In case you were wondering what you're supposed to fear...

[Johnlodge]

In case you were wondering what you're supposed to be afraid of this year, since Ebola Virus, SARS and Avian Flu have failed to kill you thus far, I present SWINE FLU!

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Health/Hea...7415611&page=1

[rb336]

In case you were wondering what you're supposed to be afraid of this year, since Ebola Virus, SARS and Avian Flu have failed to kill you thus far, I present SWINE FLU!

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Health/Hea...7415611&page=1

I subscribed to the emerging viruses listserve for years

[sarge]

Haven't heard anything about this since Gerald Ford was president!

[ccbatson]

Don't panic...put the incidence in context. Chances of a young healthy person getting it is less than 1 in a million, and the likelihood of dying [[or even having lasting impairments) IF you had it are very small as well.

[rb336]

Don't panic...put the incidence in context. Chances of a young healthy person getting it is less than 1 in a million, and the likelihood of dying [[or even having lasting impairments) IF you had it are very small as well.

like West Nile -- more people got seriously ill from the malathion used to kill the mosquitoes than the disease

[ccbatson]

Both very low numbers...Organophosphate poisoning is very very rare unless you bath in the stuff.

DDT would be far safer and better...but...liberals irrationally killed it [[along with tens of millions of people dead from malaria in Africa).

[rb336]

Both very low numbers...Organophosphate poisoning is very very rare unless you bath in the stuff.

DDT would be far safer and better...but...liberals irrationally killed it [[along with tens of millions of people dead from malaria in Africa).

yet another of your randian myths

[ccbatson]

I wasn't aware that Rand mentioned it at all.

[rb336]

I wasn't aware that Rand mentioned it at all.

no, it is your comment is wrapped in BS brought about by your randian dogma. Environmentalists, including the Sierra Club and Environmental Defense [[the same group that started the anti-DDT fight) have supported targeted use of DDT in malaria-prone regions

[ccbatson]

"No"? She didn't mention it? Yet you call it Randian....curious. If it weren't coming from you [[and in character) I would spend more time ripping that comment apart.

[Johnlodge]

Don't panic...put the incidence in context. Chances of a young healthy person getting it is less than 1 in a million, and the likelihood of dying [[or even having lasting impairments) IF you had it are very small as well.

You must have mistaken my satirical parody of the yearly virus scare as panic.

[ccbatson]

No, I was not directing my criticism at you, rather the same hysteria that you were parodying.

[lilpup]

In case you were wondering what you're supposed to be afraid of this year, since Ebola Virus, SARS and Avian Flu have failed to kill you thus far, I present SWINE FLU!

Hey, we need a good epidemic to thin the ranks - too many people around nowadays, living longer than ever!

[barnesfoto]

other things to be afraid of

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Na83zbo4qY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0pPE...rom=PL&index=4

[oladub]

"The A [[H1N1) flu strain they had was quite unusual... It contained gene segments from North American swine, bird and human flu strains as well as one from Eurasian swine." - NY Times Only 1 out of 500 would get really sick from it. But that they expect it to maybe mutate and come back much worse this fall or winter.

Map of where cases have been reported.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UT...81,3.99353&z=8

[Pam]

Hey barnes! Welcome back.

[MoparDan]

http://www.ksat.com/health/19274383/detail.html

Drugmakers: Swine Flu Strain Responds To Meds


POSTED: Friday, April 24, 2009
UPDATED: 6:09 pm CDT April 24, 2009

NEW YORK -- Makers of the two main antiviral flu treatments said Friday they've been in touch with world health authorities on the outbreak of swine flu in Mexico City and said the virus seems to respond to their medicines.

GlaxoSmithKline, which makes Relenza, and Roche, which makes Tamiflu, said they have been in touch with the World Health Organization as Mexico City shut down schools, libraries and other institutions to try to quell the outbreak, which has killed at least 20 people.

In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said tests show some of the Mexico victims died from the same new strain of swine flu that sickened eight people in Texas and California.

GlaxoSmithKline spokeswoman Sarah Alspach said the British drugmaker has been in touch with the World Health Organization on identifying the exact strain.

Roche spokesman Terry Hurley said the Swiss drug developer's emergency Tamiflu stockpile is on 24 hour stand-by. The company was contacted by the World Health Organization and is prepared to immediately deploy the stockpile if requested, he said.

Both drugmakers confirmed that the swine flu strain is sensitive to their drugs.

Both Relenza and Tamiflu have to be taken early, within a few days of the onset of symptoms, to be most effective. Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
==============================================
The two Texas cases were in Schertz, which is just north of San Antonio.

[gibran]

DDT safe? ask the scienctists who studied it's effects on the food chain and eagle population...gesh

[ccbatson]

Yes, please do....when you do, you will find that, on balance, it was more than just safe, it offered the chance to save tens of millions of human lives.

[Redford Kid]

Well I guess someone, however idiotic has to take the side that DDT was really benificial and benign.

[DetroitDad]

U.S. Declares Swine Flu Public Health Emergency

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30398682/?GT1=43001 - Includes videos

Government officials have declared a public health emergency in connection with the swine flu outbreak that has killed dozens in Mexico and sickened 20 in the U.S., said the nation’s director of Homeland Security Sunday.

Secretary Janet Napolitano also said border agents have been directed to begin passive surveillance of travelers from affected countries, with instructions to isolate anyone who appears actively ill with suspected influenza.

The number of cases confirmed in the United States by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now 20, including eight New York City high school students. Other cases are in Ohio, California, Texas and Kansas. Patients have ranged in age from 7 to 54.

