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Post by Tulameen on Aug 19, 2005 10:22:50 GMT -5
You've probably read a good or a bad book on one or more of the topics we talk about on this forum. Post us a summary and review here!
Feel free to start a new thread with your book review, and then anyone else who has read it or wants to comment can post their views in the same thread.
I'm looking forward to reading your reviews!
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Post by Tulameen on Aug 14, 2005 17:02:37 GMT -5
From Quantum Physics to spiritual explanations - what do you think is the nature of reality?
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Post by Tulameen on Sept 19, 2005 21:11:41 GMT -5
I don't know what to believe, and that's pretty much why I posted the question. I often wonder if this "devil" thing is just a creative explanation for something we don't fully understand: how people can be so cruel to each other. It's not evolutionarily adaptive to go around killing each other, stealing from each other, and so on; people are more likely to survive if we cooperate with and support each other. So is evil a kind of mental illness? A bad gene? Not to say that dangerous people should not be removed from society and that genes or mental illness are good excuses for bad behavior. But it seems that something as maladaptive as antisocial behavior would have been wiped out of the gene pool eons ago. Does that mean then, that it COULD be externally caused, or influenced?
More food for thought...
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Post by Tulameen on Aug 14, 2005 17:01:30 GMT -5
Where do you think evil comes from? Is it a garden-of-eden thing or do humans simply have the capacity for evil?
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Post by Tulameen on Sept 19, 2005 21:21:58 GMT -5
I just can't imagine this: You wake up in the morning and the face you usually see in the mirror is that of someone else.... creepy....US plans first face transplant US surgeons are to interview a shortlist of patients hoping to be the first to receive a face transplant. Doctors in the US have already carried out the procedure on bodies donated for medical research. Now the Cleveland Clinic team will choose a patient whose face is disfigured to receive a "new" face from a dead donor. The chance it will work is around 50% and experts have expressed safety and ethical concerns about the procedure. A new face The recipient would have to take powerful anti-rejection drugs for life, which carry considerable long-term health risks, says the Royal College of Surgeons of England, which formed a working party to look at the issue earlier this year. Also, it is not known how well an individual and their loved ones would adapt psychologically to a completely new face. There are a great many questions to which answers are needed Changing Faces charity It is hard to predict what the person would look like after a face transplant. The procedure would involve taking skin and underlying tissues from a dead donor and placing them on the living recipient. Computer modelling suggests the new face would neither resemble the donor nor recipient's pre-injury self. The face should take on more of the characteristics of the skeleton of the recipient than the soft tissues of the donor. The recipient should be able to eat, drink and communicate again through a wide variety of facial expressions and mannerisms. Picking a patient The working party said it was not against facial transplants in theory, saying they could offer a major breakthrough in restoration of quality of life to those whose faces have been destroyed by accidents or disease. You want to choose patients who are really disfigured, not someone who has a little scar Surgeon Maria Siemionow But it cautioned: "Until there is further research and the prospect of better control of these complications, it would be unwise to proceed with human facial transplantation." After a year of discussions, the Cleveland Clinic won approval to go ahead with the operation from an internal review board, which included surgeons, psychiatrists, social workers, therapists, nurses and patient advocates. Surgeon Maria Siemionow and her team will interview five men and seven women as potential candidates for the 8-10 hour operation. Dr Siemionow told Associated Press: "You want to choose patients who are really disfigured, not someone who has a little scar." Yet they will have to have enough healthy skin for traditional grafts in case the transplant fails. They will be told that their face would be removed and replaced with one from a cadaver, matched for tissue type, age, sex and skin colour. Charity Changing Faces said: "There are a great many questions to which answers are needed before this extremely risky and experimental surgery could be considered a viable option for patients with severe facial disfigurements. "It is our view that today's excellent conventional surgery combined with the very best psychological and social rehabilitation programmes can very effectively enable patients with severe disfigurements to live full and active lives. "The continuing speculation about face transplants is not helpful for people with disfigurements." Story from BBC NEWS: news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/4259538.stmPublished: 2005/09/19 13:04:57 GMT © BBC MMV
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Post by Tulameen on Aug 10, 2005 20:18:38 GMT -5
All those ETs with bases on the dark side of the moon had better watch out...
Aug 10, 8:28 PM EDT
Company to sell trips around the moon
By LINDA A. JOHNSON Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- The company that pioneered commercial space travel by sending "tourists" up to the International Space Station is planning a new mission: rocketing people around the far side of the moon.
The price of a round-trip ticket: $100 million.
The first mission by Space Adventures could happen in 2008 or 2009 and is planned as a stepping stone to an eventual lunar landing by private citizens.
