its original genome. Then in 1998 a highly pathogenic strain began to decimate sows on a farm in North Carolina and new, more virulent versions began to appear almost yearly, including a variant of H1N1 that contained the internal genes of H3N2 (the other type-A flu circulating among humans).
Researchers interviewed by Science worried that one of these hybrids might become a human flu (both the 1957 and 1968 pandemics are believed to have originated from the mixing of bird and human viruses inside pigs), and urged the creation of an official surveillance system for swine flu: an admonition, of course, that went unheeded in a Washington prepared to throw away billions on bioterrorism fantasies.
But what caused this acceleration of swine flu evolution? Virologists have long believed that the intensive agricultural system of southern China is the principal engine of influenza mutation: both seasonal "drift" and episodic genomic "shift". But the corporate industrialisation of livestock production has broken China's natural monopoly on influenza evolution. Animal husbandry in recent decades has been transformed into something that more closely resembles the petrochemical industry than the happy family farm depicted in school readers.
In 1965, for instance, there were 53m US hogs on more than 1m farms; today, 65m hogs are concentrated in 65,000 facilities. This has been a transition from old-fashioned pig pens to vast excremental hells, containing tens of thousands of animals with weakened immune systems suffocating in heat and manure while exchanging pathogens at blinding velocity with their fellow inmates.
Last year a commission convened by the Pew Research Center issued a report on "industrial farm animal production" that underscored the acute danger that "the continual cycling of viruses … in large herds or flocks [will] increase opportunities for the generation of novel virus through mutation or recombinant events that could result in more efficient human to human transmission." The commission also warned that promiscuous antibiotic use in hog factories (cheaper than humane environments) was sponsoring the rise of resistant staph infections, while sewage spills were producing outbreaks of E coli and pfiesteria (the protozoan that has killed 1bn fish in Carolina estuaries and made ill dozens of fishermen).
Any amelioration of this new pathogen ecology would have to confront the monstrous power of livestock conglomerates such as Smithfield Farms (pork and beef) and Tyson (chickens). The commission reported systemic obstruction of their investigation by corporations, including blatant threats to withhold funding from cooperative researchers .
This is a highly globalised industry with global political clout. Just as Bangkok-based chicken giant Charoen Pokphand was able to suppress enquiries into its role in the spread of bird flu in southeast Asia, so it is likely that the forensic epidemiology of the swine flu outbreak will pound its head against the corporate stonewall of the pork industry.
This is not to say that a smoking gun will never be found: there is already gossip in the Mexican press about an influenza epicentre around a huge Smithfield subsidiary in Veracruz state. But what matters more (especially given the continued threat of H5N1) is the larger configuration: the WHO's failed pandemic strategy, the further decline of world public health, the stranglehold of big pharma over lifeline medicines, and the planetary catastrophe of industrialised and ecologically unhinged livestock production.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/27/swine-flu-mexico-health
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Swine flu in Canada is mild
Swine flu confirmed in Canada
Unlike deadly outbreak in Mexico, the cases in Nova Scotia and B.C. were mild and didn't require hospitalization
April 26, 2009
Comments on this story (36)
STAR STAFF AND WIRE SERVICES
OTTAWA—Canadian health officials are rushing to contain the spread of swine flu through human contact after at least a half-dozen cases were confirmed in Nova Scotia and British Columbia.
Cases in both provinces were linked to Mexican travel — but unlike the deadly outbreak in that country, the illnesses in Nova Scotia and B.C. patients were so mild that none required hospitalization.
“This indicates that — yes — swine influenza is present in Canada,” said Danuta Skowronski, of B.C.’s Centre for Disease Control.
“What we can say so far is that, in the United States and Canada, we’re not picking up those signals of severe respiratory illness that Mexico has been grappling with. . .
“This swine influenza virus does not automatically mean hospitalization and death. It may have just the typical influenza-type presentation and symptoms . . . This is not necessarily scary monsters.”
But she warned that Canadian experts expect more cases in this country and that the public-health system remains on high alert.
Skowronski said the two people on the B.C. Lower Mainland who have contracted the flu have been asked to “self-isolate” but have not been quarantined.
She advised anyone developing flu-like symptoms to stay home and not go to work. If their symptoms are serious enough to see a doctor, she said, they should advise their physician in advance that they intend to pay a visit.
Four students from King’s-Edgehill School, a private high school in Windsor, N.S., have been placed in isolation. Two of them recently travelled to Mexico. Health authorities in Nova Scotia say their symptoms are mild.
The illness has proven itself to be potentially deadly. Mexico’s health minister says the disease has killed up to 86 people and likely sickened up to 1,400 since April 13.
Health authorities in Nova Scotia said Sunday the students reported fatigue, muscle aches and coughing, but nothing out of the ordinary for people who suffer from the flu.
