"Killer Flu" Emerging On Both Sides of the Pacific 82
mallorean writes "The spread of SARS ( Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ) worldwide is just about making the headlines. The WHO has issued an advisory. American Scientist had two very timely articles relevant to SARS in the current issue. The first is about the rapidly growing antibiotic resistance in bacterial diseases and the origin and possible sources of this resistance. The second article talks about Type A Influenza and the possibility of a world pandemic similar to the 1918 Global Flu Pandemic. The transmittable nature of SARS, the lack of epidemological information and its severe resistance to antibiotics seems tailor made to fit the scenario outlined in the second article ( it even originated in the far east and is a strain of avian flu )." Read below for a related link.
jake-in-a-box points to a New York Times article which says that the illness "has affected hundreds in China and Southeast Asia, and now spread to Vancouver, BC. It does not respond to antibiotics or antivirals and apparently nobody has fully recovered yet. Transmission appears to be via aerosol droplets - coughs, sneezes etc."
Virus vs antibiotics (Score:5, Informative)
Duh.
Re:Virus vs antibiotics (Score:5, Informative)
Daniel
Re:Virus vs antibiotics (Score:3, Informative)
Antibiotics would only be effect against bacterial pneumonia. There are some cases where pneumonia is thought to be caused by viruses.
http://www.lungusa.org/diseases/lungpneumoni.html
Re:Virus vs antibiotics (Score:2)
As far as this goes, though, They don't know what it is, so they're throwing everything at it, and hoping something will do some good. Not the most medically sound procedure there is, but when nothing works, try anything.
--Dan
Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)
Re:From bash.org (Score:2)
-----------
OnRoad [onlawn.net]: Junkyard Wars meets SCCA
Re:From bash.org (Score:3, Funny)
Third base.
Re:From bash.org (Score:2)
(Kudos)
Brandon
Re:From bash.org (Score:2)
Darn, I was going for a high velocity nostril to monitor trajectory :-)
Difference between this and other diseases? (Score:5, Informative)
These articles talk about a strain influenza virus (and then they talk about a second disease) which is spreading to dozens of countries and which has killed hundreds of people in Asia. WHO issued an advisory. The deaths are tragic, but these happenings don't seem very unusual to me. Thousands of people die from influenza every year, WHO issues advisories every year, viruses spread every year.
So how is this new disease different? I couldn't get a good sense from the articles.
Is this just hype? Perhaps now that we're on the verge of war, and many folks (at least here in the US) are scared of a biological attack. Perhaps that fear is just contributing to the hype?
Re:Difference between this and other diseases? (Score:5, Interesting)
So how is this new disease different?
The new illness is probably not influenza. The flu does not present as a pneumonia, although it can weaken the respiratory tract and allow secondary infection by opportunistic bacteria or viruses. Furthermore, there are rapid tests available for the diagnosis of the flu virus. I presume these have been performed and came back negative. So this is a new, dangerous, highly-infectious disease.
Re:Difference between this and other diseases? (Score:2)
Re:Difference between this and other diseases? (Score:2, Insightful)
The really really scary thing about this is that no one who has been infected is getting better.
That by itself might not be enough to have everyone in an uproar, but throw in moderate mortality and extremely infectious and completely unknown infectious agent and it is definitely time to be concerned.
Just in case you still don't see t
Re:Difference between this and other diseases? (Score:2)
Indeed; I have seen no reports contradicting that thus far.
Re:Difference between this and other diseases? (Score:3, Informative)
Not that I'm getting my hopes up over one person, but maybe the 'no one has recovered' is media hype.
Re:Difference between this and other diseases? (Score:2)
Re:Difference between this and other diseases? (Score:2)
But how long have people had the disease? If it's only been a week, then it's not a big problem.
Last year I was hit with a really nasty flu during a very stressful time in my life. With a weakened immune system, I was sick for over 3 weeks (First Flu, then presumably some secondary infection). Even in my battered state, I was probably healthier then many people in other parts of the world.
Re:Difference between this and other diseases? (Score:2)
So, when something new, different and deadly arrives, no one is immune and no medicine cures it.
That is why there is all the hype. Because this is very different from any of the hundreds of diseases you come in contact with every day, but are immune to.
That would be an interesting turn of events eh? I mean 20
Antibiotics are not for viral infections (Score:1)
Influenza is a virus. Repeat: antibiotics are NOT for viral infections. Someone needs to get on the ball and crank out a vaccine.
Re:Antibiotics are not for viral infections (Score:3, Informative)
SARS is acting like an airborne pathogen, which is scary.
