Comments on: This is the End

By: H5N1 flu: The End is still in sight « ViroBlogy

H5N1 flu: The End is still in sight « ViroBlogy — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:53:47 +0000

[...] feelings entirely, and especially for the developing world - shared with you here and here, in MicrobiologyBytes, and here, in your own ViroBlogy. It is all too easy to easy to fall into a [...]

By: Viroblogy Archive « ViroBlogy

Viroblogy Archive « ViroBlogy — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 12:43:18 +0000

[...] This is the End [...]

By: Maybe Not Quite The End « MicrobiologyBytes

Maybe Not Quite The End « MicrobiologyBytes — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:09:44 +0000

[...] Comments News: Influenza H5N1 in Dorset, UK « MicrobiologyBytes on This is the EndNews: Influenza H5N1 in Dorset, UK « MicrobiologyBytes on Human Infections with Avian [...]

By: News: Influenza H5N1 in Dorset, UK « MicrobiologyBytes

News: Influenza H5N1 in Dorset, UK « MicrobiologyBytes — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 16:48:58 +0000

[...] This is the End [...]

By: H5N1 influenza is no longer “bird flu” « MicrobiologyBytes

H5N1 influenza is no longer “bird flu” « MicrobiologyBytes — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 02:53:03 +0000

[...] resulting in the ability to replicate at lower temperatures, in a wider range of cell types, to recognize human receptors, and other unknown phenotypic changes controlled by virus proteins. Birds usually have a body [...]

By: Global migration of influenza viruses « MicrobiologyBytes

Global migration of influenza viruses « MicrobiologyBytes — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 07:37:03 +0000

[...] This is the End [...]

By: Grow anything laterly?

Grow anything laterly? — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 22:02:31 +0000

Its pretty ridiculous to reduce a mere plague to a special event by Nature.

Plagues are so common it would be the unusual generation that did not experience one in a generation.

By: MB

MB — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 21:30:48 +0000

your credibility is in question now.

i work with one of the top 50 microbilogists in the world.

the information you received IS accurate.

go find out.

By: Ed Rybicki

Ed Rybicki — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 09:57:18 +0000

Hey, some interesting comments here…!

I liked Karmakaze’s especially, as it fits right in with the flu lecture I have been giving in various forums recently. I note that ORDINARY flu kills more people in the US alone every year the TOTAL of all Marburg and Ebola outbreaks that have ever been recorded (>40 000). So, yes: ordinary flu (H3N2 and H1N1) is as big a problem in terms of deaths/yr as measles (>500 000 deaths).

And, getting down to Dr No’s comments – these are PREVENTABLE deaths, in that we HAVE effective flu vaccines. It’s just that that there are >6 x 10exp9 people in the world, and a maximum world production capacity of ~450 x 10exp6 doses. And the vaccines do work, well. They cope with the mutation by releasing a new vaccine from scratch every year – something that is a VERY good model for the HIV problem, incidentally.

And yes, Marc Devereux, this is a manmade (or human-made) problem: without the vast domestic fowl industry (formal and backyard) the H5N1 HPAI avian flu would never have become endemic in as many places as it has. But sorry, MB: like HIV was NOT an American-made virus aimed at Africans, H5N1 is NOT an Israeli-made virus aimed at Asians. That’s a conspiracy theory way too rich for rational people! Nature is way better than we are at engineering outbreak viruses; we are just really good at creating the conditions necessary for unikely events to occur. Things like monoculture, encouraging breakouts of plants viruses. Artificially high densities of one kind of animal (bees, cows, sheep) – or even of people.

Pandemics are just Nature’s way of saying “thin out, people”….