Nova Scotia’s chief public health officer, Dr. Robert Strang, said the four “very mild” cases of swine flu were detected in students ranging in age from 12 to 17 or 18. All are recovering, he said.
“It was acquired in Mexico, brought home and spread,” Strang said.
Health officials urged anyone who thinks they might be ill with flu-like symptoms to stay away from work or school, wash their hands and avoid coughing into their hands.
Although four students at the school have reported getting sick, only two of them went on a school trip to Mexico between April 1 and 8.
Health officials say between 20 and 23 students were on the trip.
“We have to keep things in perspective — it is a mild illness,” Strang said.
Although health officials say four students have tested positive for swine flu, 11 of 17 students they have contacted so far who were on the trip to Mexico did get ill.
Because swine flu is so new, most laboratories don’t have tests to identify them, and they show up as untypeable influenza A when tests are run.
Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon told CTV the federal cabinet has set up an operations committee and has been monitoring the swine flu situation closely.
Foreign Affairs has posted information on its website on the health situation in Mexico but is not telling Canadians to stay away from the country.
Although no cases of the flu strain have been confirmed in Ontario, 11 cases are being "looked at," said Steve Erwin, spokesperson for Ontario Minister of Health and Long-term Care David Caplan.
But that does not mean all those cases will be investigated or tested, he said.
The number of cases being looked at can change hourly, depending on when people seek medical advice.
He said the ministry would be issuing an update at about 5 p.m. today.
Although the situation is changing hour by hour, a Toronto expert cautioned against panic, noting that the latest confirmed cases in Nova Scotia were mild with none of the infected individuals requiring hospital care.
Around the world, countries from New Zealand to Spain reported suspected cases of swine flu and some warned citizens against travel to North America while others planned quarantines, tightened rules on pork imports and tested airline passengers for fevers.
Mexico, the United Satates and Canada were the only countries with confirmed human cases of swine flu Sunday as global health officials considered whether to raise the global pandemic alert level.
The news follows the World Health Organization’s decision Saturday to declare the outbreak first detected in Mexico and the United States a “public health emergency of international concern.”
U.S. officials say the virus has been found in New York, California, Texas, Kansas and Ohio, but so far no fatalities have been reported.
Governments including China, Russia and Taiwan began planning to put anyone with symptoms of the deadly virus under quarantine
Others were increasing their screening of pigs and pork imports from the Americas or banning them outright despite health officials’ reassurances that it was safe to eat thoroughly cooked pork.
Some nations issued travel warnings for Mexico and the United States.
WHO’s emergency committee is still trying to determine exactly how the virus has spread.
New Zealand said that 10 students who took a school trip to Mexico “likely” had swine flu. Israel said a man who had recently visited Mexico had been hospitalized while authorities try to determine whether he had the disease. French Health Ministry officials investigated four possible cases of swine flu, but three were later found to be negative.
Spanish authorities said a total of seven suspected cases were under observation.
Hong Kong and Taiwan said visitors who came back from flu-affected areas with fevers would be quarantined. China said anyone experiencing flu-like symptoms within two weeks of arrival from an affected area had to report to authorities. A Russian health agency said any passenger from North America running a fever would be quarantined until the cause of the fever is determined.
Tokyo’s Narita airport installed a device to test the temperatures of passengers arriving from Mexico.
Indonesia increased surveillance at all entry points for travellers with flu-like symptoms — using devices at airports that were put in place years ago to monitor for severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, and bird flu. It said it was ready to quarantine suspected victims if necessary.
Hong Kong and South Korea warned against travel to the Mexican capital and three affected provinces. Italy, Poland and Venezuela also advised their citizens to postpone travel to affected areas of Mexico and the United States.
Russia banned the import of meat products from Mexico, California, Texas and Kansas. South Korea said it would increase the number of its influenza virus checks on pork products from Mexico and the U.S.
thestar.com
Unlike deadly outbreak in Mexico, the cases in Nova Scotia and B.C. were mild and didn't require hospitalization
April 26, 2009
Comments on this story (36)
STAR STAFF AND WIRE SERVICES
OTTAWA—Canadian health officials are rushing to contain the spread of swine flu through human contact after at least a half-dozen cases were confirmed in Nova Scotia and British Columbia.
Cases in both provinces were linked to Mexican travel — but unlike the deadly outbreak in that country, the illnesses in Nova Scotia and B.C. patients were so mild that none required hospitalization.
“This indicates that — yes — swine influenza is present in Canada,” said Danuta Skowronski, of B.C.’s Centre for Disease Control.
“What we can say so far is that, in the United States and Canada, we’re not picking up those signals of severe respiratory illness that Mexico has been grappling with. . .
“This swine influenza virus does not automatically mean hospitalization and death. It may have just the typical influenza-type presentation and symptoms . . . This is not necessarily scary monsters.”
