New SARS-Like Virus Infects Both Human and Animal Cells 62
sciencehabit writes "A SARS-like virus discovered this summer in the Middle East may infect more than just humans. The pathogen, a close cousin to the one that caused the 2002 to 2003 SARS outbreak, may also be able to infect cells from pigs and a wide range of bat species, researchers report today (abstract). The findings may help public health officials track the source of the outbreak and identify the role of wild animals and livestock in spreading the virus, researchers say."
In summary (Score:1)
So to summarize: if we don't stop this supervirus, we won't have any bacon anymore. Oh, and we might also be dead.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, in fact this could be The End of All Multicellular Life On Earth!
Question for this crowd (Score:3, Interesting)
I am a statistician. In light of this year's early flu epidemic, I am tasked with modeling ER flu counts as a function of time.
When I plot the residual graph (observed - expected), I get upward spikes lasting about a week, corresponding to epidemics of particular strains. But there are also downward spikes lasting about a week. They occur at random, independent of the upward spikes. So what do I call such downward spikes? I've searched around but there is no antonym for "epidemic".
Re:Question for this crowd (Score:5, Funny)
Academic?
Re: (Score:2)
What do you mean with 'random'? Do you think that it might be prove that God does play dice after all?
If yes... all I can say is that I always thought that Einstein was wrong... But now there seems to be conclusive prove!
Oh...
wait...
what?
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
>My guess is it's IBNR (probably not the term to use, but look it up and you'll get the gist) rather than a genuine fall off in counts.
Thanks, I looked it up. As for doubting a genuine fall-off, the same logic could be used to argue against the existence of upward spikes. And who knows, maybe "flu epidemics" are really just mass hysteria. But if I made such an assertion, I would have my sanity as a scientist questioned. ;)
>Check for correlation between the down spikes and seasonal spikes in pollen
Re: (Score:2)
Hmm, interesting. So it spreads from zip code to zip code, but sometimes to places where there are fewer children. (We get plenty of low-income, uninsured children since we are a Catholic hospital system.)
I do know the detailed street addresses of patients, so it may come in handy at some point.
Re: (Score:2)
I am a statistician. In light of this year's early flu epidemic, I am tasked with modeling ER flu counts as a function of time.
When I plot the residual graph (observed - expected), I get upward spikes lasting about a week, corresponding to epidemics of particular strains. But there are also downward spikes lasting about a week. They occur at random, independent of the upward spikes. So what do I call such downward spikes? I've searched around but there is no antonym for "epidemic".
First of all, I don't think it's really fair that you were moderated off-topic, your comment is as close to topic as most. I quoted the full message so that more people will see it.
That said, I would first check the size of the population against the duration of the downward spikes. If the population is small enough relative to the size of the health care infrastructure you would expect the downward spikes to gradually get longer as the population builds immunity to the virus.
As for naming the d
Re: (Score:2)
Thank you. I work for a medical center and the counts are for a children's emergency room. So the at-risk population is constant.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
We have no way of knowing anything at that level of detail -- what percent of the population as a whole was infected, how many were vaccinated. The government does not have such information either. What you describe is for hypothetical simulations. I'm just working with ER managers to enable efficient resource allocation: how many flu patients do we expect today? Where are we relative to seasonal baseline?
Re:Question for this crowd (Score:4, Informative)
We have no way of knowing anything at that level of detail
True, though based on the situation you may be able to estimate some of them fairly well.
what percent of the population as a whole was infected
If you are the only hospital in the area, you can presume that all the severe cases are coming to you. You could then presume that a certain percent of infections are severe enough to warrant hospitalization and estimate the total infected from that. Obviously not a perfect number but a useful one nonetheless.
how many were vaccinated
This one also varies with the population pool you are dealing with. If you are the primary source of vaccination then you have a pretty good idea of how many are vaccinated. On the other hand if you have 20 clinics in your area, plus 4 drugs stores and 2 discount retailers that all do vaccination as well, then your numbers won't describe the vaccination rate well on their own.
The government does not have such information either
Correct. Of course, you do know who makes the vaccines, and you could use their numbers as a high limit for vaccinated people across the country.
What you describe is for hypothetical simulations.
Hypothetical situations are described to make models for the real world when real world data is not sufficient.