"For the first time in history, a private company is organizing a mission to the moon," Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson said at a Manhattan news conference Wednesday, a day after space shuttle Discovery safely returned to Earth. "This mission will inspire countries of the world, citizens ... our youth." Anderson said he already has prospective "private explorers" who are interested in the trip and could afford the ticket.
The initial travelers would be the first to orbit the moon in more than 33 years, according to the Arlington, Va., company. Only 27 people have ever made such a journey.
The trip, aboard a modified Russian spacecraft, will offer the chance to see the Earth rise from lunar orbit and a view of the far side of the moon from an altitude of 62 miles.
The far side of the moon has a special appeal, Anderson told The Associated Press in an interview, because it takes most of the hits from asteroids, meteorites and other objects from deep space. That results in many more craters than on the side seen from Earth. "It's much more interesting to look at than the near side," he said, adding that the lunar orbits will be done when the far side is illuminated by the sun.
Space Adventures plans to offer multiple trip itineraries aboard Russia's Soyuz TMA spacecraft. One possibility is a 5 1/2-day lunar flight and up to 21 days at the International Space Station; another is a nine-day mission with three days of free flight in low-Earth orbit and the rest flying around the moon. In both cases, the spacecraft would dock with a booster, carried up by a separate launch vehicle, to propel it to the moon.
The Soyuz was originally designed for lunar missions, although none ever occurred. Anderson called it the most reliable craft in the history of space travel.
It has 10 cubic meters of crew space, about the size of a large SUV. The cosmonaut and two passengers will sleep in reclining chairs, said Nikolai Sevastyanov, president of rocket maker Rocket and Space Corporation Energia.
Space Adventures has a partnership with the rocket maker and the Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation, through which they have sent American businessman Dennis Tito and South African Mark Shuttleworth on a Soyuz for stays on the space station.
The next mission is slated to send a team up to the space station for 10 days starting Oct. 1. One of the crew members is Gregory Olsen, a New Jersey scientist who has been training for the mission in Russia on and off since 2004.
"Who wouldn't want to go to the moon?" said Olsen, 60, a surprise guest at the news conference. "I'm really interested, but one flight at a time."
Modifications to the Soyuz will include altering its docking system and installing an 18-inch window so passengers can take high-resolution photos of the lunar surface.
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Post by Tulameen on Dec 3, 2005 19:54:34 GMT -5
Former Canadian Minister Of Defence Asks Canadian Parliament Asked To Hold Hearings On Relations With Alien "Et" Civilizations Thu Nov 24, 7:00 AM ET OTTAWA, CANADA (PRWEB) November 24, 2005 -- A former Canadian Minister of Defence and Deputy Prime Minister under Pierre Trudeau has joined forces with three Non-governmental organizations to ask the Parliament of Canada to hold public hearings on Exopolitics -- relations with “ETs.” By “ETs,” Mr. Hellyer and these organizations mean ethical, advanced extraterrestrial civilizations that may now be visiting Earth. On September 25, 2005, in a startling speech at the University of Toronto that caught the attention of mainstream newspapers and magazines, Paul Hellyer, Canada’s Defence Minister from 1963-67 under Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prime Minister Lester Pearson, publicly stated: "UFOs, are as real as the airplanes that fly over your head." Mr. Hellyer went on to say, "I'm so concerned about what the consequences might be of starting an intergalactic war, that I just think I had to say something." Hellyer revealed, "The secrecy involved in all matters pertaining to the Roswell incident was unparalled. The classification was, from the outset, above top secret, so the vast majority of U.S. officials and politicians, let alone a mere allied minister of defence, were never in-the-loop." Hellyer warned, "The United States military are preparing weapons which could be used against the aliens, and they could get us into an intergalactic war without us ever having any warning. He stated, "The Bush administration has finally agreed to let the military build a forward base on the moon, which will put them in a better position to keep track of the goings and comings of the visitors from space, and to shoot at them, if they so decide." Hellyer’s speech ended with a standing ovation. He said, "The time has come to lift the veil of secrecy, and let the truth emerge, so there can be a real and informed debate, about one of the most important problems facing our planet today." Three Non-governmental organizations took Hellyer’s words to heart, and approached Canada’s Parliament in Ottawa, Canada’s capital, to hold public hearings on a possible ET presence, and what Canada should do. The Canadian Senate, which is an appointed body, has held objective, well-regarded hearings and issued reports on controversial issues such as same-sex marriage and medical marijuana, On October 20, 2005, the Institute for Cooperation in Space requested Canadian Senator Colin Kenny, Senator, Chair of The Senate Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defence, “schedule public hearings on the Canadian Exopolitics Initiative, so that witnesses such as the Hon. Paul Hellyer, and Canadian-connected high level military-intelligence, NORAD-connected, scientific, and governmental witnesses facilitated by the Disclosure Project and by the Toronto Exopolitics Symposium can present compelling evidence, testimony, and Public Policy recommendations.” The Non-governmental organizations seeking Parliament hearings include Canada-based Toronto Exopolitics Symposium, which organized the University of Toronto Symposium at which Mr. Hellyer spoke. The Disclosure Project, a U.S.