Word: viruses
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...that the swine-flu virus seems well established in human beings, containment is no longer an option. The public health response must be to slow the spread, which means getting a better handle on the virus. While the difference in severity between Mexico and U.S. cases would suggest that there are different viruses affecting the two countries, researchers have genetically sequenced swine-flu viruses from both Mexican and American victims, and "we see no difference in the viruses infecting sick people and less-sick people," said Fukuda. And even if there were genetic differences, it wouldn't necessarily mean much...
...also possible that A/H1N1 began life in Mexico especially virulent - that country has apparently been grappling with the virus for weeks longer than the U.S. has - and evolved to become less dangerous by the time it crossed the border. That would not be an unusual evolutionary device, since viruses that are too deadly cannot survive if they kill off their host before being given a chance to spread. "It's fairly common in epidemics to see a trade-off between the ability to cause severe death and transmissibility," says Steven Kleiboeker, a virologist and the chief scientific officer for ViraCor...
...however, says that so far the virus appears to have stayed relatively stable during the chains of transmission, so it may not be mutating much. Still, the virus's current relatively weak state does not guarantee that it won't return later, much more virulent - which is exactly what happened in the 1918 flu pandemic that killed at least 50 million people worldwide. As the flu season comes to an end in the 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...
...Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said the agency has begun cultivating the seed stock of virus needed for a swine flu vaccine. (The current seasonal flu vaccine would not be effective against the swine flu.) "We're moving forward aggressively so that if a decision is made that we need to rev up production to make that vaccine, we would be ready to do so," he said. (See pictures of thermal scanners hunting for swine...
...even if the CDC's seed stock of virus were to be released to vaccine makers today, it would take the companies anywhere from four to six months before the first inoculation could be ready for public use. That's because flu-vaccine production - whether for swine or seasonal flu - is time-consuming and laborious, requiring vaccine makers to grow millions of copies of the flu virus in chicken eggs, then purify those bugs into a ready-to-inject formula safe for patients. "We are moving things around to accommodate this and getting our raw materials ready and having...