Re: Researchers unlock secrets of 1918 flu pandemic

[Guest guest]

Who can trust the "scientists", when they can make mistakes like this?

http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2005/04/13/alarm_sounded_on_flu_virus_at_labs/

Alarm sounded on flu virus at labs

Mix-up sends out strain samples tied to 1957 pandemic

By Rob Stein and Shankar Vedantam, Washington Post | April 13, 2005

WASHINGTON -- A dangerous strain of the flu virus that caused a worldwide pandemic in 1957 was sent to thousands of laboratories in the United States and around the world, triggering a frantic effort to destroy the samples to prevent an outbreak, health officials said yesterday.

Because the virus is easily transmitted from person to person and many people have no immunity to it, the discovery raised alarm that it could cause another deadly pandemic if a laboratory worker became infected, officials said. As a result, health authorities were urgently working to make sure all samples are destroyed and to closely monitor anyone who may have come into contact with the virus for signs of illness, officials said.

''This virus could cause a pandemic," said Klaus Stohr, the World Health Organization's top flu specialist. ''We are talking about a fully transmissible human influenza virus to which the majority of the population has no immunity. We are concerned."

Although no infections have been reported, and the chances of infection were probably low, the potential consequences were so grave that urgent steps were necessary, he said.

''If a laboratory accident were to occur, a person could become infected. If that happened, that person would likely fall ill and he or she could infect somebody else. And that could mark the beginning of a global outbreak," Stohr said.

In Massachusetts, the state health laboratory in Boston's Jamaica Plain section received a sample of the material for testing in February but has since destroyed it as part of standard procedure, said Dr. Alfred De, the state's director of communicable disease control. Labs are routinely sent samples of viral material as a quality-control measure to make sure they have the ability to work with different pathogens, he said.

De said he believed the mix-up in strains posed no threat because labs that would have been working with the material know how to handle it properly.

The WHO was working with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and other national health agencies to contain the situation.

The virus, known as an H2N2 strain, killed 1 million to 4 million people worldwide in 1957 and 1958, including about 70,000 in the United States. Because the virus has not circulated in the wild since 1968, anyone born after then would have no natural immunity to it. Since then the virus has been kept only in high-security biological laboratories.

The problem arose when Meridian Bioscience Inc. of Cincinnati, a private company, sent a panel of virus samples to about 3,700 laboratories, some in doctors' offices, to be tested as part of routine quality-control certification conducted by the College of American Pathologists. An additional 2,750 laboratories, all in the United States, received the samples and were asked to destroy them, CDC spokesman Dan Rutz said.

The panel samples usually include only strains of the flu virus that are relatively benign, Stohr said. ''We would consider this an unwise and unfortunate decision."

The samples were sent out beginning last fall, primarily to labs in the United States, although 14 were in Canada and 61 were in 16 other countries, Stohr said.

The mistake came to light March 25 when the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba, identified the virus.

Canadian officials notified the WHO and CDC on Friday, which led to the discovery of the dangerous samples.

Webster, a flu specialist at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, called the incident ''a terrible, terrible mistake."

''This may alert WHO and Homeland Security and whoever wants to know that each and every H2N2 sample from 1957 needs to be rounded up and locked down," he said.

of the Globe staff contributed to this report.

Subject: Researchers unlock secrets of 1918 flu pandemicTo: EOHarm Received: Tuesday, December 30, 2008, 4:06 AM

Love the part where it says: "They mixed samples of the 1918 influenza strain with modern seasonal flu viruses to find the three genes and said their study might help in the development of new flu drugs."Gee that sounds safe. But I'm sure we can trust the scientists!Researchers unlock secrets of 1918 flu pandemic57 mins agoWASHINGTON (Reuters) – Researchers have found out what made the 1918 flu pandemic so deadly -- a group of three genes that lets the virus invade the lungs and cause pneumonia.They mixed samples of the 1918 influenza strain with modern seasonal flu viruses to find the three genes and said their study might help in the development of new flu drugs.The discovery, published in Tuesday's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,

could also point to mutations that might turn ordinary flu into a dangerous pandemic strain.Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin and colleagues at the Universities of Kobe and Tokyo in Japan used ferrets, which develop flu in ways very similar to humans.Usually flu causes an upper respiratory infection affecting the nose and throat, as well as so-called systemic illness causing fever, muscle aches and weakness.But some people become seriously ill and develop pneumonia. Sometimes bacteria cause the pneumonia and sometimes flu does it directly.During pandemics, such as in 1918, a new and more dangerous flu strain emerges."The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most devastating outbreak of infectious disease in human history, accounting for about 50 million deaths worldwide," Kawaoka's team wrote.It killed 2.5 percent of victims, compared to fewer than 1 percent during most annual flu epidemics.