– based organization that has assembled high level military-intelligence witnesses of a possible ET presence, is also one of the organizations seeking Canadian Parliament hearings. Vancouver-based Institute for Cooperation in Space (ICIS), whose International Director headed a proposed 1977 Extraterrestrial Communication Study for the White House of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who himself has publicly reported a 1969 Close Encounter of the First Kind with a UFO, filed the original request for Canadian Parliament hearings. The Canadian Exopolitics Initiative, presented by the organizations to a Senate Committee panel hearing in Winnipeg, Canada, on March 10, 2005, proposes that the Government of Canada undertake a Decade of Contact. The proposed Decade of Contact is “a 10-year process of formal, funded public education, scientific research, educational curricula development and implementation, strategic planning, community activity, and public outreach concerning our terrestrial society’s full cultural, political, social, legal, and governmental communication and public interest diplomacy with advanced, ethical Off-Planet cultures now visiting Earth.” Canada has a long history of opposing the basing of weapons in Outer Space. On September 22, 2004 Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin declared to the U.N. General Assembly,” "Space is our final frontier. It has always captured our imagination. What a tragedy it would be if space became one big weapons arsenal and the scene of a new arms race. Martin stated, "In 1967, the United Nations agreed that weapons of mass destruction must not be based in space. The time has come to extend this ban to all weapons..." In May, 2003, speaking before the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on National Defence and Veterans Affairs, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada Lloyd Axworthy, stated “Washington's offer to Canada is not an invitation to join America under a protective shield, but it presents a global security doctrine that violates Canadian values on many levels." Axworthy concluded, “There should be an uncompromising commitment to preventing the placement of weapons in space.” On February 24, 2005, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin made official Canada's decision not to take part in the U.S government’s Ballistic Missile Defence program. Paul Hellyer, who now seeks Canadian Parliament hearings on relations with ETs, on May 15, 2003, stated in Toronto’s Globe & Mail newspaper, “Canada should accept the long-standing invitation of U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio to launch a conference to seek approval of an international treaty to ban weapons in space. That would be a positive Canadian contribution toward a more peaceful world.” In early November 2005, the Canadian Senate wrote ICIS, indicating the Senate Committee could not hold hearings on ETs in 2005, because of their already crowded schedule. “That does not deter us,” one spokesperson for the Non-governmental organizations said, “We are going ahead with our request to Prime Minister Paul Martin and the official opposition leaders in the House of Commons now, and we will re-apply with the Senate of Canada in early 2006. “Time is on the side of open disclosure that there are ethical Extraterrestrial civilizations visiting Earth,” The spokesperson stated. “Our Canadian government needs to openly address these important issues of the possible deployment of weapons in outer war plans against ethical ET societies.” news.yahoo.com/s/prweb/20051124/bs_prweb/prweb314382_1Canadian Exopolitics Initiative www.peaceinspace.netClick here to send your letter to the Parliament of Canada requesting public “ET” Hearings exopolitics.blogs.com/star_dreams_initiative/2005/10/the_senate_of_c.htmlCONTACT NOW: Toronto, Canada: Victor Viggiani, Exopolitics Toronto Symposium Tel: 905-278-5628 www.exopoliticstoronto.comWinnipeg, Canada: Randy Kitchur Tel: 204-582-4424 Washington, D.C.: Dr. Steven Greer, The Disclosure Project Tel: (540) 456-8302 (Office) www.disclosureproject.orgVancouver, Canada: Alfred Lambremont Webre, JD, MEd ICIS-Institute for Cooperation in Space Tel: 604-733-8134 www.peaceinspace.net### ICIS Alfred Webre 604-733-8134 E-mail Information
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Post by Tulameen on Jul 24, 2005 17:20:27 GMT -5
