Word: viruses
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...obsessive swabbing won't help if your flat is a viral highway. The government announced Thursday that the Amoy Gardens outbreak, which infected 321 residents, was due in part to a faulty plumbing system. Virus-infected sewage droplets were sucked up through dry U-pipes that lead to residents' bathrooms, contaminating their apartments. The lesson? Always make sure your U-pipes are filled with water?and pour some of that bleach solution in there for good measure...
...Virus Spreads...
...virus's worst enemy is the human immune system. When an unknown pathogen like the new coronavirus invades, the body naturally develops antibodies that can seek out and destroy the interloper. The process takes time, however, and sometimes the system doesn't react fast enough. Science can help with vaccines, which prep the body to recognize and produce antibodies against a particular attacker, such as polio. A vaccine for SARS is under development, but even the most optimistic researchers say it may take more than a year to come up with one that works...
...SARS less deadly. At present, about one in every 20 SARS victims dies, usually due to swelling in the lungs, a result of the body's own immune-system response. In Hong Kong, doctors claim they are successfully combating the disease using the antiviral drug ribavirin to inhibit the virus combined with corticosteroids to check an overstimulated immune response. Ribavirin works by interfering with intracellular viral replication, slowing the infection's spread within the body. The problem, as microbiologist Professor John Tam of CUHK points out, is that "if you stop the replication, that means you stop the function...
...anemia, become dangerous at prolonged high dosages. Moreover, laboratory tests in the U.S. suggest that ribavirin may actually do nothing to the coronavirus. Scientists are exploring other antivirals?such as interferon, which boosts the immune system?or even HIV drugs?such as protease inhibitors, which block an enzyme the virus needs to replicate. But too little is known about the coronavirus to predict the effectiveness of these other drugs...