Word: viruses
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...should we spend scarce medical resources swabbing the inside of pigs' nostrils, looking for viruses? Because new pathogens--including H5N1 bird flu, SARS, even HIV--incubated in animal populations before eventually crossing over to human beings. In the ecology of influenza, pigs are particularly key. They can be infected with avian, swine and human flu viruses, making them virological blenders. While it's still not clear exactly where the H1N1 virus originated or when it first infected humans, if we had half as clear a picture of the flu viruses circulating in pigs and other animals...
...what that immune system might look like. With funding from the likes of Google, GVFI has teams on the ground in Africa and Asia surveilling wild animals and the people who live in proximity to them for new pathogens. These "sentinel populations" will provide early warning when a new virus emerges; if a dangerous disease is discovered as soon as it crosses from animals to people, quick action can contain it--but only if we're looking. "Tens of millions for surveillance could save us the hundreds of billions it would cost to deal with a pandemic," says Peter Daszak...
...danger posed by the uninsured is another reminder that when it comes to infectious disease, we're all in this together. Sick pigs and sick people, a virus in Mexico and an infection in New Zealand--in a globalized world, microbial threats that seem far away can be on our doorstep in hours. "As a global community, we are only as strong as our weakest link," says the CDC's Besser. If we want to prevent the next pandemic--or at least survive it--we need to remember that...
...Panic over the threat of a global pandemic has subsided since early May, as governments around the world have stepped up preventive measures that seem to be keeping the virus under control. But Japan's weekend cases are not alone; by Sunday, the U.K. confirmed 14 more cases, while Turkey and India both announced their first, bringing the number of countries affected to 39. In Hong Kong, a 23-year-old student returning from North America became the territory's third swine flu case, and the 63 passengers who sat closest to him on his flight are being tracked...
...sudden surge that took Asian health officials by surprise, the Japanese health ministry confirmed on Monday at least 125 new cases of the H1N1 virus - or swine flu - in the country's Western prefectures of Osaka and Hyogo. Officials have shut down about 1,000 schools, since many of the infected were high school students. Japan is now, along with the U.K. and Spain, one of the few countries outside of North America where the World Health Organization (WHO) fears sustained human-to-human transmission of the virus could lead to the onset of a full-blown pandemic. "We must...