Word: virus
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...years ago in TIME In 1997, the first human outbreak of BIRD FLU in Hong Kong sounded a warning for the future. So far, the new virus has shown no evidence of reassortment. The fact that the outbreak happened before Hong Kong's regular flu season reduced opportunities for reassortment, as did the prompt slaughter of the chickens. What researchers fear most is that someone infected with a common flu strain will also become infected with H5, and thus become an inadvertent mixing chamber for the production of a wholly new virus...
...Hong Kong microbiologist Kennedy] Shortridge is convinced that the avian virus is still circulating in the environment. "I don't think we're out of the woods yet," says Shortridge. [Centers for Disease Control epidemiologist Keiji] Fukuda agrees: "You would be a fool to predict what the virus is going to do next. I'm equally prepared for this thing to disappear as I am to hear one day when I walk into the office, 'Oh, did you hear? There's another 10 cases-or 100 cases.'" -TIME...
...World Bank estimates that rooting out avian flu will cost up to $1 billion over three years. A conference on financing that operation will be held in Beijing next January. The Geneva gathering hammered out a plan to combat the virus by culling infected poultry, strengthening early warning systems and pandemic preparedness, and building up regional stockpiles of anti-viral drugs and influenza vaccines. The WHO already has a stockpile of three million doses of Tamiflu that can be quickly deployed, while the drug's manufacturer, Roche, this week announced plans to increase production to 300 million treatments...
...study also warned about the potential spread of West Nile virus, which never appeared in the United States before the summer of 1999, when it led to seven deaths in New York City...
...Professor of Tropical Public Health Andrew Spielman said that “global warming has no role in the proliferation of the West Nile virus and Lyme disease. The Lyme disease hypothesis lacks data and doesn’t make sense...