- Hello, Jeff - I notice that you have presented a similar
article regarding the 1918 research as it might pertain to Avian Influenza
H5N1 jumping species barrier to infect humans thus setting the stage for
a MAJOR pandemic with resulting loss of lives in the megamilliions around
the planet, thus reducing the world's population. It is also possible
that Avian Influenza could be manipulated to infect a specific ethnic group
causing millions of deaths in the targeted group.
-
- I have copied a pertinent refernce to Dr. Don C. Wiley
in the following research. Moreover, this was, I believe, one of the last
research projects of Dr. Wiley. It is noted that Dr. Mostcow, Dr. Benito
Que, Dr. Robert. M. Schwartz, and Dr. Vladimir Pasechnik were working on
a DNA sequencing project and were involved in Influenza research. I know
that other prominent scientists on our ever growing list of dead microbiologists
were working on Influenza virus, including Dr. Robert E. Shope. Dr. Wiley's
work was actually the basis for the research below.
-
- It might be a very, very small dot to connect, but, one
never the less.
-
- Patricia Doyle
-
- The references for the papers referred to in the above
report are the following: (1) Structure of the Uncleaved Human H1 Hemagglutinin
from the Extinct 1918 Influenza Virus. James Stevens, Adam L. Corper, Christopher
F. Basler, Jeffery K. Taubenberger, Peter Palese, and Ian A. Wilson. Science
Express online, 5 Feb 2004, 10.1126/science.1093373; and (2)The Structure
and Receptor-Binding Properties of the 1918 Influenza Hemagglutinin. S.
J. Gamblin, L. F. Haire, R. J. Russell, D. J. Stevens, B. Xiao, Y. Ha,
N. Vasisht, D. A. Steinhauer, R. S. Daniels, A. Elliot, D. C. Wiley, and
J. J. Skehel. Science Express online, 5 Feb 2004, 10.1126/science.1093155.
-
-
- AVIAN INFLUENZA, HUMAN - EAST ASIA (15)
-
- A ProMED-mail post
-
- In this update:
-
- [1] Viet Nam - two more deaths [2] & [3] Haemagglutinin
structure and human transmissibility
-
- ****** [1] Date: Fri 6 Feb 2004 From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
Source: Reuters Health online, Fri 6 Feb 2004 [edited] <http://www.reutershealth.com/en/index.html>
-
-
- Viet Nam: Two More Deaths Brings Total to 13 --------------------------------------------
HANOI: Viet Nam's death toll has risen to 13 after a six-year-old girl
and a 24-year-old man died from avian influenza in Ho Chi Minh City. Five
people have also died of the disease in Thailand, taking the Asian human
toll to 18. [In Viet Nam there have been 15 laboratory confirmed cases
of avian influenza A (H5N1) virus infection, 13 of whom have now died,
and in Thailand there have been five cases, all of whom have died. As of
Fri 6 Feb 2004, the total number of cases confirmed in East Asia is 20,
18 of whom have now died. There have been no human cases in any other country
in the region. - Mod.CP]
-
- Meanwhile, a UN agency [FAO] said tests revealed the
virus in pigs, a potentially disturbing development that highlights the
risks to humans. A day after China said avian influenza had spread to more
provinces and UN agencies chided Asian countries for being slow to sound
the alarm, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said three or four
pigs had tested positive in Viet Nam. "Avian influenza A (H5N1) virus
was in the nasal cavities of the pigs," FAO Vietnam representative
Anton Rychener said, adding that blood samples had been sent to Hong Kong
for further tests. A Vietnamese official was unaware of any such finding.
-
- Health experts had feared the virus --- ravaging poultry
flocks in eight countries with two more reporting milder strains --- would
get into pigs, whose immune system is similar to humans' and which suffer
from a wide variety of diseases that also infect people. Scientists say
this makes them ideal vessels for mixing genes from the bird flu pathogen
and the human influenza virus. The World Health Organization has said this
could result in the emergence of a new subtype of virus for which humans
would have no immunity. "If there was a very widespread infection
in pigs, then that would be a great concern that a pandemic strain might
develop from it," Jacqueline Katz, a flu expert at the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, said last week. However, Rychener said
there was no cause for alarm or for the banning of pig trading. The nasal
swab result "does not mean that the virus is in the bloodstream of
pigs." The pigs were likely to have been infected from digging their
noses in dirt that was infected with the virus, he said and suggested farmers
separate pigs from chickens to prevent infections.