But she warned that Canadian experts expect more cases in this country and that the public-health system remains on high alert.
Skowronski said the two people on the B.C. Lower Mainland who have contracted the flu have been asked to “self-isolate” but have not been quarantined.
She advised anyone developing flu-like symptoms to stay home and not go to work. If their symptoms are serious enough to see a doctor, she said, they should advise their physician in advance that they intend to pay a visit.
Four students from King’s-Edgehill School, a private high school in Windsor, N.S., have been placed in isolation. Two of them recently travelled to Mexico. Health authorities in Nova Scotia say their symptoms are mild.
The illness has proven itself to be potentially deadly. Mexico’s health minister says the disease has killed up to 86 people and likely sickened up to 1,400 since April 13.
Health authorities in Nova Scotia said Sunday the students reported fatigue, muscle aches and coughing, but nothing out of the ordinary for people who suffer from the flu.
Nova Scotia’s chief public health officer, Dr. Robert Strang, said the four “very mild” cases of swine flu were detected in students ranging in age from 12 to 17 or 18. All are recovering, he said.
“It was acquired in Mexico, brought home and spread,” Strang said.
Health officials urged anyone who thinks they might be ill with flu-like symptoms to stay away from work or school, wash their hands and avoid coughing into their hands.
Although four students at the school have reported getting sick, only two of them went on a school trip to Mexico between April 1 and 8.
Health officials say between 20 and 23 students were on the trip.
“We have to keep things in perspective — it is a mild illness,” Strang said.
Although health officials say four students have tested positive for swine flu, 11 of 17 students they have contacted so far who were on the trip to Mexico did get ill.
Because swine flu is so new, most laboratories don’t have tests to identify them, and they show up as untypeable influenza A when tests are run.
Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon told CTV the federal cabinet has set up an operations committee and has been monitoring the swine flu situation closely.
Foreign Affairs has posted information on its website on the health situation in Mexico but is not telling Canadians to stay away from the country.
Although no cases of the flu strain have been confirmed in Ontario, 11 cases are being "looked at," said Steve Erwin, spokesperson for Ontario Minister of Health and Long-term Care David Caplan.
But that does not mean all those cases will be investigated or tested, he said.
The number of cases being looked at can change hourly, depending on when people seek medical advice.
He said the ministry would be issuing an update at about 5 p.m. today.
Although the situation is changing hour by hour, a Toronto expert cautioned against panic, noting that the latest confirmed cases in Nova Scotia were mild with none of the infected individuals requiring hospital care.
Around the world, countries from New Zealand to Spain reported suspected cases of swine flu and some warned citizens against travel to North America while others planned quarantines, tightened rules on pork imports and tested airline passengers for fevers.
Mexico, the United Satates and Canada were the only countries with confirmed human cases of swine flu Sunday as global health officials considered whether to raise the global pandemic alert level.
The news follows the World Health Organization’s decision Saturday to declare the outbreak first detected in Mexico and the United States a “public health emergency of international concern.”
U.S. officials say the virus has been found in New York, California, Texas, Kansas and Ohio, but so far no fatalities have been reported.
Governments including China, Russia and Taiwan began planning to put anyone with symptoms of the deadly virus under quarantine
Others were increasing their screening of pigs and pork imports from the Americas or banning them outright despite health officials’ reassurances that it was safe to eat thoroughly cooked pork.
Some nations issued travel warnings for Mexico and the United States.
WHO’s emergency committee is still trying to determine exactly how the virus has spread.
New Zealand said that 10 students who took a school trip to Mexico “likely” had swine flu. Israel said a man who had recently visited Mexico had been hospitalized while authorities try to determine whether he had the disease. French Health Ministry officials investigated four possible cases of swine flu, but three were later found to be negative.
Spanish authorities said a total of seven suspected cases were under observation.
Hong Kong and Taiwan said visitors who came back from flu-affected areas with fevers would be quarantined. China said anyone experiencing flu-like symptoms within two weeks of arrival from an affected area had to report to authorities. A Russian health agency said any passenger from North America running a fever would be quarantined until the cause of the fever is determined.
Tokyo’s Narita airport installed a device to test the temperatures of passengers arriving from Mexico.
Indonesia increased surveillance at all entry points for travellers with flu-like symptoms — using devices at airports that were put in place years ago to monitor for severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, and bird flu. It said it was ready to quarantine suspected victims if necessary.
Hong Kong and South Korea warned against travel to the Mexican capital and three affected provinces. Italy, Poland and Venezuela also advised their citizens to postpone travel to affected areas of Mexico and the United States.
