Word: viral
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...published earlier this year found that tobacco smokers but not marijuana smokers had high levels of a type of enzyme believed to inflame the lungs. Dr. Donald Abrams, professor of clinical medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, found that short-term cannabis use doesn't substantially raise viral loads of HIV patients. (People with HIV sometimes smoke marijuana to stimulate appetite.) In fact, his study participants who smoked pot enjoyed significantly higher increases in their lymphocytes (cells that help fight disease) than those who took a placebo...
...unintended consequence of a failed ecological intervention. Since the 1950s, Europe's rabbit population - the lynx's main food source - has twice been hit by debilitating diseases. Myxomatosis decimated the rabbits after a French doctor introduced it in the 1950s to prevent the animals from eating his crops; and viral hemorrhagic pneumonia did the same in the early 1980s when it arrived from Asia, probably via shipments of contaminated meat and infected live rabbits. Not much can be done to fend off such viruses; conservationists just have to wait until the rabbits develop immunity, as they did against myxomatosis...
...Pakistan. (U.S. intelligence believes, according to the New York Times, that Islamabad paid for its purchases by delivering nuclear-weapons technology to Pyongyang.) Even if North Korea's own strategic posture was essentially defense of the Dear Leader's realm, its export program raised the danger of the viral spread of dangerous weapons...
...Unlike many viral ailments such as chicken pox, dengue infection fails to ensure immunity from subsequent attacks. Worse, it can actually increase the odds you'll get DHF should you be twice-bitten by dengue-carrying mozzies. The virus comes in four strains, and when antibodies created by one type interact with antibodies created by another type, dengue gets nastier. "This is what is called antibody enhancement phenomenon," says Peiris. It's why a vaccine has so far eluded scientists. "The worry is that if you immunize someone without immunizing them against all four types, it might actually be worse...
DIED. PATSY MINK, 74, Hawaii's irrepressibly liberal Democrat and the first Asian-American woman elected to Congress; of viral pneumonia. Mink opposed the Vietnam War and championed gender equality. After 24 years in the House, she had just sailed through a primary vote--one week before her death...