Autopsies showed many of the victims, often otherwise healthy young adults, died of severe pneumonia."We wanted to know why the 1918 flu caused severe pneumonia," Kawaoka said in a statement.They painstakingly substituted single genes from the 1918 virus into modern flu viruses and, one after another, they acted like garden-variety flu, infecting only the upper respiratory tract.But a complex of three genes helped to make the virus live and reproduce deep in the lungs.The three genes -- called PA, PB1, and PB2 -- along with a 1918 version of the nucleoprotein or NP gene, made modern seasonal flu kill ferrets in much the same way as the original 1918 flu, Kawaoka's team found.Most flu experts agree that a pandemic of influenza will almost certainly strike again. No one knows when or what strain it will be but one big suspect now is the H5N1 avian influenza virus.H5N1 is circulating among poultry in Asia,

Europe and parts of Africa. It rarely affects humans but has killed 247 of the 391 people infected since 2003.A few mutations would make it into a pandemic strain that could kill millions globally within a few months.Four licensed drugs can fight flu but the viruses regularly mutate into resistant forms -- just as bacteria evolve into forms that evade antibiotics.(Reporting by Maggie Fox, editing by Will Dunham and O'Callaghan)http://news. yahoo.com/ s/nm/20081229/ sc_nm/us_ flu1918The discovery, published in Tuesday's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could also point to mutations that might turn ordinary flu into a dangerous pandemic strain.Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin and colleagues at the Universities of Kobe and Tokyo in Japan used ferrets, which develop

flu in ways very similar to humans.Usually flu causes an upper respiratory infection affecting the nose and throat, as well as so-called systemic illness causing fever, muscle aches and weakness.But some people become seriously ill and develop pneumonia. Sometimes bacteria cause the pneumonia and sometimes flu does it directly.During pandemics, such as in 1918, a new and more dangerous flu strain emerges."The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most devastating outbreak of infectious disease in human history, accounting for about 50 million deaths worldwide," Kawaoka's team wrote.It killed 2.5 percent of victims, compared to fewer than 1 percent during most annual flu epidemics. Autopsies showed many of the victims, often otherwise healthy young adults, died of severe pneumonia."We wanted to know why the 1918 flu caused severe pneumonia," Kawaoka said in a statement.They painstakingly substituted

single genes from the 1918 virus into modern flu viruses and, one after another, they acted like garden-variety flu, infecting only the upper respiratory tract.But a complex of three genes helped to make the virus live and reproduce deep in the lungs.The three genes -- called PA, PB1, and PB2 -- along with a 1918 version of the nucleoprotein or NP gene, made modern seasonal flu kill ferrets in much the same way as the original 1918 flu, Kawaoka's team found.Most flu experts agree that a pandemic of influenza will almost certainly strike again. No one knows when or what strain it will be but one big suspect now is the H5N1 avian influenza virus.H5N1 is circulating among poultry in Asia, Europe and parts of Africa. It rarely affects humans but has killed 247 of the 391 people infected since 2003.A few mutations would make it into a pandemic strain that could kill millions globally within a few months.Four

licensed drugs can fight flu but the viruses regularly mutate into resistant forms -- just as bacteria evolve into forms that evade antibiotics.(Reporting by Maggie Fox, editing by Will Dunham and O'Callaghan)http://news. yahoo.com/ s/nm/20081229/ sc_nm/us_ flu1918

[Guest guest]

Mistake? Saying it is a mistake is an assumption. What evidence do we have this

was a mistake?