-
- Fifty million birds had been culled in Asia so far and
poultry restocking alone would cost some $150 million, said Louise Fresco,
assistant director-general of the FAO. Thailand, the world's fourth biggest
chicken exporter, which has slaughtered 26 million poultry, is confident
it is wiping out the virus. Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak said
Thailand had only one "red zone" left -- the five-km (three-mile)
area around a confirmed outbreak within which the government orders the
slaughter of all poultry. Last week, it had more than 140 in 29 of its
76 provinces.
-
- (By Christina Toh-Pantin)
-
-
- ****** [2] Date: Thu 5 Feb 2004 From: ProMED-mail <promedmail.org>
Source: Reuters News UK online, Thu 5 Feb 2004 [edited] <http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=4294836&
section=news42>
-
- Determination of the Structure of the 1918 Pandemic Influenza
Virus -------------------------------------------------------------------
WASHINGTON: The 1918 flu virus, which killed 20 million people around the
world, was probably so deadly because of a unique avian influenza-like
protein, U.S. and British scientists reported [in Science Express online]
on Thu 5 Feb 2004. Like the current outbreak of avian influenza in East
Asia, the 1918 pandemic influenza virus appears to have jumped from birds
to people with little change. But unlike the 1918 influenza virus, the
current avian influenza virus, which has killed 16 people, so far has not
developed the mutation that allowed influenza virus to decimate human populations
80 years ago. Two teams of researchers analyzed samples of the virus from
the 1918 outbreak and said it bears the clear hallmarks of a bird virus
that mutated very little before jumping from birds to people.
-
- Health officials in China, Thailand and Vietnam are scrambling
to control the current outbreak of avian influenza A (H5N1) virus. It is
lethal to people, which is often the case when viruses leap from one species
to another. In 1997 when it first appeared in Hong Kong it was contained
very quickly because it did not spread from human to human, but only from
birds to people.
-
- So far this year only 16 people have been killed, but
there is some evidence [now discounted - Mod.CP] it may have begun spreading
from person to person. If that happens, experts fear the virus has the
potential to be as bad as the 1918 epidemic. Understanding just what it
is about the viruses that makes them deadly, and what makes them able to
live and spread among humans, will be key to controlling or pre-empting
future epidemics, the researchers noted.
-
- Ian Wilson and colleagues at the Scripps Research Institute
in La Jolla, California and a team at the UK Medical Research Council Laboratory
at Mill Hill and the U.S.-based Howard Hughes Medical Institute looked
at [the haemagglutinin protein] of the virus extracted from the bodies
of victims [of the 1918 pandemic], some buried in Alaska permafrost and
others saved in laboratory jars. They looked specifically at the part of
the virus called the haemagglutinin, which is a protein the virus uses
to infect cells. Each strain of virus has a unique haemagglutinin structure,
and scientists believe small mutations of the protein are what allows the
virus to infect new species. They found it had some unique structures,
but was clearly more suited to avian hosts than to humans. These properties
may have given it "novel mechanisms" for infecting people, Wilson
and colleagues wrote. This may explain why the 1918 epidemic killed so
many young, healthy adults. And this explains why the current avian influenza
outbreak has, so far, not lived up to fears, said the MRC's John Skehel.
-
- "Presumably, what's blocking this current flu from
spreading person-to-person is that its haemagglutinin structure has not
yet evolved such that it can efficiently infect humans," Skehel said
in a statement. Scientists say this probably happened with the 1918 influenza
virus and will inevitably happen again unless they are prepared to stop
it in its tracks. Studies like this one, they say, will help in designing
vaccines to quickly stop an epidemic before it can take hold. "This
tells us more about the transmission of infections from birds to humans,"
Skehel said. "However, it will not have an immediate impact on the
situation currently unfolding in the Far East with avian influenza A (H5N1
virus, since from our previous work, we know that the 1918 virus [with
a H1-type haemagglutinin] and the H5-type haemagglutinins are quite different."