I'm just working with ER managers to enable efficient resource allocation:
Which is very important work as well. I'm just suggesting you may be able to get some reasonable estimates of the bigger picture from not a lot more data and work.
how many flu patients do we expect today? Where are we relative to seasonal baseline?
Also worth knowing. And with some additional work you should be able to project fairly well where you are on the trajectory, as well (unless, of course, you are one hospital in a community of millions, at which point the numbers likely break down).
In other words, I think what you describe is very interesting. I'm just suggesting that for many cases you may be able to use it to model some things that you had not (yet) described. I'm an informatics guy, I enjoy mining data like that...
Re: (Score:2)
Have you looked for correlations with school holidays and the presence or absence of school events that increase the likelihood of transmissions between cohorts? For instance, among high school students, dead weeks preceding end of term tests may decrease the usual amount of mingling between students of different schools and delay transmission of the virus. Similarly, there could be fluctuations in transmission opportunities related to the success or failure of a school team's advancement in semi-final comp
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It scars me that you are doing statistics of an epidemic, but don't understand what epidemic is.
Seriously dude, you can't be good at your job.
It's like trying to find what the antonym of earthquake is.
cpt. obv? (Score:3, Informative)
well, last I checked, humans were animals?
Re: (Score:3)
Of course, you realize that in context, 'animal' means 'non-human animal', but you still had to be pedantic.
Re: (Score:2)
well, last I checked, humans were animals?
That's the residuum of monotheistic creationism in people's thinking for you. ;-) No, we're special! We have souls and animals don't! Well, people still haven't learned to think in those terms. Old habits die hard.
Re: (Score:2)
may infect more than just humans. The pathogen may also be able to infect cells from pigs and a wide range of bat species
Oh Noes! Batmans in double trouble!
Actually this is pretty scary. Bats are one of the best carriers of disease because of their communal lifestyle and the fact they can cover many miles a night. The point that wasn't made strong enough is it infected every tissue sample they tried it on so far. This has pandemic written all over it. It's still localized and it has yet to break out but if it does it could infect tens of millions. Hard to say the mortality rate but it could be high. We're due for another pandemic so every source like this need
Re: (Score:2)
Bats are one of the best carriers of disease
They are also the best at getting rid of other carriers of disease, like mosquitos. Bats eat many times their weight in insects every single night. Get rid of bats and you have a whole lot of people dying from all the diseases that mosquitos carry.
I'll take bats over mosquitos any day. The only disease a bat carries that can affect humans is rabies (a bat with this new virus won't infect anyone), and how many rabid bats have been found this year? Now, how many peo
That is very rapid publication (Score:4, Interesting)
This also shows how good next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have become. They were able to sequence and assemble an entire virus genome in ~4 months or (likely) less, from a single infected human.
Just in time for 12/21/12 (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I'll kinda miss that meme :( But I'm sure a suitable replacement will be found.
Re: (Score:2)
But I'm sure a suitable replacement will be found.
It's inevitable. The end of the world is always near, and someone always knows the date. This year it was the Mayan calendar, a few ears ago it was some nutball preacher who claimed to have figured it out from the bible despite the fact that the bible says Jesus doesn't even know. A coupld of years earlier it was the same nutball, who said he must have made a math error when the world didn't end. Then there was Y2K and the people who thought aliens would tak
Found in the middle east? (Score:2)
Human and animal cells? (Score:2)
New SARS-Like Virus Infects Both Human and Animal Cells
So what the fuck are we? Vegetables?
Newsflash... (Score:2)
... Humans ARE animals, you idiotic dipshits.
Bad news for pigs (Score:1)
Awareness! (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Spammer spotted.
Impressive amount of work you put into it.
End of the world? (Score:2)
I guess ... (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
How else do you think AIDS made the jump from monkeys to humans?
Re: (Score:2)
Anonymous cowards eat the humour out of threads as well sadly.
Re: (Score:2)
From what I've read, it came from an African tribe that considered monkey brain to be a delacacy. AIDS is not really an STD, it's a blood-bourne virus. It's a lot easier to get AIDS in a knife fight than it is from sex. If you're butchering a monkey and you have a cut on your hand, guess what? You got AIDS!
Humans AND Animals? (Score:2)
How about "animals including humans"?
Re: (Score:2)
How about no more comments pointing out that humans are animals? (1) Context (2) Duh.
On MARS? (Score:1)
What, Curiosity found a virus on Mars? I hear it causes dyslexia.
humans AND animals? (Score:1)