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2004-05-22 -Short Attention Span Theater-

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Posted by Mark Espinola 2004-05-22 7:38:36 PM|| || Front Page|| [6 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 BP is still endemic to parts of this country. One location IIRC is Detroit. In this age of rapid international air travel and increasing mobility I am literally scared that eventually Ebola or something similiar will get out of Africa. And that is not the only place that a new killer could come from

Posted by cheaderhead 2004-05-22 8:57:45 PM|| 2004-05-22 8:57:45 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 A little mentioned fact is the incredible adaptive abilities of the AIDS virus. Even after extensive study, there remain large gaps in our understanding of this potent viral threat.

Consider for one moment what would happen if the AIDS virus mutated to an airborne version. Now imagine if a concerted effort was made to intentionally mutate one of the various killer viruses into a more easily transmissable form.

All of this is merely one more reason for smashing those states that continue to exhibit the least support for international terrorism. Technology has drastically outpaced our ability to both control and monitor its adverse uses.

The biggest viruses are 400,000 base pairs long with HIV containing 10,000 base pairs whereas hepatitis B contains 3000, human cytomegalovirus contains about 230 kilo base pairs (kbps where kilo means thousand) and influenza at 12 kbp. By contrast the E Coli bacteria is 4 million base pairs, the the bacteria that causes tuberculosis is 4,411,532 base pairs (bp) and the bacteria that causes leprosy is 3,268,203 bp. So building artificial bacteria from scratch is a much bigger job. But keep in mind that 12 kbp number for influenza. Individual influenza strains have killed tens of millions of people. Imagine a bioengineered influenza attack that unleashed many deadly strains at once. The results for the human race would be catastrophic.

Posted by Zenster 2004-05-22 9:44:12 PM|| 2004-05-22 9:44:12 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 Bubonic plague was (and is) not caused by a virus, but by a Bacillus bacteria, Yersinia pestis. What sort of medical researcher doesn't know the difference between a virus and a bacteria?

Posted by Grunter 2004-05-22 10:04:28 PM|| 2004-05-22 10:04:28 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 Zenster as usual is wrong. Were a disease like SARS or BP go pandemic, then organized states could control it the same way SARS was controlled by quarenteen, isolation and barrier medicine. We were lucky that SARS didn't get into sub-saharan Africa or the moslem world where states don't have the capability to do this and the disease would spread unchecked. The result would be entire areas would be devastated, but the West would be relatively unaffected. An interesting consequence would be every tranzi liberal would get mugged big time by reality.

Posted by Phil B 2004-05-22 10:09:17 PM|| 2004-05-22 10:09:17 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 Grunter, I think the fault lies with the BBC reporting, which is particularly abysmal when covering science and technology.

Posted by Phil B 2004-05-22 10:11:41 PM|| 2004-05-22 10:11:41 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 This, or one of its gene-jumping siblings, is the one to worry about...

I recommend The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett is (was for me in '96) an eye-opener giving excellent background and avoiding "the sky is falling!" hysteria. It was published in 1995, so it is somewhat dated. Perhaps someone knows of a more recent and better text for substantive information.

Posted by .com 2004-05-22 10:17:52 PM|| 2004-05-22 10:17:52 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 Plague is commonly detected among squirrels and other rodents in the West - it'll be pandemic ONLY among the ignorant masses who believe their holy men that fleas and vermin are OK, Joooos and their "needles" are not. Sad to say, good riddance if your birth rate exceeds your IQ

Posted by Frank G 2004-05-22 10:28:31 PM|| 2004-05-22 10:28:31 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 Bubonic plague is caused by yersinia pestis. The point of the article is that that the authors thought it wasn't Y pestis but a virus of some kind. I think they're wrong.

BP is indeed found in rodents in the west, and there are a couple of sporadic cases in the U.S. each year because of this.

Ebola won't cause a new plague, for a simple reason -- its victims die too quickly to spread the disease very far. It's easy enough to quarentine as well, and usually the 2nd wave dies out without infecting anyone else.

Mutating influenza wouldn't be hard -- the Chinese manage to do it every year :-) However, mutating it to be more lethal and infectious would be more difficult. As is pointed out re SARS, if it became clear that a new virus (influenza or anything else) was on the rampage, 1st and 2nd world countries would institute public health measures, and the disease would be contained.

Posted by Steve White 2004-05-22 11:24:27 PM|| 2004-05-22 11:24:27 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 im wonder if yersinpestis endangered.

Posted by muck4doo 2004-05-22 11:39:33 PM|| [http://meatismurder.blogspot.com] 2004-05-22 11:39:33 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 Zenster as usual is wrong. Were a disease like SARS or BP go pandemic, then organized states could control it the same way SARS was controlled by quarenteen, isolation and barrier medicine.

For someone who cannot be bothered to spell "quarantine" properly, you sure talk a blue streak, Phil B.

Posted by Zenster 2004-05-23 2:52:12 AM|| 2004-05-23 2:52:12 AM|| Front Page Top

17:50 docob
17:33 Ptah
09:22 Raptor
08:27 Billy Hank
05:25 ed
04:33 Mark Espinola
04:16 Jen
04:13 Jen
04:03 Mark Espinola
03:47 Mark Espinola
03:44 Mark Espinola
02:52 Zenster
01:42 Anonymous4617
00:34 Jen
23:39 muck4doo
23:24 Steve White
23:18 CrazyFool
23:15 Phil Fraering
23:05 Alaska Paul
23:02 Ptah
23:00 Alaska Paul
22:59 Atomic Conspiracy
22:54 Atomic Conspiracy
22:48 Frank G