Russia banned the import of meat products from Mexico, California, Texas and Kansas. South Korea said it would increase the number of its influenza virus checks on pork products from Mexico and the U.S.
thestar.com
Saturday, April 25, 2009
WHO Cites Potential for Swine Flu Pandemic
WHO Cites Potential for Swine Flu Pandemic
Mexico's Leader Orders Sweeping Measures As Cases Exceed 1,000
By Joshua Partlow and Rob Stein
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, April 26, 2009
MEXICO CITY, April 25 -- The World Health Organization rushed to convene an emergency meeting Saturday to develop a response to the "pandemic potential" of a new swine flu virus that has sparked a deadly outbreak in Mexico and spread to disparate parts of the United States.
Health officials reported that at least eight students at a private high school in New York City had "probable" swine flu. They also confirmed three new cases -- two in Kansas and one in California -- bringing the total number of confirmed U.S. cases to 11. The president of Mexico, where the outbreak has killed as many as 81 people, issued an order granting his government broad powers to isolate patients and question travelers.
"This is a serious moment for the nation," President Felipe Calderón said Saturday. "And we are confronting it with seriousness, with all the pertinent measures."
The director general of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan, said the "situation is evolving quickly."
"We do not yet have a complete picture of the epidemiology or the risk, including possible spread beyond the currently affected areas," said Chan, who cut short a trip to the United States so she could rush back to the WHO's headquarters in Geneva to convene an emergency meeting of expert advisers to formulate a response to the virus. It is the first time the committee has been called upon since it was created two years ago to help handle disease outbreaks after the SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, epidemic.
"In the assessment of the WHO, this is a serious situation that must be watched very carefully," she said. "It has pandemic potential."
The virus, for which there is no vaccine for humans, has nearly brought Mexico City to a halt. Normally congested downtown streets in this city of 20 million were almost empty Saturday, and of the few people who ventured outside, many said they did so only out of necessity. Soldiers posted at subway stations handed out face masks to passersby from the back of armored vehicles. Some pedestrians covered their mouths and noses with scarves and rags.
"We can't escape the air," said Antonio Gonzáles, 56, who wore a surgical mask outside a public hospital. "If it was something in the food, we'd have a chance."
The Mexican government reported more than 1,300 suspected cases of the virus, which mixes animal and human strains of flu. Bars and nightclubs, schools, gallery openings and sporting events were cancelled until further notice. Authorities advised people to wash their hands regularly and avoid the customary greeting of kissing on the cheek. The government issued a decree giving the Health Ministry power to enter people's homes, close public events, isolate patients, and inspect travelers and their baggage.
The Associated Press reported that 24 new cases of the flu emerged Saturday in Mexico.
Worry and uncertainty seemed contagious. Many people had heard inconsistent reports on how many people were sick or dead, how the flu would manifest itself and which areas, if any, were safe.
"The people are disoriented. I think the government doesn't know what they are confronting," said Gonzalo Sariñana, 40, a university official from the northern city of Monterrey who was in Mexico City. "We are just guarding ourselves, waiting to hear what the government tells us to do."
Outside the General Hospital of the 32nd Zone, dozens of people wearing medical masks waited for word about relatives, some of whom had symptoms they suspected could be swine flu.
On Friday around 6 p.m., after returning from her job at the airport with Mexicana Airlines, Monserrat Montoya, 22, developed a fever, headache, aching bones and a cough, said her mother, Lourdes Resendes.
Montoya was taken to the hospital early Saturday and was put in isolation. Waiting outside the emergency room, Resendes did not know whether her daughter had tested positive for swine flu.
"This is very serious, more than anything because this hospital is not prepared for something like this," Resendes said. "There were people here from 11 at night that weren't attended to until 9 in the morning."
In remarks at a hospital opening in the southern state of Oaxaca, Calderón stressed that the flu was curable and that Mexico had sufficient supplies of antiviral medicine to deal with the situation.
The Mexico deaths are of particular concern to authorities because the victims have tended to be young, healthy adults, whereas ordinary flu mostly kills infants and the elderly.
In New York City, about 200 of the 2,700 students attending St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens had missed school earlier in the week because of flulike symptoms, prompting school officials to notify the health department.
A preliminary analysis of viral samples obtained from nose and throat swabs from nine students found that eight tested positive for influenza A. Because none matched the known H1 and H3 subtypes of human flu, they were considered "probable" cases of swine flu, said Thomas R. Frieden, commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
"We're concerned," Frieden said. "When we see the serious cases in Mexico, and we see it spreading fairly rapidly in one school, it's a situation that has to be monitored very carefully."
The St. Francis students had just returned from spring break, during which some may have traveled to Mexico, he said.
The WHO, after the committee met for about two hours, described the outbreak as a "public health emergency of international concern" and recommended that countries intensify their efforts to identify "unusual outbreaks of influenza-like illness and severe pneumonia."
The committee concluded that it needed more information about the outbreak before any decision could be made about raising the pandemic alert status, which is currently Level 3, meaning very limited spread of virus from person to person.