Re:Antibiotics are not for viral infections (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Antibiotics are not for viral infections (Score:2)
Re:Antibiotics are not for viral infections (Score:2)
Re:Good (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Good (Score:1)
The flu/pneumonia and anti-biotics (Score:5, Informative)
Re:The flu/pneumonia and anti-biotics (Score:2, Informative)
If everybody uses these topical antibiotics, they will become less effective and eventually completely non-effective, but it will not affect the potency of your doctors penicillin.
An online Starcraft RPG? Only at [netnexus.com]
Re:The flu/pneumonia and anti-biotics (Score:5, Informative)
Not to imply that the AC made this mistake, but don't confuse "Anti-Bacterial" with "Anti-Biotic". Soap is naturally antibacterial, so having this on the label is right up there with selling water by trumping up the fact that it's wet. BUT, one manufacturer does it, so they all do it...
Oh, the best part is that the mechanical action of washing your hands is what does most of the work in sanitizing your hands, soap can actually make you MORE susceptible to illness by removing a variety of products your skin exudes onto its surface to combat infection (membrane lysing ribozymes and the like) and drying the skin.
The main abusers of antibiotics are livestock industries, though, not poorly informed doctors and irresponsible patients. Just about every animal is given astounding amounts of antibiotics but not so much for their disease fighting effects (in fact, certain antibiotic classes have been so abused that there are bacterial strains that can use them as FOOD). Someone noticed that animals given antibiotics gained weight more rapidly and reached a higher average weight overall than similarly treated animals that were not given the antibiotics. At first it was thought "oh, it's just because they're more healthy" but, in fact, the antibiotics themselves were causing the animals to bulk up, as proven by the fact that many of the antibiotics still given to livestock are no longer effective as antibiotics (go go evolution) yet the animals still bring more meat to market in less time.
So, why get upset about argindustrialists overusing admittedly ineffective antibiotics? Because they also do still give the animals doses of currently effective antibiotics... and I don't expect Frank the Farmhand to draw the distinction between the two, so we find abuses of the newer, still effective, antibiotics simply because of the conditioning to overdose the animals.
The thing that bothers me most about the general availability of antibiotics is that, while Carla the Crackwhore is only destroying her life, Henry the Hypochondriac is busily breeding the new strains of this, that, and/or the other that may just spread around the world one day and kill us all. Tuberculosis is already a growing problem. Post operative infection (by antibiotic/antiviral resistant strains, of course) is a major player in hospital deaths these days. It is my opinion that antibiotics should be controlled with handling restrictions silimar to Schedule I, Class A drugs... as they pose a greater threat to more people than heroin ever has.
Re:The flu/pneumonia and anti-biotics (Score:4, Informative)
Re:The flu/pneumonia and anti-biotics (Score:2)
Re:The flu/pneumonia and anti-biotics (Score:2)
"Carla the Crackwhore" as Sweet Virginia Appleseed
"Frank the Farmhand" as Honest John Smith
"Henry the hypocondriact" as Sickly Steven Engleburk
"Lucy the lunatic" as Crazy Mary Jane
Nancy the nyphomaniac as John Smith's daughter Louise
And
"Lester the molester" as Rev. Dick Holden
Yeah...
Query X-rated Ouroboros: (Score:2)
Is that a typo or how its spelled?
Re:Query X-rated Ouroboros: (Score:1)
It's not a typo. You might be thinking about ribosomes, though, the RNA/enzyme assemblies that translate mRNA into proteins. Ribozymes are catalytic bits of RNA (incidentally, the part of the ribosome that's responsible for forming the peptide bond between the growing protein and the next amino acid is a ribozyme).
Base pairing will cause single stranded RNA to fold back on itself and take a specific conformation, much the same as the properties of different amino acids will give a protein it's ultimate s
CBC Article... (Score:5, Informative)
--Dan
Re:CBC Article... (Score:2, Informative)
Epidemiologists have been watching for indications of a repeat of the 1918
Air conditioning / sick building syndrome (Score:1)
Or, perhaps, work in buildings with "air conditioning" instead of windows that open and have folk show up to work sick. I realize that "air conditioners" are a big ticket status item among managers, but I would posit that they reduce effectivity by lowering the air quality (low rates of fresh air, higher mold or other contaminants), reducing acclimitization, and work place noise. At least a few years ago in the U.S., i
Re:I just got over the flu (Score:2)
Sorry. Hope you're all better soon. :)
Re:I just got over the flu (Score:1)
So long Captain Trips
solving antibiotic resistance is pretty simple (Score:5, Insightful)
Instead, we feed antibiotics to livestock and hand them out to anybody who asks for them. It's not surprising that that leads to resistance. The consequence is already a lot of disease that would have been treatable otherwise, and it will likely be lots of deaths in the future. And simply researching new antibiotics won't be a solution: they'll become ineffective as quickly as the current crop; this is a race that we are losing.
