NEWS: Mysterious Disease Kills Nine In China

Originally posted by gman55
Latest on the 20 infected...

Xinhua News reported an unknown disease struck 20 villagers in Ziyang, Sichuan, between June 24 and July 21. They all began with a high fever, fatigue, nausea and vomiting and became comatose later with bruises under the skin.
The patients, 19 men and a woman, are all farmers aged 30 to 70. They all butchered sick pigs or sheep before coming down with the strange disease, a preliminary investigation has found. By July 21, nine patients died and one has recovered. Ten more are still being treated. Their close contacts have not been infected.

All Type A Influenza viruses are well known for their propensity to easily mutate over time and space. A mutation is defined as a change in genetic information. Changes in genetic information can lead to changes in the actual structure of the virus, leading to new subtypes or strains. For example, the Type A Influenza virus of humans undergo frequent mutations leading to permanent antigenic changes in the virus. An antigen is a foreign substance, generally a protein that causes an immune response. The Influenza Virus looks like a ball studded with “spikes” on the surface of the virus. The spikes consist of molecules of two proteins (antigens), hemagglutinin and neuraminidase, on the surface of the virus.

All Type A Influenza viruses, which includes those that infect humans and birds, mutate easily because the virus lack mechanisms that prevent changes in its genetic code during replication. The virus also cannot repair any changes should there be any. As a result of these uncorrected errors, the genetic composition of the virus changes (mutation) during replication, and the existing strain is replaced with a new mutant virus, properly known as an antigenic variant. These constant, permanent and usually small changes in the antigenic composition of Influenza A Viruses are known as “antigenic drift”.

The danger in antigenic drift is that Influenza Viruses that are “mildly pathogenic” can mutate into forms that become “highly pathogenic”. This has been shown during a 1983-84 epidemic of Avian Flu Virus in the United States. During this period, Avian Flu Virus Subtype H5N2 initially caused low mortalities in poultry. But within six months, the virus had mutated into a highly pathogenic form as demonstrated by high mortalities approaching 90%.

The probability of the Flu virus mutating into a more pathogenic form also increases the longer it circulates. This was shown in a study conducted earlier this year by the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute (Harbin, China) and the St Jude Children's Research Hospital (Memphis, U.S). In their study, researchers reported results of experiments in which mice had been exposed to 21 isolates of Avian Flu Virus subtype H5N1 strains obtained from ducks in China between 1999 and 2002. They found a pattern of progressively increasing pathogenicity over time, with the 2002 isolates being far more harmful then those in 1999.

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Originally posted by DeltaChaos
Sounds to me like a little bit of biological warfare.

Maybe Russia feels like they have to thin the herd a little bit before excising...?

Or maybe to reduce backlash after using the Sino-horde for a massive assault somewhere and killing a couple million of 'em.

Neither the Russians nor the Chinese are to be trusted. By anyone.

Originally posted by Thomas Crowne
Chill. Influenzas infect the lungs, they don't bruise the skin.

Originally posted by QuietSoul


Why does every natural occurance have to be related to some kind of global warmongering? This is science, the influenza has been mutating for CENTURIES. It's nothing new, its nothing manufactured. It's fact, and the sooner you realize it, the sooner you'll understand how bad this could get.

I swear, do people even read the links provided anymore?