Chan stressed that a pandemic was not yet underway or inevitable, and she noted that no outbreaks had been reported elsewhere.
All of the confirmed cases in the southwestern United States -- seven in California and two in Texas -- have been relatively mild. Only one patient has been hospitalized, and no one has died, giving officials hope that the situation may not be as dire as in Mexico.
Late Saturday, state health officials in Kansas said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had confirmed two cases of swine flu that involved two adults who lived in the same house. Neither was hospitalized, but one was still ill and undergoing treatment, officials said. One had recently traveled to Mexico, they said.
The CDC has dispatched teams to Southern California to help state and local officials and plans to send a team to Texas. The agency is also analyzing samples from other suspected cases and taking steps that would be needed to produce a vaccine if necessary.
"We're trying to take action early before things get worse," said Anne Schuchat, the CDC's interim deputy director for science and public health. "We are worried, and because we're worried, we're acting aggressively on a number of fronts."
Stein reported from Washington.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/25/AR2009042503128_pf.html
Mexico's Leader Orders Sweeping Measures As Cases Exceed 1,000
By Joshua Partlow and Rob Stein
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, April 26, 2009
MEXICO CITY, April 25 -- The World Health Organization rushed to convene an emergency meeting Saturday to develop a response to the "pandemic potential" of a new swine flu virus that has sparked a deadly outbreak in Mexico and spread to disparate parts of the United States.
Health officials reported that at least eight students at a private high school in New York City had "probable" swine flu. They also confirmed three new cases -- two in Kansas and one in California -- bringing the total number of confirmed U.S. cases to 11. The president of Mexico, where the outbreak has killed as many as 81 people, issued an order granting his government broad powers to isolate patients and question travelers.
"This is a serious moment for the nation," President Felipe Calderón said Saturday. "And we are confronting it with seriousness, with all the pertinent measures."
The director general of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan, said the "situation is evolving quickly."
"We do not yet have a complete picture of the epidemiology or the risk, including possible spread beyond the currently affected areas," said Chan, who cut short a trip to the United States so she could rush back to the WHO's headquarters in Geneva to convene an emergency meeting of expert advisers to formulate a response to the virus. It is the first time the committee has been called upon since it was created two years ago to help handle disease outbreaks after the SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, epidemic.
"In the assessment of the WHO, this is a serious situation that must be watched very carefully," she said. "It has pandemic potential."
The virus, for which there is no vaccine for humans, has nearly brought Mexico City to a halt. Normally congested downtown streets in this city of 20 million were almost empty Saturday, and of the few people who ventured outside, many said they did so only out of necessity. Soldiers posted at subway stations handed out face masks to passersby from the back of armored vehicles. Some pedestrians covered their mouths and noses with scarves and rags.
"We can't escape the air," said Antonio Gonzáles, 56, who wore a surgical mask outside a public hospital. "If it was something in the food, we'd have a chance."
The Mexican government reported more than 1,300 suspected cases of the virus, which mixes animal and human strains of flu. Bars and nightclubs, schools, gallery openings and sporting events were cancelled until further notice. Authorities advised people to wash their hands regularly and avoid the customary greeting of kissing on the cheek. The government issued a decree giving the Health Ministry power to enter people's homes, close public events, isolate patients, and inspect travelers and their baggage.
The Associated Press reported that 24 new cases of the flu emerged Saturday in Mexico.
Worry and uncertainty seemed contagious. Many people had heard inconsistent reports on how many people were sick or dead, how the flu would manifest itself and which areas, if any, were safe.
"The people are disoriented. I think the government doesn't know what they are confronting," said Gonzalo Sariñana, 40, a university official from the northern city of Monterrey who was in Mexico City. "We are just guarding ourselves, waiting to hear what the government tells us to do."
Outside the General Hospital of the 32nd Zone, dozens of people wearing medical masks waited for word about relatives, some of whom had symptoms they suspected could be swine flu.
On Friday around 6 p.m., after returning from her job at the airport with Mexicana Airlines, Monserrat Montoya, 22, developed a fever, headache, aching bones and a cough, said her mother, Lourdes Resendes.
Montoya was taken to the hospital early Saturday and was put in isolation. Waiting outside the emergency room, Resendes did not know whether her daughter had tested positive for swine flu.
"This is very serious, more than anything because this hospital is not prepared for something like this," Resendes said. "There were people here from 11 at night that weren't attended to until 9 in the morning."
In remarks at a hospital opening in the southern state of Oaxaca, Calderón stressed that the flu was curable and that Mexico had sufficient supplies of antiviral medicine to deal with the situation.
The Mexico deaths are of particular concern to authorities because the victims have tended to be young, healthy adults, whereas ordinary flu mostly kills infants and the elderly.
