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New virus called

Check out this.
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    • Profile picture of the author Joe Mobley
      1918 saw the worst pandemic in the worlds history.

      During 4 years of fighting, World War One claimed 8 1/2 million souls. In only a few months time the inappropriately name Spanish Flu killed 50 million world wide.

      An excellent PBS video, Killer Flu.

      Joe Mobley
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  • Profile picture of the author derekwong28
    I am no longer working as a virologist and so I have not been following the new virus closely. But I was right in the middle of the SARS epidemic in 2003 and it was truly frightening at that time. Our city was like a ghost city where restaurants and shops were empty. Everybody wore masks while going outside and many doctors did not go home but stayed in a hotel because they were afraid that they may infect their families. We also had a complete block of flats quarantined under police supervision and the residents forcibly moved to a camp. At the height of that epidemic, every one thought the virus would never disappear but it did eventually.

    The reasons why that SARS virus disappeared and never reappeared again are not really known. This new virus does not seem to be anywhere as dangerous as the one in 2003. What is interesting was that the Saudi authorities accused pharmaceutical companies of withholding information for profit and which led to a delay in diagnosing and controlling the virus.
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    Do not get between a wombat and a chocolate biscuit; you will regret it dearly!

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  • Profile picture of the author socialentry
    ^^ What city you from derek?
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    • Profile picture of the author derekwong28
      Originally Posted by socialentry View Post

      ^^ What city you from derek?
      I am from Hong Kong which is right at the center of the SARS epidemic in 2003. I was working in the government virus laboratory there and we had the largest collection of SARS virus isolates in world. I knew exactly the sequence of events there. Most of the cases in Hong Kong and all the cases outside China arose from a professor of renal medicine who was visiting relatives in Hong Kong.
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      Do not get between a wombat and a chocolate biscuit; you will regret it dearly!

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      • Profile picture of the author Illion
        Originally Posted by derekwong28 View Post

        I am from Hong Kong which is right at the center of the SARS epidemic in 2003. I was working in the government virus laboratory there and we had the largest collection of SARS virus isolates in world. I knew exactly the sequence of events there. Most of the cases in Hong Kong and all the cases outside China arose from a professor of renal medicine who was visiting relatives in Hong Kong.
        Woa! Now that's an eye opener.
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        • Profile picture of the author McMissKathy
          Sooner or later something will break out that they have no cure or vaccine for that will wipe out half the planet's human population. When that happens though, it will probably spread so fast nobody will get warned until it is too late.
          Half of what they do catch now is not the virus that will do us in.
          That bug will be the ultimate demise of us all. Everything regenerates on this planet because that's the way it is designed.
          It is just a matter of when, how and where this Super virus begins.
          I saw many stories on these coffin complexes set up with thousands of container boxes to bury the dead in case a major catastrophe were to take place. There was even a story on a place in a show Jesse Venturi was in.
          Our government knows and plans ahead but the people know little because they are the sheep. These secret places exists and are there waiting for something such as that to happen.
          If you don't believe it? Keep thinking that way.
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  • Profile picture of the author HeySal
    Thinking of the AMA locking me up in a camp in a virus pandemic scares me more than facing the virus. At least at home I'd be able to fight it off. No chance in a camp. Not in the US.

    They say that when the Spanish Lady flu went around more people died from pneumonia complications than that flu. They had just invented aspirin and everyone was taking it for the flu......not realizing that it would cause water build up in the lungs and cause pneumonia. Today in a major pandemic, Americans are toast. The average person in this country has about zilch of an immune system left.
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    Sal
    When the Roads and Paths end, learn to guide yourself through the wilderness
    Beyond the Path

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  • Profile picture of the author derekwong28
    With hindsight, lots of mistakes were made during that period that probably resulted in more deaths than otherwise. There was an engineering fault in the building concerned so that sewage sometimes mixed with water for showers. Basically, occupants there were breathing in other people's faeces and that was how the virus spread. In order to protect the community, an order was issued to quarantine the building. What that meant was that the occupants would have been locked with any virus that was still there and were put at extra risk. That was why they were moved to a camp eventually.

    The official in charge of all this was Margaret Chan who was the Director of Health. There was widespread dissatisfaction with her performance and she soon resigned afterwards. But that didn't mean the end of her career. She is now the Director General of the World Health Organisation, which makes her the top health official in the world.
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    Do not get between a wombat and a chocolate biscuit; you will regret it dearly!

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  • Profile picture of the author carnal
    This is very terrifying, I just hope it will not spread worldwide.

    The scariest news is, we do not really know a lot about this virus.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sarevok
    This is why I stopped going to the gym years ago and now work out in the woods.

    That's right baby.

    Caveman style.

    Throw me a log!

    (Or a small boulder).

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    • Profile picture of the author HeySal
      Originally Posted by Sarevok View Post

      This is why I stopped going to the gym years ago and now work out in the woods.

      That's right baby.

      Caveman style.

      Throw me a log!

      (Or a small boulder).

      Safest way ever. I am out in the wild all the time and as far as I'm concerned, real and nature is the only way to really get and stay buff. I just got back from 3 days of canoeing and climbing and can bet that someone who got their workouts in the gym would have dropped about a day and a half in. There's no substitute for keeping it real.
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      Sal
      When the Roads and Paths end, learn to guide yourself through the wilderness
      Beyond the Path

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      • Profile picture of the author Kay King
        I don't think any epidemic or pandemic has surpassed the effects of the Black Plague in the 1300s in Europe and Asia.

        Can you imagine the level of fear in the public when a virus was killing 45-50% of the population in some cities?
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        • Profile picture of the author HeySal
          Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

          I don't think any epidemic or pandemic has surpassed the effects of the Black Plague in the 1300s in Europe and Asia.

          Can you imagine the level of fear in the public when a virus was killing 45-50% of the population in some cities?
          That's no lie - especially with the state of science in those days (or lack thereof). I imagine that a heck of a lot of people thought it was a judgment from God on them and there was nothing they could do to escape it. At least now, we'd have have a chance even just knowing what we do about things like C and D3, sulfur, and a few other virus killers.
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          Sal
          When the Roads and Paths end, learn to guide yourself through the wilderness
          Beyond the Path

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  • Profile picture of the author derekwong28
    There are actually hundreds if not thousands of different viruses that can have cause a mortality rate of 10-60% in humans. However, all are animal viruses that are not adapted for human to human transmission. Ebola is probably the scariest one around but they are others like Lassa Fever and Crimean Congo Haemorrhagic fever. There are lots of other unclassified animal viruses as well. Rabies have a near 100% mortality in humans but the infection is relatively rare. The AIDS virus probably originated from Monkeys and that has a near 100% mortality if untreated. It certainly had the capability to wipe out large percentages of the population in a number of African countries before treatment was available.

    SARS itself is an animal that got transmitted to humans. The early cases had a mortality of 30% and there was substantial human to human transmission as well. The fear was that the human to human transmission could not be stopped and the infection would be around permanently. However, it did die down eventually probably because of the onset of summer and also of the huge range of measures taken by the public against it. As far as the Black Death is concerned, the bacteris is still around in a completely unchanged form. It still cause much smaller outbreaks from time to time in poor countries with unhygienic conditions. However, effective antibiotic treatment is available and so are measures to control the rat population.
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    Do not get between a wombat and a chocolate biscuit; you will regret it dearly!

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