Spanish Flu Recreation

[Black Orchid]

Science or sheer stupidity ..

The extinct influenza virus that caused the worst flu pandemic in history has been recreated from fragments of avian flu found in wild ducks in a controversial experiment to show how easy it would be for the deadly flu strain to reemerge today.

Scientists said the study involved infecting laboratory ferrets with close copies of the 1918 virus – which was responsible for the Spanish Flu pandemic that killed an estimated 50 million people – to see how easy it can be transmitted in the best animal model of the human disease.

But other researchers have denounced the research as foolhardy and dangerous. Critics said that any benefits of the attempts to recreate 1918-like flu viruses from existing avian flu strains do not justify the catastrophic risks if such a genetically engineered virus were to escape either deliberately or accidentally from the laboratory and cause a deadly influenza pandemic.

More here ...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/scien ... 29707.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Very risky business. I think spending money on such 'research' to recreate extremely deadly viruses is both irresponsible and stupid. Apparently the 'reproduction' of this new Spanish flu is available on the internet.

[AiA in Atlanta]

Reminds me of corpses found frozen in Siberia some years back that contained smallpox. Destroy it.

[Outlaw Yogi]

Maybe they're (the researchers) hoping for a grant from a weapons company or some clandestine spy agency to create the ultimate cheap-arse bio-weapon.

[Neferti]

I don't know how many people here travel but it is worth getting a range of shots if you are traveling overseas. My GP recommended Cholera, Yellow Fever and boosters for everything else I had as a child.

TB is still rampant in some countries. No doubt it will become a problem in Australia, again, eventually too due to slack immigration.

Even childhood diseases that can KILL children (measles, mumps, scarlet fever, diphtheria, whooping cough, etc) are showing up and small children are dying from these diseases that had been almost eradicated in Western society. Some of these so-called childhood diseases can kill adults too. There are booster shots available!

[Outlaw Yogi]

A number of mozzy born viruses generally considered problems for other countries are making their way 'round OZ these days.

Few years ago there was half a dozen or more cases of malaria in Hervey Bay.

Couple of years ago I went back to visit those on a farm I'd worked and lived on previously.
The manager was the only one on the farm who hadn't contracted Denge fever and he was moving back to Melbourne.
Oops, one exception was manager's son, who instead contracted Ross river virus.

Never went back to that farm again.

[freediver]

There articles in the paper a while back about TB (I think) coming into QLD from PNG due to changes in health policy for PNG natives.