In New York City, about 200 of the 2,700 students attending St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens had missed school earlier in the week because of flulike symptoms, prompting school officials to notify the health department.
A preliminary analysis of viral samples obtained from nose and throat swabs from nine students found that eight tested positive for influenza A. Because none matched the known H1 and H3 subtypes of human flu, they were considered "probable" cases of swine flu, said Thomas R. Frieden, commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
"We're concerned," Frieden said. "When we see the serious cases in Mexico, and we see it spreading fairly rapidly in one school, it's a situation that has to be monitored very carefully."
The St. Francis students had just returned from spring break, during which some may have traveled to Mexico, he said.
The WHO, after the committee met for about two hours, described the outbreak as a "public health emergency of international concern" and recommended that countries intensify their efforts to identify "unusual outbreaks of influenza-like illness and severe pneumonia."
The committee concluded that it needed more information about the outbreak before any decision could be made about raising the pandemic alert status, which is currently Level 3, meaning very limited spread of virus from person to person.
Chan stressed that a pandemic was not yet underway or inevitable, and she noted that no outbreaks had been reported elsewhere.
All of the confirmed cases in the southwestern United States -- seven in California and two in Texas -- have been relatively mild. Only one patient has been hospitalized, and no one has died, giving officials hope that the situation may not be as dire as in Mexico.
Late Saturday, state health officials in Kansas said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had confirmed two cases of swine flu that involved two adults who lived in the same house. Neither was hospitalized, but one was still ill and undergoing treatment, officials said. One had recently traveled to Mexico, they said.
The CDC has dispatched teams to Southern California to help state and local officials and plans to send a team to Texas. The agency is also analyzing samples from other suspected cases and taking steps that would be needed to produce a vaccine if necessary.
"We're trying to take action early before things get worse," said Anne Schuchat, the CDC's interim deputy director for science and public health. "We are worried, and because we're worried, we're acting aggressively on a number of fronts."
Stein reported from Washington.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/25/AR2009042503128_pf.html
Friday, April 24, 2009
Swine Flu has a characteristic seen in 20th Century pandemic ~ A cytokine storm
The issue with this new swine flu is that it kills those with really effective immune systems..as did the 1918 pandemic.
The influenza strain was unusual in that this pandemic killed many young adults and otherwise healthy victims – wiki
When the immune system is fighting pathogens, cytokines signal immune cells such as T-cells and macrophages to travel to the site of infection. In addition, cytokines activate those cells, stimulating them to produce more cytokines. Normally, this feedback loop is kept in check by the body. However, in some instances, the reaction becomes uncontrolled, and too many immune cells are activated in a single place. The precise reason for this is not entirely understood but may be caused by an exaggerated response when the immune system encounters a new and highly pathogenic invader. Cytokine storms have potential to do significant damage to body tissues and organs.[citation needed] If a cytokine storm occurs in the lungs, for example, fluids and immune cells such as macrophages may accumulate and eventually block off the airways, potentially resulting in death.[citation needed]
The cytokine storm (hypercytokinemia) is the systemic expression of a healthy and vigorous immune system resulting in the release of more than 150 inflammatory mediators (cytokines, oxygen free radicals, and coagulation factors).[citation needed] Both pro-inflammatory cytokines (such as Tumor necrosis factor-alpha, Interleukin-1, and Interleukin-6) and anti-inflammatory cytokines (such as interleukin 10 and interleukin 1 receptor antagonist) are elevated in the serum of patients experiencing a cytokine storm.[citation needed]
Cytokine storms can occur in a number of infectious and non-infectious diseases including graft versus host disease (GVHD), adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), sepsis, avian influenza, smallpox, and systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS).[2]
The first reference to the term cytokine storm in the published medical literature appears to be by Ferrara et al.[3] in GVHD in February 1993.
It is believed that cytokine storms were responsible for many of the deaths during the 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed a disproportionate number of young adults.[1] In this case, a healthy immune system may have been a liability rather than an asset. Preliminary research results from Hong Kong also indicated this as the probable reason for many deaths during the SARS epidemic in 2003.[citation needed] Human deaths from the bird flu H5N1 usually involve cytokine storms as well.
"About 80 per cent of the virus is highly related to a North American body of swine flu that's been around for a number of years, but about 20 per cent of it comes from an Eurasian variety of swine flu first seen in Thailand, so it's recombined to create something totally new."
"Hartl also said 12 of 18 samples taken from victims in Mexico showed the virus had a genetic structure identical to that of the virus found in California earlier this week. But he said the agency needs more information before it changes its pandemic alert level, which currently stands at three on a scale of one to six.
The virus was first reported earlier this week as U.S. health officials scrambled to deal with the diagnoses of seven people with the never-before-seen strain in Texas and California. The states share a border with Mexico not far from a town where two deaths were reported.
