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Topic: Primates Injected With Influenza Virus?
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remind
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 6289
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posted 19 January 2007 06:26 PM
Apparently, scientists have recently been injecting primates with a old strain of influenza to see what transpires. CBC Vancouver had it on at 6pm but I missed it.All I could find on it was this from CNN: quote: WASHINGTON (AP) -- Monkeys infected with a resurrected virus that was responsible for history's deadliest epidemic have given scientists a better idea of how the 1918 Spanish flu attacked so quickly and relentlessly: by turning victims' bodies against them.The research, which found that an over-stimulated immune system killed even as it tried to fight the flu, helps explain why many of the 50 million people who died in the epidemic were healthy young adults. Conventional flu usually claims mostly the very young and very old. ...The 1918 virus, which was reconstructed with reverse genetics, exists today only in two labs where scientists are studying it. Scientists said they were struck by how suddenly and overwhelmingly the 1918 flu struck seven macaques that were tested in a high-level biosafety lab in Winnipeg, Canada. The virus spread faster than a normal flu bug and triggered a "storm" response in the animal's immune systems.
1918 Influenza Testing
From: "watching the tide roll away" | Registered: Jun 2004
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remind
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 6289
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posted 19 January 2007 08:01 PM
quote: Originally posted by Michelle: Jesus. I thought we knew this already.
Well, apparently we did not know it well enough! What scares the crap out me after announcing this there is this that happened today:
quote: Canada funds state-of-art infectious disease lab in Kenya Health Minister Tony Clement cut a ribbon to open an ultra-modern, $4 million infectious disease laboratory in Nairobi on Friday, almost all of which was paid for by the Canadian government.The money is well spent, said Clement during the ribbon-cutting. He served as Ontario's health minister during the province's SARS crisis in 2003. "Things can be tested, research can be done here immediately, on the spot," Clement said. "That means we can have a quicker response as a world community to any infectious disease outbreak, because of this facility being here in Nairobi."
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2007/01/19/lab-nairobi.html
From: "watching the tide roll away" | Registered: Jun 2004
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siren
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 7470
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posted 20 January 2007 08:55 PM
quote: Originally posted by remind: Well, when you put it that way it is not, it is in fact a good thing, but at first blush, I thought: "I simply do not trust ANYTHING Harper's CPC does, next thing you know, they be testing primates in the wild there with the Spanish Flu to see what happens."
I rather doubt that this is a Harper initiative. I am sure it would take longer than 10 months to get this off the ground. Clement probably just didn't have time to hack it..
from your link: quote: The International Centre for Infectious Diseases represents a new chapter in a 27-year collaboration between the University of Nairobi and the University of Manitoba. The lab will be able to handle highly infectious, deadly diseases such as Ebola, the Marburg virus and HIV/AIDS.Once the equipment is in place, the facilities will be as good as any in Canada, said Dr. Frank Plummer, director of the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg. He was also in Nairobi for the opening.
I think it is a very good thing, and at least the neo-cons didn't gut it.
From: Of course we could have world peace! But where would be the profit in that? | Registered: Nov 2004
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remind
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 6289
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posted 20 January 2007 10:47 PM
quote: Originally posted by siren: ...Clement probably just didn't have time to hack it...I think it is a very good thing, and at least the neo-cons didn't gut it.
"Clement didn't have time to hack it"
Yes, I agree it's a good thing,if it stays what it was intended to be. Today, I was listening to CBC and they were discussing this and one of its focuses is the early testing for Eboli.
From: "watching the tide roll away" | Registered: Jun 2004
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