AR-News: (Malaysia) Health: From fowl to pigs to humans?

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

Feb 08: 


The current bird flu epidemic may be a launch pad for the next influenza 
pandemic. How? Because the pig is the pot in which viruses swap genes and become 
new, deadly germs. Alarm bells are ringing loudly, writes THERESA MANAVALAN. 


IF your instincts are clucking with concern, and you're wondering why pigs 
are in the headlines with flu-stricken chickens, you're right, it is bad news.

The cutting-edge science on the front-pages is ringing alarm bells.

At the core of the commotion is this worst-case scenario: avian flu virus 
picked up by pigs can swap genetic materials with another flu virus already in 
the pig and become a new, hitherto unknown flu virus for which no person, no 
animal has preexisting immunity.

The kind of virus that causes a pandemic because it spreads from human to 
human.

But make no mistake, the pig is not the villain, neither is the chicken.

It's actually us. And our horrible farm practices, outdated agricultural 
policy and, most of all, reckless disregard of our ecology and environment. It's 
merely a phenomenon of nature that the pig is the "mixing vessel" for the new 
germ.

What we may have done is unwittingly create the perfect launch pad for an 
influenza pandemic that will likely kill large numbers of people across the globe.

Although scientists say it's impossible to predict the odds that the virus 
will alter its genetic form radically enough to start leaping from human to 
human, the longer H5N1 is out there killing chickens, the higher the chances are.



full story:

http://www.emedia.com.my/Current_News/NST/Sunday/Features/20040208085244/Artic
le/indexb_html 



"The world is a dangerous place,
not because of those who do evil,
but because of those who look on and do nothing.",
Albert Einstein

          /\  /\            
>' .' < 












    
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.envirolink.org/pipermail/ar-news/attachments/20040208/9574b8c9/attachment.html