-
- (By Maggie Fox)
-
-
-
- ****** [3] Date: Fri 6 Feb 2004 From: A-Lan Banks<A-Lan.Banks@thomson.com>
Source: The Guardian, Fri 6 Feb 2004 [edited] <http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1141911,00.html>
-
-
- Scientists Identify Key Factor in Switch from Birds to
Humans ------------------------------------------------------------- Scientists
have solved a secret of an avian flu virus which killed up to 40 million
people worldwide 86 years ago. They now know more about how a disease of
birds switched to humans to trigger the most lethal outbreak in history.
A team from the National Institute for Medical Research at Mill Hill, north
London, used pathological samples taken from victims of the Spanish influenza
pandemic of 1918 to recreate the structure of a haemagglutinin protein
vital in the leap between species. "This tells us more about the transmission
from birds to humans," said Sir John Skehel, leader of the team. "However,
it will not have an immediate impact on the situation currently unfolding
in the far east with the outbreak of avian influenza A (H5N1) virus since,
from our previous work, we know that the [haemagglutinin of the] 1918 virus
[H1-type] and H5 haemagglutinins are quite different." The research
is published in the online edition of the US journal Science today. It
is backed up by a study from the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla,
California.
-
- Viruses smuggle themselves into a host cell to replicate
and then spread infection. Haemagglutinin is a spike-like molecule on the
surface of the virus which sticks to receptors on the cells of birds or
humans. The teams worked with DNA [RNA - because influenza virus is an
RNA virus - Mod.CP] preserved in the Alaskan permafrost and in preserved
tissue taken from young American soldiers who died in 1918. The British
researchers used x-ray crystallography to determine the three-dimensional
structure of the haemagglutinin. The American team started from a different
point and studied the precursor protein that becomes haemagglutinin. Between
them, they have thrown light on one of history's great puzzles.
-
- (By Tim Radford)
-
-
- [The references for the papers referred to in the above
report are the following: (1) Structure of the Uncleaved Human H1 Hemagglutinin
from the Extinct 1918 Influenza Virus. James Stevens, Adam L. Corper, Christopher
F. Basler, Jeffery K. Taubenberger, Peter Palese, and Ian A. Wilson. Science
Express online, 5 Feb 2004, 10.1126/science.1093373; and (2)The Structure
and Receptor-Binding Properties of the 1918 Influenza Hemagglutinin. S.
J. Gamblin, L. F. Haire, R. J. Russell, D. J. Stevens, B. Xiao, Y. Ha,
N. Vasisht, D. A. Steinhauer, R. S. Daniels, A. Elliot, D. C. Wiley, and
J. J. Skehel. Science Express online, 5 Feb 2004, 10.1126/science.1093155.
<http://www.sciencemag.org/sciencexpress/recent.shtml>. The abstract
to the first gives a better understanding of the virological basis for
the statements in the above press reports: "The 1918 'Spanish' influenza
pandemic represents the largest recorded outbreak of any infectious disease.
The crystal structure of the uncleaved precursor of the major surface antigen
of the extinct 1918 virus was determined at 3.0Å resolution after
re-assembly of the haemagglutinin gene from viral RNA-fragments preserved
in 1918 formalin-fixed lung tissues. A narrow, avian-like receptor binding
site, two novel histidine patches and a less exposed surface loop at the
cleavage site that activates viral membrane fusion reveals structural features
primarily found in avian viruses, that may have contributed to the extraordinarily
high infectivity and mortality rates observed during 1918." These
are undoubtedly important findings but it remains to be established whether
similar changes in the structure of the H5 haemagglutinin molecule of avian
influenza viruses will in fact be accompanied by a change to transmissibility
in humans. - Mod.CP]
-
- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD Please visit my "Emerging
Diseases" message board at: http://www.clickitnews.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=emergingdiseases
Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa Go with God and in Good Health
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