* 09:45 23 July 2005 * NewScientist.com news service * Stephen Battersby IF LIFE exists on Titan, Saturn's biggest moon, we could soon know about it - as long as it's the methane-spewing variety. The chemical signature of microbial life could be hidden in readings taken by the European Space Agency's Huygens probe when it landed on Titan in January. Titan's atmosphere is about 5 per cent methane, and Chris McKay of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffet Field, California, thinks that some of it could be coming from methanogens, or methane-producing microbes. Now he and Heather Smith of the International Space University in Strasbourg, France, have worked out the likely diet of such organisms on Titan. They think the microbes would breathe hydrogen rather than oxygen, and eat organic molecules drifting down from the upper atmosphere. They considered three available substances: acetylene, ethane and more complex organic gunk known as tholins. Ethane and tholins turn out to provide little more than the minimum energy requirements of methanogenic bacteria on Earth. The more tempting high-calorie option is acetylene, yielding six times as much energy per mole as either ethane or tholins. McKay and Smith calculate that if methanogens are thriving on Titan, their breathing would deplete hydrogen levels near the surface to one-thousandth that of the rest of the atmosphere. Detecting this difference would be striking evidence for life, because no known non-biological process on Titan could affect hydrogen concentrations as much. One hope for testing their idea rests with the data from an instrument on Huygens called the GCMS, which recorded Titan's chemical make-up as the probe descended. It will take time to analyse the raw data, partly because hydrogen's signal will have to be separated from those of other molecules. "Eventually, I hope, we will have numbers for at least upper limits for hydrogen," says Hasso Niemann of Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, principal investigator of the GCMS. Acetylene could be easier to analyse, McKay says, and it too might betray life. "I would guess that there would be a similar fall-off of acetylene if the microbes are eating it." The work is to be published in the journal Icarus. www.newscientistspace.com/article/dn7716-has-huygens-found-life-on-titan.html
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Post by Tulameen on Jul 16, 2006 19:39:34 GMT -5
(CNN) -- Canadian health officials said Thursday that tests have confirmed a seventh case of mad cow disease, in a 50-month-old dairy cow from Alberta. "The entire carcass has been incinerated and did not enter the human or animal feed systems," the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said in a posting on its Web site. The agency said it has located the birth farm, and investigators are tracing other cattle born there within a year of the affected animal's birth. The animal's age means it contracted the disease -- also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy -- after the 1997 feed ban intended to halt such cases. CFIA said it will investigate how it might have been exposed and has invited U.S. officials to participate in the effort. "While the United States and Canada have a strong system in place to protect animal and human health, the diagnosis of BSE in an animal born roughly four and half years after the implementation of the 1997 ruminant-to-ruminant feed ban does raise questions that must be answered," Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said in a written statement. "We need a thorough understanding of all the circumstances involved in this case to assure our consumers that Canada's regulatory system is effectively providing the utmost protections to consumers and livestock." The animal's age "does raise questions," the spokesman said. "We would like to have answers." The Canadian government last month tightened its regulations on animal feed, and sought Monday -- when preliminary tests indicated the cow was a suspect case -- to downplay the risk. "The safety of Canada's food supply remains protected through the removal of specified risk material (SRM) from all cattle slaughtered for human consumption," it said. "SRM are cattle tissues that have been shown in infected cattle to contain concentrated levels of the BSE agent. This measure is internationally recognized as the most effective means to protect the safety of food from BSE." But Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, called the report "troubling." "This is a very young cow to be infected with BSE," she said in a telephone interview. "The animal would have been born five years after this feed ban was implemented, so I think this is a troubling new finding, and one that would certainly indicate the failure of the feed ban in Canada." Most other animals that contracted the disease were born before or around the time of the national ban, she said. In April, the Canadian government confirmed a case of mad-cow disease in a cow in British Columbia. The country's surveillance program has now detected seven BSE-infected animals since it was put in place in 2003. In March, Alabama officials announced the third case of mad-cow in the United States. Eating infected tissue from cows has been linked to a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare but fatal degenerative disease blamed for the deaths of 150 people. Find this article at: www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/07/13/canada.mad.cow/index.html
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Post by Tulameen on Jun 30, 2006 11:07:56 GMT -5
BBC NEWS Scientists believe they may have discovered a reason why the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus cannot yet jump easily between humans. Flu viruses which target man tend to attach to cells further up the airway - maximising their chances of being passed on by coughing or sneezing. Researchers found the bird flu virus attaches itself to cells deep down in the human airways. The University of Wisconsin research is published in the journal Nature. This may at least in part explain why H5N1 is inefficient at transmitting person to person, although I doubt that it is the complete answer Dr Laurence Tiley The H5N1 strain of bird flu has spread across Europe, Africa and parts of Asia, and has killed more than 100 people worldwide and infected about 180 since it re-emerged in 2003. But it still cannot jump easily from human to human. Scientists fear that if it mutates and gains that ability, it could result