Hartl said health officials are dealing with three separate events in Mexico, with most of the cases in and around the capital, Mexico City.
Most of the cases have occurred in healthy young adults, he added."
refs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytokine_storm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic#History
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N23355101.htm
From New scientist and moved up from comments......
The World Health Organization is calling an emergency meeting to decide whether to declare the possible onset of a flu pandemic.
Ironically, after years of concern about H5N1 bird flu, the new flu causing concern is a pig virus, of a family known as H1N1.
Flu viruses are named after the two main proteins on their surfaces, abbreviated H and N. They are also differentiated by what animal they usually infect. The H in the new virus comes from pigs, but some of its other genes come from bird and human flu viruses, a mixture that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls "very unusual".
On Wednesday, the CDC announced that routine surveillance had uncovered mild flu cases during late March and April, caused by a novel swine flu virus. Those affected, aged 9 to 54, live in and around San Diego, California, and San Antonio, Texas, near the Mexican border. None was severe. Symptoms were normal for flu, with more nausea and diarrhoea than usual.
Mongrelised mix
On Thursday, Canadian public health officials warned Canadians travelling to Mexico of clusters of severe flu-like illness there. Then on Friday the WHO in Geneva said in a statement there have been around 900 suspected cases of swine flu in Mexico City and two other regions of Mexico, with around 60 suspected deaths. Of those, 18 have been confirmed as H1N1 swine flu, says the WHO, and tests so far have shown that 12 of those are "genetically identical" to the California virus.
On Friday, Richard Besser, head of the CDC, confirmed that Mexican samples tested at CDC were also "similar" to the US virus. "From everything we know to date, this virus appears to be the same," he said.
To be declared a pandemic, Besser said, the virus must be new, cause severe disease, and transmit easily enough to be sustained.
It is new. Anne Schuchat, head of science and public health at the CDC, said that the US virus is an unusually mongrelised mix of genetic sequences from North American pigs, Eurasian pigs, birds and humans. The H protein on its surface, having hitherto circulated only in pigs, is one most human immune systems have never seen, the crucial requirement for a pandemic flu.
Too late to contain
The virus's severity will depend on how many people who catch it die. While suspect deaths in Mexico are being tested for H1N1, is not yet known how many mild cases of virus there may have been in the affected region that have gone untested. Both numbers are needed to calculate how deadly a case might be. One ominous sign, however, is that the Mexican cases are said to be mainly young adults, a hallmark of pandemic flu.
It can transmit among people. Those infected in the US had no known contact with pigs, and the three separate clusters of cases did not contact each other. This suggests, said Besser, that "this virus has already been transmitted from person to person, for several cycles", making it too late for emergency antiviral drugs to contain its spread to a limited area.
'High concern'
"Because there are human cases associated with an animal influenza virus, and because of the geographical spread of multiple community outbreaks, plus the somewhat unusual age groups affected, these events are of high concern," the WHO said.
CDC scientists are now examining people with current and recent flu-like illnesses in the areas of California and Texas affected to see how many contacts of known cases have traces of the virus, or antibodies to it. That should show how many cases there may have been, how readily the virus spreads, and how likely it is to maintain transmission.
Another H1N1 flu jumped from pigs to people in 1976, and killed an army recruit in New Jersey. The US went on high alert and vaccinated thousands of people – but the virus did not spread readily enough to maintain an epidemic, and fizzled out.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17025-deadly-new-flu-virus-in-us-and-mexico-may-go-pandemic.html
The influenza strain was unusual in that this pandemic killed many young adults and otherwise healthy victims – wiki
When the immune system is fighting pathogens, cytokines signal immune cells such as T-cells and macrophages to travel to the site of infection. In addition, cytokines activate those cells, stimulating them to produce more cytokines. Normally, this feedback loop is kept in check by the body. However, in some instances, the reaction becomes uncontrolled, and too many immune cells are activated in a single place. The precise reason for this is not entirely understood but may be caused by an exaggerated response when the immune system encounters a new and highly pathogenic invader. Cytokine storms have potential to do significant damage to body tissues and organs.[citation needed] If a cytokine storm occurs in the lungs, for example, fluids and immune cells such as macrophages may accumulate and eventually block off the airways, potentially resulting in death.[citation needed]
The cytokine storm (hypercytokinemia) is the systemic expression of a healthy and vigorous immune system resulting in the release of more than 150 inflammatory mediators (cytokines, oxygen free radicals, and coagulation factors).[citation needed] Both pro-inflammatory cytokines (such as Tumor necrosis factor-alpha, Interleukin-1, and Interleukin-6) and anti-inflammatory cytokines (such as interleukin 10 and interleukin 1 receptor antagonist) are elevated in the serum of patients experiencing a cytokine storm.[citation needed]
Cytokine storms can occur in a number of infectious and non-infectious diseases including graft versus host disease (GVHD), adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), sepsis, avian influenza, smallpox, and systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS).[2]
The first reference to the term cytokine storm in the published medical literature appears to be by Ferrara et al.[3] in GVHD in February 1993.
