Swine Flu

[[THANATOS].Metal]

Is bullshit.

Discuss:

[[THANATOS].-Hades]

Nothing new or important as of now, no need to panic or piss your pants.

[[THANATOS].Teo]

if obama wants to cancel finals, by all means cancel finals haha. had em canceled in winter, might as well cancel now

[[THANATOS].Shiver-]

Obviously, I have lots to say about it. I will discuss later when I have more time.

[Spluff]

Epidemics happen, we have to get around them, no biggy.

[[THANATOS].Shiver-]

Alrighty, quick little tuft of info:

This H1N1 virus is only really making news because it has accomplished human-human transmission (the only thing that bird flu is missing... and I'm thankful for that). From what I've heard, it isn't that virulent, only highly contagious. Most of those who have caught it have responded quite well to treatments. You have to consider that 36,000 people die a year from REGULAR flu - I am not worried about swine flu. In fact, I want it. This is an influenza A virus, which is an RNA virus. RNA viruses' RNA polymerases are low fidelity in function, and as a result, produce MANY variants of the same virus. While this seems like a huge issue alone, it usually isn't - the mutations that are accumulated either hurt the virus or do nothing, usually. However, what I am worried about is when this virus is going to mutate to become more virulent and cause more damage (or becomes resistant to antiviral therapies). I want to catch it now while it's low virulence before it mutates, since RNA viruses (as discussed above) mutate so quickly (this is the basis behind many of our vaccines that are developed). If I catch it now, my immune system could be ready for the situation of dealing with a high virulence strain of H1N1 (if that were to happen).

In short, right now, I don't think it's anything more special than the regular human influenza A virus. It's just a special strain of swine influenza, nothing more... but it can go either way genetically (like anything in the world), but that direction depends on the selection pressures it feels. Who knows, we might end up with multiple strains of this one. RNA viruses are predictable in that they are unpredictable lol.

Thank you, virology class.

[[THANATOS].Metal]

My input in the discussion:

I'm exposed to the flu virus every year just as much as the next guy, and I've gotten the flu ONE time in my life so far. Coincidentally, that was the year I got a flu shot. I'm sure the virus has mutated a bunch of times since then, yet I don't get sick, hmm.....

If smallpox broke loose, I could understand every source of info telling me to build a bubble and live in it.

There's only 250ish cases of human death resulting from swine flu around the WORLD as of yesterday. The majority of which in countries with sub standard medical practices/availability. Why is the media having a field day? This is bullshit, give us real news.

[[THANATOS].Atomic]

It is a bunch of over reacting. This strain has been around before and will be around. Just like the other strains that came before it, AKA the 1918 Spanish Flu. This biggest danger from this flu is completly supressed immune systems or health systems that go into "storm". All H1N1 variants are just as virulent. The danger from a mutation in this case would be that the normal treatment might no longer work. This is based on the more people who get the strain causing it to undergo genetic changes like Shiv said.

Overall, it has more to do with people panicing. This happened in 1918, 1969 and others with other strains. Just goes to show that no matter how smart we think we are, people still panic when they don't understand.

[[THANATOS].Fragaholic]

I believe the reason for the big scare over this virus is the fact that it's affecting everyone. Not just children and the elderly, which I am sure are a big chunk of the 36,000 that die each year. But I do agree the media is going nuts with this, as they usually do!

[[THANATOS].Shiver-]

[THANATOS Wrote:.Atomic"]It is a bunch of over reacting. This strain has been around before and will be around. Just like the other strains that came before it, AKA the 1918 Spanish Flu. This biggest danger from this flu is completly supressed immune systems or health systems that go into "storm". All H1N1 variants are just as virulent. The danger from a mutation in this case would be that the normal treatment might no longer work. This is based on the more people who get the strain causing it to undergo genetic changes like Shiv said.

Overall, it has more to do with people panicing. This happened in 1918, 1969 and others with other strains. Just goes to show that no matter how smart we think we are, people still panic when they don't understand.

The red parts aren't really true. Paramyxoviruses (the family flu viruses are in) can range in virulence quite a bit. I'm pretty sure canine distemper virus is in there, and that causes severe neurological symptoms, whereas the basic flu virus gives you the sniffles. Virulence is a spectrum for all virus families. (see this: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-B1jx49SI8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-B1jx49SI8</a><!-- m --> ... not a great example, but you can see the abnormal gait and slight head tilt).

EDIT: Whoops, Influenza A is in Orthomyxoviridae, not Paramyxoviridae, but the point is the same on the virulence spectrum thing lol.

And a deadly mutation can be more than resisting treatment - it could change its cellular tropism (which cells it attacks), so instead of just attacking respiratory-related things, it could attack say the brain, liver, heart, etc. All it would have to do is change something like a surface antigen and gain access to the blood stream, or something of that sort.

[Spluff]

Orthomyxoviridae is much more than just H1N1 or even just Influenza A, though.

[[THANATOS].Pommiewog]

Hey because im muslim and dont eat pork, does that mean i cant catch the swine flu???? or is my immunity to it lower than someone who eats spam?

[[THANATOS].-Hades]

You don't get the swine flu from pigs, another vector transfers it from pigs to humans.

[[THANATOS].Shiver-]

[THANATOS Wrote:.Spluff"]Orthomyxoviridae is much more than just H1N1 or even just Influenza A, though.

Yeah, I know, I'm just illustrating a point that virulence is a spectrum within a family, and they're in a family because they share similar properties. Hence, H1N1 has potential to increase or decrease in virulence. With the proper selection pressures applied by humans, it is entirely possible to cause a more virulent strain to emerge. Case in point, all H1N1 viruses do NOT have the same virulence. H1N1 viruses have been around a long time (as Atomic pointed out), but H1N1 is only a classification system based upon 2 surface proteins - they aren't all the same.

-- Fri May 01, 2009 11:13 am --

[THANATOS Wrote:.Pommiewog"]Hey because im muslim and dont eat pork, does that mean i cant catch the swine flu???? or is my immunity to it lower than someone who eats spam?

Current evidence (from what I understand) is suggesting that it is caught through aerosol transmission, although I think your comment was sarcastic? I couldn't tell lol. Regardless, it is highly unlikely that you could get it through ingesting the virus.

[[THANATOS].Atomic]

I wasn't saying all H1N1 strains are the same but each family while is does have a "spectrum" of virulence, most are within the same range. Influenza A viruses all are within the same virulent range. Now, distemper I don't know about.