Word: strains
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...antivirals work? If administered soon after symptoms appear, antivirals Oseltamivir and Zanamivir (brand names Tamiflu and Relenza) are believed to reduce the severity and shorten the duration of the disease by current strain of swine flu. The drugs work by inhibiting an enyzme chemical helper that the flu virus uses to spread from infected human cells to healthy ones. So while not killing the virus, it helps the body fight off the disease by slowing its spread. This, in turn, may help prevent "acute respiratory distress syndrome" - the sudden worsening of flu that, along with secondary lung infections...
...used because resistant mutations are more likely to thrive and be passed on. A similar process has led to the widespread existence of antibiotic resistant bacteria such as MRSA. But it can also happen spontaneously: during this winter's flu season, when antivirals were not widely used, the dominant strain of influenza suddenly became resistant to Oseltamivir. Doctors are uncertain as to why. In a pandemic situation, when the drugs will be widely prescribed, many virologists believe that resistance will inevitably develop - they just hope it will happen slowly...
...virulent - which is exactly what happened in the 1918 flu pandemic that killed at least 50 million people worldwide. As the flu season comes to an end in the northern hemisphere, it may lead to a natural petering out of new swine-flu cases in the U.S. But the strain may continue to circulate aggressively in the southern hemisphere, which is just now entering its flu season, and then return to the north next winter...
...adaptability of the virus, however, made it a certainty that a strain that evolved in one of the susceptible species would easily make whatever changes were necessary to allow it to survive in one of the few other eligible hosts. So quickly and efficiently does the virus transform itself that it may require just a single passage through a single individual to get that shape-shifting job done. "Different viruses from different sources enter a cell, and the virus that comes out the other end is an entirely different one," says Dr. Richard Webby, an infectious-disease specialist...
...These findings won't be music to the ears of Sam Harris or fans of his best seller The End of Faith. But they do confirm that a stubborn, insistent strain of religiosity continues to infuse Americans - even those who claim they've left organized religion behind...