If you prescribe or take antibiotics unnecessarily, or if you buy meat from animals that have been fed antibiotics, you are responsible for the deaths of others pretty much as if you put a gun to their head; it's just that you are never going to meet the people you killed.
Re:solving antibiotic resistance is pretty simple (Score:2)
Actually, a better analogy might be firing a gun randomly into the street while not looking.
Re:solving antibiotic resistance is pretty simple (Score:1)
Re:solving antibiotic resistance is pretty simple (Score:2)
It's your illogical attitude of "well, let's take them just to be sure" that's the cause of these problems.
Re:solving antibiotic resistance is pretty simple (Score:1)
What i ment was this....
you said that we should only give antibiotics to people with "dangerous infection that is plausibly of bacterial o
Re:solving antibiotic resistance is pretty simple (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:solving antibiotic resistance is pretty simple (Score:1)
Re:solving antibiotic resistance is pretty simple (Score:2)
But antibiotics create the situation to which the resistant organisms are adapted.
If you take antibiotics for one day, then you have killed all of the bacteria which can't survive one day. All the rest are w
Re:solving antibiotic resistance is pretty simple (Score:2)
If that is what you are trying to argue, it is simply wrong. Antibiotics use causes resistant organisms to become widespread and to become a public health risk. If you use less antibiotics, the risk decreases. This is a causal relationship as strong as any in physics.
In fact, by
Re:solving antibiotic resistance is pretty simple (Score:1)
Indeed, and if we just shot all people with a bacterial infection, bacterial resistance would not be a very big issue either.
As another poster said, people walk into their doctor's office and demand antibiotics for whatever ails them.
Re:solving antibiotic resistance is pretty simple (Score:2)
And? Are you proposing that? Because I clearly was not.
And, what's worse, people that actually *do* need the antibiotics often stop taking them once they begin to feel better,
Well, gee, that's why I said "with proper isolation", which includes supervision.
I am curious though...can you name me one research project that has conclusively linked feeding animals antibiotics has r
Re:solving antibiotic resistance is pretty simple (Score:1)
That was a press release, not a research project, as was ask for by the poster. Also, the press release used many words like "may cause" and "might cuase." Not very strong language. Furthermore, the acticle provides no meaningful statistics. It just thows out numbers, without any statistical analysis. The only numbers even presented are comparing two years. N=2 is not a very large sample size
Re:solving antibiotic resistance is pretty simple (Score:1)
Re:solving antibiotic resistance is pretty simple (Score:2)
To get you started, though:
Nutr Rev 2002 Aug;60(8):261-4 (review article on the impact of antibiotic use in animals on humans)
J Am Diet Assoc 2002 Jun;102(6):768 (article on how to communicate the issue to patients, written to Dieticians)
J Environ Health 2002 May;64(9):66, 62 (WHO data summary
Geeks to the rescue (Score:3, Insightful)
tecks and scientists unite!
(stop looking abroad while there's problems at home (SETI))
He's a comin' (Score:3, Funny)
Re:He's a comin' (Score:2)
We have been waiting for the Killer Flu, it's late (Score:1)
Scary (Score:3, Informative)
I think I'll stay indoors and only invite people if I really have to
Why antibiotics are fed to the livestock (Score:4, Informative)
Although, the antibiotic resistance may not have anything to do with this: the pathogen looks to me more like a virus, quite possibly of the influenza variety. Please remember that influenza viruses are *exceptionaly* variable, fast- mutating. They have their natural reservoir in birds (wild population and chicken as weel) and also pigs, and only infect humans when they mutate. Influenza virus needs the host to have a protease capable of activating the key virus protein. Most often these proteases are specific to the particular tissue and animal species - that is until the key virus protein eventualy mutates and a new host becames vulnerable to it.
When the mutation would happen is unpredictable and if the new influenza virus is only a cousin-relative to the common influenza virus, the neuramidinaze inhibitors may not work at all on it.
Muhammar
Omega Post! (Score:4, Funny)
I am the LAST SLASHDOT READER ALIVE ON EARTH!!!
Last Post!!!
...damn, I'm lonely.
Al-Queda terrorist plot? (Score:1)