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Just how big a threat will this flu outbreak be? http://apocadocs.com/s.pl?1240708156
The danger of a pandemic -- which they reckon could kill 750,000 people in Britain alone -- is all too real, for every so often, the disease goes though an evolutionary leap. Normally an existing flu virus undergoes a slight mutation, which enables it to infect some people who have built up immunity from previous bouts of the disease. But some three or four times a century, a completely new one arrives, apparently from nowhere. No one has any immunity against it so -- if it is vicious enough, and once it has learned to spread from person to person -- it is free to commit mass slaughter.... Scientist[s] worried that [H5N1 could become infectious between people] by infecting a pig already harbouring a different, human flu virus, since the animals are susceptible to both: the two could then mix their DNA, creating a deadly new strain that could pass from person to person.
But even at the height of concern about H5N1 four years ago, some experts were warning that the new pandemic might emerge from elsewhere. And this could be what has just happened. The latest virus, A/H1N1, that is rapidly spreading through North America is new and contains a mixture of bird, pig and human strains. Early reports suggest that it takes most of its victims among healthy 25 to 45 year olds....
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[Read more stories about:
pandemic, antibiotic resistance]
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Marina says: "Surely there's nothing modern medicine can't vanquish. Given enough time."
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'Doc Jim says:
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C'mon -- we kicked polio's ass.
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