This is not the whole story...not by a long shot

KP Stoller, MD, FACHM

President, International Hyperbaric Medical Assoc

Medical Director, Hyperbaric Medical Center of New Mexico

www.hbotnm.com

Please note: message attached

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Who can trust the "scientists", when they can make mistakes like this?

http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2005/04/13/alarm_sounded_on_flu_virus_at_labs/

Alarm sounded on flu virus at labs

Mix-up sends out strain samples tied to 1957 pandemic

By Rob Stein and Shankar Vedantam, Washington Post | April 13, 2005

WASHINGTON -- A dangerous strain of the flu virus that caused a worldwide pandemic in 1957 was sent to thousands of laboratories in the United States and around the world, triggering a frantic effort to destroy the samples to prevent an outbreak, health officials said yesterday.

Because the virus is easily transmitted from person to person and many people have no immunity to it, the discovery raised alarm that it could cause another deadly pandemic if a laboratory worker became infected, officials said. As a result, health authorities were urgently working to make sure all samples are destroyed and to closely monitor anyone who may have come into contact with the virus for signs of illness, officials said.

''This virus could cause a pandemic," said Klaus Stohr, the World Health Organization's top flu specialist. ''We are talking about a fully transmissible human influenza virus to which the majority of the population has no immunity. We are concerned."

Although no infections have been reported, and the chances of infection were probably low, the potential consequences were so grave that urgent steps were necessary, he said.

''If a laboratory accident were to occur, a person could become infected. If that happened, that person would likely fall ill and he or she could infect somebody else. And that could mark the beginning of a global outbreak," Stohr said.

In Massachusetts, the state health laboratory in Boston's Jamaica Plain section received a sample of the material for testing in February but has since destroyed it as part of standard procedure, said Dr. Alfred De, the state's director of communicable disease control. Labs are routinely sent samples of viral material as a quality-control measure to make sure they have the ability to work with different pathogens, he said.

De said he believed the mix-up in strains posed no threat because labs that would have been working with the material know how to handle it properly.

The WHO was working with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and other national health agencies to contain the situation.

The virus, known as an H2N2 strain, killed 1 million to 4 million people worldwide in 1957 and 1958, including about 70,000 in the United States. Because the virus has not circulated in the wild since 1968, anyone born after then would have no natural immunity to it. Since then the virus has been kept only in high-security biological laboratories.

The problem arose when Meridian Bioscience Inc. of Cincinnati, a private company, sent a panel of virus samples to about 3,700 laboratories, some in doctors' offices, to be tested as part of routine quality-control certification conducted by the College of American Pathologists. An additional 2,750 laboratories, all in the United States, received the samples and were asked to destroy them, CDC spokesman Dan Rutz said.

The panel samples usually include only strains of the flu virus that are relatively benign, Stohr said. ''We would consider this an unwise and unfortunate decision."

The samples were sent out beginning last fall, primarily to labs in the United States, although 14 were in Canada and 61 were in 16 other countries, Stohr said.

The mistake came to light March 25 when the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba, identified the virus.

Canadian officials notified the WHO and CDC on Friday, which led to the discovery of the dangerous samples.

Webster, a flu specialist at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, called the incident ''a terrible, terrible mistake."

''This may alert WHO and Homeland Security and whoever wants to know that each and every H2N2 sample from 1957 needs to be rounded up and locked down," he said.

of the Globe staff contributed to this report.

From: angndon1994 <angslistscomcast (DOT) net>Subject: Researchers unlock secrets of 1918 flu pandemicTo: EOHarm Received: Tuesday, December 30, 2008, 4:06 AM

