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2009-04-17 Science & Technology

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Posted by Anonymoose 2009-04-17 00:00|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 OOH, what a great time to schedule a couple extra wars in central asia.

Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2009-04-17 01:16|| 2009-04-17 01:16|| Front Page Top

#2 Didn't we hear about some potentially fundamental advance in flu vaccines a month or two ago? Faster, please.

Posted by Glenmore">Glenmore 2009-04-17 09:33|| 2009-04-17 09:33|| Front Page Top

#3 Glenmore: Remember the chess games between chess masters and IBMs Big Blue? Influenza is both so gene flexible, and such a master of natural selection, that on the macro level, it behaves like a computer. Any treatment you come up with for it is countered and trumped with scary speed.

Within two years after the increased use of the three major antiviral agents, especially Tamiflu, in Asia, the *normal* flu strains, in America, have evolved 100% resistance.

As far as Avian flu goes, right now it is progressing on three fronts.

In China, it (clade 7) is extending its endemic range, with completely isolated outbreaks hundreds of miles apart. That is why the nationwide alert to doctors for atypical pneumonia. The Chinese are justifiably frightened.

In Bangladesh, a different strain holds a greater risk of wiping out enormous numbers of animals and birds, causing widespread famine.

In Egypt, they have just announced a third strain of mild pediatric Avian flu that infected a dozen small children but only killed one of them. This is a critical pandemic step, because once inside a human population, it will quickly learn how to become human to human transmissible.

Once it learns how to do this, then the severe lethality will once again reemerge. This is one of the worst danger signals yet.

More:

http://news.google.com/news?q=bird+flu+news&hl=en&lr=&sa=X&oi=news&ct=title

Posted by Anonymoose 2009-04-17 10:00|| 2009-04-17 10:00|| Front Page Top

#4 What I think I recall reading about was a vaccine approach that worked from a piece of the virus a level 'deeper' in its structure, so it would apply to a lot more strains at a time, and thus last longer against mutations.

Posted by Glenmore">Glenmore 2009-04-17 10:44|| 2009-04-17 10:44|| Front Page Top

#5 Lifeforms can be pretty sneaky. A breakthrough in cancer treatment came when they realized that tumors will try to defend themselves from treatment, so they now use at least three different attacks at once, to kill it before it can adapt.

I'm not holding my breath with the idea we can beat influenza that has been evolving in competition for thousands of years. Oh maybe for a while.

Posted by Anonymoose 2009-04-17 18:02|| 2009-04-17 18:02|| Front Page Top

#6 Eventually Moose. Our tech will evolve faster than the viruses.

Posted by ed 2009-04-17 19:47|| 2009-04-17 19:47|| Front Page Top

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