Government health officials expect to see more cases of swine flu here, including possibly serious infections, a senior CDC official said.

“We expect there to be a broader spectrum of disease here in the U.S.,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat, interim deputy director for the agency’s Science and Public Health Program. “I do fear that we will have deaths here.”

Napolitano said the emergency declaration is a warning, not a notice of imminent danger, similar to preparing for a hurricane.

"I wish we could call it a declaration of emergency preparedness,” Napolitano said.

Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the CDC, said that compared to cases in Mexico, “what we’re seeing in this country is mild disease,” noting that the U.S. cases would not have been detected without increased surveillance.

CDC officials said they don’t yet have basic information about how the virus spreads, including how many cases each primary case might create, or how long it might take for them to be infected. However, agency officials believe the virus is spreading person-to-person. In the U.S., all the patients have recovered and only one patient was hospitalized.

Besser said he still can’t say why cases in U.S. are so much milder than the deadly cases in Mexico. There, the disease has killed up to 86 people and likely sickened up to 1,400 since April 13, said Mexico's health minister.

“The real important take away is that we have an outbreak of a new infectious disease that we’re addressing aggressively,” Besser said.

The incubation period for the virus is 24 to 48 hours, health officials said. President Barack Obama recently traveled to Mexico but the president’s health was never in any danger, said John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security.

The president has received regular briefings from advisers on the swine flu outbreak and the White House readied guidance for Americans.

“The government can’t solve this alone; we need everybody to take some responsibility,” Napolitano said.

Besser urged Americans to practice frequent handwashing and to stay home if they feel sick. “If your children are sick, have a fever and flu-like illness, they shouldn’t go to school.”

Schuchat said symptoms that would trigger alarm include h igh fever, cough, sore throat, muscle aches, vomiting and diarrhea. But she cautioned those could also be signs of any number of respiratory diseases.

“There’s not a perfect test right now that will let a person, a member of the public or a doctor, know,” she said.

U.S. to screen travelers at borders
The U.S. will begin screening travelers at the nation’s borders and isolating people who are actively ill with suspected influenza, Napolitano said. No travel restrictions are issued currently, but that could change, she said.

CDC officials said Sunday they would begin handing out “yellow cards” at airports with information about signs, symptoms and ways to reduce the chance of acquiring the virus.

Health officials said the facts of the outbreak don’t yet warrant testing or quarantine of travelers from Mexico, but that that could change if the situation gets worse.

Anne Schuchat reiterated that the outbreak can’t be contained.

“We cannot stop this at the border,” she said, adding: “But we think there’s a lot we can do to limit the impact on health and to slow transmission.”

“We think that slowing transmission can have an impact on health,” she said.

Officials said Sunday they are considering whether to begin manufacture of a vaccine.

“At this point, there is not a vaccine for this swine flu strain,” Besser said.

Deaths in Mexico
Symptoms in the eight newly-confirmed cases in New York have been mild, said Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden. City health officials said more than 100 students at the St. Francis Preparatory School, in Queens, recently began suffering a fever, sore throat and aches and pains. Some of their relatives also have been ill.

Some St. Francis students had recently traveled to Mexico, The New York Times and New York Post reported Sunday.

The World Health Organization chief said Saturday that the strain has "pandemic potential," and it might be too late to contain a sudden outbreak.

Monitoring possible cases
State infectious-diseases, epidemiology and disaster preparedness workers have been dispatched to monitor and respond to possible cases of the flu. Gov. David Paterson said 1,500 treatment courses of the antiviral Tamiflu had been sent to New York City.

The city health department has asked doctors to be extra vigilant and test patients who have flu symptoms and have traveled recently to California, Texas or Mexico.

Investigators also were testing children who fell ill at a day care center in the Bronx. Two families in Manhattan also have contacted the city, saying they had recently returned ill from Mexico with flu symptoms, Frieden said.

[ccbatson]

2 points.

1. No significant resistance too DDT was ever documented.
2. It eradicated Malaria in the US.

[rb336]

2 points.

1. No significant resistance too DDT was ever documented.
2. It eradicated Malaria in the US.

actually, screens did. just ask walter reed.

you are right on #1, but the rest of SM's post was pretty much correct. the upswing in malaria in the congo and other wet parts of africa was tied to the choking out of several species of fish that ate mosquito larvae by some water plants introduced to the region as decorative flourishes for landscaping. they were "set free" during flooding and have been a major problem for the waterways ever since

[rb336]

2
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-tfk061308.php

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...060400130.html

http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/200...ddtinsects.htm

Thanks. I hadn't read anything on this in Science or Nature, but i did do a quick look after i posted my reply to bats, and found this:

Annual Review of Entomology
Vol. 2: 227-246 [[Volume publication date January 1957)
http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/....010157.001303

wow -- that was a known problem half a century ago

and
Science 27 September 2002:
Vol. 297. no. 5590, pp. 2253 - 2256
DOI: 10.1126/science.1074170

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/conten.../297/5590/2253

before I subscribed

" DDT-R, a gene conferring resistance to DDT, is associated with overtranscription of a single cytochrome P450 gene, Cyp6g1. Transgenic analysis of Cyp6g1 shows that overtranscription of this gene alone is both necessary and sufficient for resistance. Resistance and up-regulation in Drosophila populations are associated with a single Cyp6g1 allele that has spread globally. This allele is characterized by the insertion of an Accord transposable element into the 5' end of the Cyp6g1 gene"

[Johnlodge]

I saw my first Bald Eagle a few years back while canoeing in Pennsylvania. Thanks DDT ban!