Word: influenza
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Sure enough, blood tests showed that the "flu" corresponded with the sudden appearance of HIV--and the total absence of any influenza viruses. Then, after a few weeks, the antibodies in the immune system would jump sharply while HIV disappeared from the circulation. It was the first evidence that HIV triggered an active infection. But not even Ho would recognize its significance until years later...
...emotional pendulum has swung back a bit. While doctors now accept the fact that new illnesses and new potentially devastating strains of familiar diseases like influenza will continue to threaten humans, they also know that adopting the right strategy can contain the damage. In this view, the fight against infectious disease is neither a leisurely war of attrition nor a desperate retreat. Instead, it looms as a protracted guerrilla conflict in which reliable intelligence and rapid reaction are the keys to survival. The enemy could strike anywhere at any time. Only when a disease outbreak has been contained can doctors...
...that really terrifies the experts is influenza--not the ordinary sort, which kills tens of thousands each year, but a new strain that could cause a worldwide pandemic and kill tens of millions. The virus itself is not all that deadly: unlike Ebola or hantavirus, it kills only a small percentage of those who get it. But unlike those two more horrific diseases, the flu is so contagious that nearly everyone gets it. That's what happened in 1918, when 20 million people died. Says Nancy Cox, chief of the CDC's influenza branch: "We can say with certainty that...
When that awful time does come, the CDC will be ready. Samples of the new strain will be rushed to the CDC's complex in Atlanta, essentially the Pentagon of the nation's disease-fighting armies. Influenza work goes on in a place known as Building 7, but virtually every other disease organism is imprisoned and studied inside Building 15, a massive edifice that sits a bit apart from the other structures. It has only one entrance, monitored constantly by cameras and motion sensors. Its door opens only to those carrying specially authorized magnetic cards. There is reason for such...
...INFLUENZA...