It is believed that cytokine storms were responsible for many of the deaths during the 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed a disproportionate number of young adults.[1] In this case, a healthy immune system may have been a liability rather than an asset. Preliminary research results from Hong Kong also indicated this as the probable reason for many deaths during the SARS epidemic in 2003.[citation needed] Human deaths from the bird flu H5N1 usually involve cytokine storms as well.
"About 80 per cent of the virus is highly related to a North American body of swine flu that's been around for a number of years, but about 20 per cent of it comes from an Eurasian variety of swine flu first seen in Thailand, so it's recombined to create something totally new."
"Hartl also said 12 of 18 samples taken from victims in Mexico showed the virus had a genetic structure identical to that of the virus found in California earlier this week. But he said the agency needs more information before it changes its pandemic alert level, which currently stands at three on a scale of one to six.
The virus was first reported earlier this week as U.S. health officials scrambled to deal with the diagnoses of seven people with the never-before-seen strain in Texas and California. The states share a border with Mexico not far from a town where two deaths were reported.
Hartl said health officials are dealing with three separate events in Mexico, with most of the cases in and around the capital, Mexico City.
Most of the cases have occurred in healthy young adults, he added."
refs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytokine_storm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic#History
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N23355101.htm
From New scientist and moved up from comments......
The World Health Organization is calling an emergency meeting to decide whether to declare the possible onset of a flu pandemic.
Ironically, after years of concern about H5N1 bird flu, the new flu causing concern is a pig virus, of a family known as H1N1.
Flu viruses are named after the two main proteins on their surfaces, abbreviated H and N. They are also differentiated by what animal they usually infect. The H in the new virus comes from pigs, but some of its other genes come from bird and human flu viruses, a mixture that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls "very unusual".
On Wednesday, the CDC announced that routine surveillance had uncovered mild flu cases during late March and April, caused by a novel swine flu virus. Those affected, aged 9 to 54, live in and around San Diego, California, and San Antonio, Texas, near the Mexican border. None was severe. Symptoms were normal for flu, with more nausea and diarrhoea than usual.
Mongrelised mix
On Thursday, Canadian public health officials warned Canadians travelling to Mexico of clusters of severe flu-like illness there. Then on Friday the WHO in Geneva said in a statement there have been around 900 suspected cases of swine flu in Mexico City and two other regions of Mexico, with around 60 suspected deaths. Of those, 18 have been confirmed as H1N1 swine flu, says the WHO, and tests so far have shown that 12 of those are "genetically identical" to the California virus.
On Friday, Richard Besser, head of the CDC, confirmed that Mexican samples tested at CDC were also "similar" to the US virus. "From everything we know to date, this virus appears to be the same," he said.
To be declared a pandemic, Besser said, the virus must be new, cause severe disease, and transmit easily enough to be sustained.
It is new. Anne Schuchat, head of science and public health at the CDC, said that the US virus is an unusually mongrelised mix of genetic sequences from North American pigs, Eurasian pigs, birds and humans. The H protein on its surface, having hitherto circulated only in pigs, is one most human immune systems have never seen, the crucial requirement for a pandemic flu.
Too late to contain
The virus's severity will depend on how many people who catch it die. While suspect deaths in Mexico are being tested for H1N1, is not yet known how many mild cases of virus there may have been in the affected region that have gone untested. Both numbers are needed to calculate how deadly a case might be. One ominous sign, however, is that the Mexican cases are said to be mainly young adults, a hallmark of pandemic flu.
It can transmit among people. Those infected in the US had no known contact with pigs, and the three separate clusters of cases did not contact each other. This suggests, said Besser, that "this virus has already been transmitted from person to person, for several cycles", making it too late for emergency antiviral drugs to contain its spread to a limited area.
'High concern'
"Because there are human cases associated with an animal influenza virus, and because of the geographical spread of multiple community outbreaks, plus the somewhat unusual age groups affected, these events are of high concern," the WHO said.
CDC scientists are now examining people with current and recent flu-like illnesses in the areas of California and Texas affected to see how many contacts of known cases have traces of the virus, or antibodies to it. That should show how many cases there may have been, how readily the virus spreads, and how likely it is to maintain transmission.
Another H1N1 flu jumped from pigs to people in 1976, and killed an army recruit in New Jersey. The US went on high alert and vaccinated thousands of people – but the virus did not spread readily enough to maintain an epidemic, and fizzled out.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17025-deadly-new-flu-virus-in-us-and-mexico-may-go-pandemic.html
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