Word: winterful
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Want tomatoes? The plants need sun, water, soil and air. And you have to get rid of the weeds - they want the sun, water, soil and air too. As this winter of our country's discontent melts into planting season, our government would do well to take this lesson from the garden. Especially as it applies to medicine. The doctor is a surprisingly fragile plant, in real danger of being strangled by a number of aggressive species. Here is a short field guide to their identification...
...ineffective. This is more likely to occur when an antiviral is widely 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...
...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...
Birds are the natural reservoirs of the common flu strains that strike in winter - and those strains reassort themselves to hit humans particularly hard. But while humans are not susceptible to every strain of avian flu, pigs definitely are. When bird flu viruses replicate in pigs, they pick up the viral machinery that gives more selective flu strains the power to spread to other mammals, like us. That's what makes pigs such potent mixing bowls for flu. The roundabout bird-pig-human route may be less common than the straight bird-human jump, but it may be more problematic...
...Charles has been a key resource to Harvard’s outdoors community—hosting boat races including the Head of the Charles Regatta, and the annual Polar Bear Swim, an annual event in which Alaska Klub members jump into the river despite Cambridge’s freezing winter temperatures...