Posted: 8/9/2008 7:58:20 AM EDT
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Saw this website advertised on the TV the other night. I think we really forget just how bad things were back in 1918-1919, millions wiped out due to this illness. Some good reading and information: www.pandemicflu.gov/index.html |
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It is really only a matter of time before the world is struck again by some type of pandemic illness. The Spanish Flu; actually spread from Kansas, USA, killed anywhere from 10-40 million people. That was before air travel even existed, all done by boat, wheels, tracks, & feet. A similar virus could spread 10 times quicker and kill not ten's of millions but hundreds of millions of people. |
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Breakthroughs are being made right now that will make it much quicker to respond to new virus strains. They have already found the link between the "bird flu" and the 1918 flu, and have the "blueprint" for a vaccine that would work for both. The time it takes to sequence the genome of a new viral strain is already down to a couple of weeks, and gets faster almost daily. They are also getting better at producing the actual vaccines, by producing the appropriate sub-units of the virus which will best trigger an antibody response without posing any risk of infection from the vaccine, and without needing to grow active viruses and then "kill" them. |