Love the part where it says: "They mixed samples of the 1918 influenza strain with modern seasonal flu viruses to find the three genes and said their study might help in the development of new flu drugs."Gee that sounds safe. But I'm sure we can trust the scientists!Researchers unlock secrets of 1918 flu pandemic57 mins agoWASHINGTON (Reuters) – Researchers have found out what made the 1918 flu pandemic so deadly -- a group of three genes that lets the virus invade the lungs and cause pneumonia.They mixed samples of the 1918 influenza strain with modern seasonal flu viruses to find the three genes and said their study might help in the development of new flu drugs.The discovery, published in Tuesday's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,

could also point to mutations that might turn ordinary flu into a dangerous pandemic strain.Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin and colleagues at the Universities of Kobe and Tokyo in Japan used ferrets, which develop flu in ways very similar to humans.Usually flu causes an upper respiratory infection affecting the nose and throat, as well as so-called systemic illness causing fever, muscle aches and weakness.But some people become seriously ill and develop pneumonia. Sometimes bacteria cause the pneumonia and sometimes flu does it directly.During pandemics, such as in 1918, a new and more dangerous flu strain emerges."The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most devastating outbreak of infectious disease in human history, accounting for about 50 million deaths worldwide," Kawaoka's team wrote.It killed 2.5 percent of victims, compared to fewer than 1 percent during most annual flu epidemics.

Autopsies showed many of the victims, often otherwise healthy young adults, died of severe pneumonia."We wanted to know why the 1918 flu caused severe pneumonia," Kawaoka said in a statement.They painstakingly substituted single genes from the 1918 virus into modern flu viruses and, one after another, they acted like garden-variety flu, infecting only the upper respiratory tract.But a complex of three genes helped to make the virus live and reproduce deep in the lungs.The three genes -- called PA, PB1, and PB2 -- along with a 1918 version of the nucleoprotein or NP gene, made modern seasonal flu kill ferrets in much the same way as the original 1918 flu, Kawaoka's team found.Most flu experts agree that a pandemic of influenza will almost certainly strike again. No one knows when or what strain it will be but one big suspect now is the H5N1 avian influenza virus.H5N1 is circulating among poultry in Asia,

Europe and parts of Africa. It rarely affects humans but has killed 247 of the 391 people infected since 2003.A few mutations would make it into a pandemic strain that could kill millions globally within a few months.Four licensed drugs can fight flu but the viruses regularly mutate into resistant forms -- just as bacteria evolve into forms that evade antibiotics.(Reporting by Maggie Fox, editing by Will Dunham and O'Callaghan)http://news. yahoo.com/ s/nm/20081229/ sc_nm/us_ flu1918The discovery, published in Tuesday's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could also point to mutations that might turn ordinary flu into a dangerous pandemic strain.Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin and colleagues at the Universities of Kobe and Tokyo in Japan used ferrets, which develop

flu in ways very similar to humans.Usually flu causes an upper respiratory infection affecting the nose and throat, as well as so-called systemic illness causing fever, muscle aches and weakness.But some people become seriously ill and develop pneumonia. Sometimes bacteria cause the pneumonia and sometimes flu does it directly.During pandemics, such as in 1918, a new and more dangerous flu strain emerges."The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most devastating outbreak of infectious disease in human history, accounting for about 50 million deaths worldwide," Kawaoka's team wrote.It killed 2.5 percent of victims, compared to fewer than 1 percent during most annual flu epidemics. Autopsies showed many of the victims, often otherwise healthy young adults, died of severe pneumonia."We wanted to know why the 1918 flu caused severe pneumonia," Kawaoka said in a statement.They painstakingly substituted

single genes from the 1918 virus into modern flu viruses and, one after another, they acted like garden-variety flu, infecting only the upper respiratory tract.But a complex of three genes helped to make the virus live and reproduce deep in the lungs.The three genes -- called PA, PB1, and PB2 -- along with a 1918 version of the nucleoprotein or NP gene, made modern seasonal flu kill ferrets in much the same way as the original 1918 flu, Kawaoka's team found.Most flu experts agree that a pandemic of influenza will almost certainly strike again. No one knows when or what strain it will be but one big suspect now is the H5N1 avian influenza virus.H5N1 is circulating among poultry in Asia, Europe and parts of Africa. It rarely affects humans but has killed 247 of the 391 people infected since 2003.A few mutations would make it into a pandemic strain that could kill millions globally within a few months.Four

licensed drugs can fight flu but the viruses regularly mutate into resistant forms -- just as bacteria evolve into forms that evade antibiotics.(Reporting by Maggie Fox, editing by Will Dunham and O'Callaghan)http://news. yahoo.com/ s/nm/20081229/ sc_nm/us_ flu1918