For anyone who is doubting getting vaccinated, read about a pregnant woman who came down with H1N1. Pregnant women are at higher risk because their immune systems are suppressed to protect the fetus.
"In the four months she was hospitalized, she spent five weeks in a coma, suffered six collapsed lungs and a near-fatal seizure. High-pressure ventilation blew her up like a molten balloon until “she looked like she weighed 400 pounds,” her husband, Bryan, said, and she has stretch marks from her neck to her ankles. Her muscles and lungs are still so weak that she uses a walker.
While hospitalized, she missed seeing her 4-year-old daughter, Hope, learn to swim and start pre-school.
And, most important, she lost her baby (27 weeks)."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/health/20pregnant.html?em
Showing posts with label Swine Flu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Swine Flu. Show all posts
10/21/2009
9/21/2009
Anticipating H1N1, Government of Canada Sends Body Bags to First Nations Reserves
First Nations leaders expressed outrage when dozens of body bags were delivered to remote northern communities by the Canadian Government in anticipation of H1N1. Health Canada apologized the following day.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/body-bags-sent-to-flu-stricken-reserves/article1290332/
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/body-bags-sent-to-flu-stricken-reserves/article1290332/
9/08/2009
9/03/2009
swine flu plush toy
GiantMicrobes makes stuffed animals that look like common microbes.
Here is their latest: little Swine Flu.
http://www.giantmicrobes.com/us/products/swineflu.html
Here is their latest: little Swine Flu.
http://www.giantmicrobes.com/us/products/swineflu.html
5/09/2009
Facts about Viruses - Swine Flu (NYT)
The NYT had a great piece last Tuesday about viruses and Swine Flu. Here's part of it:
"The current outbreak shows how complex and mysterious the evolution of viruses is. Some viruses use DNA, like we do, to encode their genes. Others, like the influenza virus, use single-strand RNA. But viruses all have one thing in common, said Roland Wolkowicz, a molecular virologist at San Diego State University: they all reproduce by disintegrating and then reforming.
A human flu virus, for example, latches onto a cell in the lining of the nose or throat. It manipulates a receptor on the cell so that the cell engulfs it, whereupon the virus’s genes are released from its protein shell. The host cell begins making genes and proteins that spontaneously assemble into new viruses. 'No other entity out there is able to do that,” Dr. Wolkowicz said. “To me, this is what defines a virus.'
The sheer number of viruses on Earth is beyond our ability to imagine. “In a small drop of water there are a billion viruses,” Dr. Wolkowicz said. Virologists have estimated that there are a million trillion trillion viruses in the world’s oceans. A tank of 100 to 200 liters of sea water may hold 100,000 genetically distinct viruses.
Viruses are diverse because they can mutate very fast and can mix genes. They sometimes pick up genes from their hosts, and they can swap genes with other viruses. Some viruses, including flu viruses, carry out a kind of mixing known as reassortment. If two different flu viruses infect the same cell, the new copies of their genes get jumbled up as new viruses are assembled."
Read the whole story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/health/05virus.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=virus&st=cse
"The current outbreak shows how complex and mysterious the evolution of viruses is. Some viruses use DNA, like we do, to encode their genes. Others, like the influenza virus, use single-strand RNA. But viruses all have one thing in common, said Roland Wolkowicz, a molecular virologist at San Diego State University: they all reproduce by disintegrating and then reforming.
A human flu virus, for example, latches onto a cell in the lining of the nose or throat. It manipulates a receptor on the cell so that the cell engulfs it, whereupon the virus’s genes are released from its protein shell. The host cell begins making genes and proteins that spontaneously assemble into new viruses. 'No other entity out there is able to do that,” Dr. Wolkowicz said. “To me, this is what defines a virus.'
The sheer number of viruses on Earth is beyond our ability to imagine. “In a small drop of water there are a billion viruses,” Dr. Wolkowicz said. Virologists have estimated that there are a million trillion trillion viruses in the world’s oceans. A tank of 100 to 200 liters of sea water may hold 100,000 genetically distinct viruses.
Viruses are diverse because they can mutate very fast and can mix genes. They sometimes pick up genes from their hosts, and they can swap genes with other viruses. Some viruses, including flu viruses, carry out a kind of mixing known as reassortment. If two different flu viruses infect the same cell, the new copies of their genes get jumbled up as new viruses are assembled."
Read the whole story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/health/05virus.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=virus&st=cse
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