in a human flu pandemic, with millions of deaths world-wide. Target molecule The Wisconsin team investigated why the virus could not spread easily between humans despite the fact that it could replicate efficiently in human lungs. Flu viruses infecting humans and birds are known to home in on slightly different versions of the same molecule, found on the surface of cells which line the respiratory tract. The latest study found the version of the molecule targeted by human viruses was more prevalent on cells higher up in the airway. The molecule targeted by bird viruses, on the other hand, tended to be found on cells deep within the lungs, in structures called alveoli. Thus the bird flu virus tended to be buried so deep in the lungs that it was unlikely to be spread by coughing or sneezing. If the virus was to acquire the ability to infect cells higher up in the airway, it could take a crucial step towards causing a human pandemic, researchers believe. Victims 'unlucky' Professor Ian Jones, of the University of Reading, UK, said the study provided some explanation of why people, particularly children, had caught the virus and died and yet it had remained "bird flu". "It seems they were just really unlucky and transmitted enough virus to their mouths for it to gain access to the lower lung, a distance shorter in children than adults. "Casual contact with the virus may therefore not be as dangerous as initially thought." However, Professor Jones said it was possible that the virus could mutate to gain the potential to attach to cells in the upper airway. "It remains the case therefore that planning for that eventuality makes a great deal of sense." Dr Laurence Tiley, a lecturer in molecular virology at the University of Cambridge, said: "This may at least in part explain why H5N1 is inefficient at transmitting person to person, although I doubt that it is the complete answer." Story from BBC NEWS: news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/4829858.stmPublished: 2006/03/22 21:36:52 GMT © BBC MMVI
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Post by Tulameen on Jun 30, 2006 11:06:37 GMT -5
BBC NEWS The World Health Organization (WHO) says it is extremely worried about a cluster of recent human deaths from the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu. Seven people from the same family in northern Sumatra, Indonesia, died from the disease earlier this month. WHO spokesman Peter Cordingley said there was no sign of diseased poultry in the immediate area. Investigators are looking into the possibility that the virus spread from human to human, Mr Cordingley said. But he emphasised that there was no indication the virus had mutated. Experts are worried that if it does mutate, the H5N1 strain could become more easily transmitted between humans, leading to a worldwide pandemic of the killer disease. The H5N1 virus has already killed more than 120 people worldwide since 2003. It has also devastated poultry stocks. The majority of deaths have occurred in Asia, but cases in people and birds have also been recorded in Europe and Africa. Almost all human infections so far are thought to have been caused by direct contact with sick poultry. Family tragedy Mr Cordingley said that the Sumatran cases presented a major puzzle, as they were the largest cluster of human cases to date. "[This] is probably the most worrying incident so far since bird flu started nearly three years ago and we can't find any obvious source of infection. We can find no sign of infected chickens; no sign of the virus in the environment around where they live," he said. All seven people who died were members of the same family. An eighth family member is also thought to have the disease. So far investigators know that the initial victim was a woman, who became ill at the end of April. She died in early May and was buried before laboratory tests could be carried out. The subsequent six victims - all of whom were positively identified as having the virus - had close and prolonged exposure to either her or other family members with the disease, the WHO said. Clusters of bird flu cases are viewed with far more concern than isolated infections, because of the possibility of transmission between humans. There have already been several cluster cases - such as one seen in Thailand in 2004 - although they have always involved fewer individuals than the Indonesian case. But the possibility scientists are most worried about, genetic mutation of the virus, has been effectively ruled out in this case. "Sequencing of all eight gene segments found no evidence of genetic reassortment with human or pig influenza viruses, and no evidence of significant mutations," the WHO said in a statement on Wednesday. The WHO is continuing its investigations into the Sumatran case. But the organisation says there is so much grief in the village that it is difficult for officials to get enough co-operation from local people to do their job. Story from BBC NEWS: news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/5011210.stmPublished: 2006/05/24 10:47:18 GMT © BBC MMVI
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Post by Tulameen on Jun 30, 2006 11:05:43 GMT -5
BBC NEWS By Rebecca Morelle BBC News science reporter Vaccinating the UK's poultry is not currently needed as a precautionary measure against bird flu, many leading animal health experts say. Only if an outbreak occurs and other preventative strategies fail should the government consider the option, they told the BBC News website. Current bird flu vaccines do not offer complete protection from infection and could, in some circumstances, "hide" the virus in affected flocks, they believe. A government spokesperson said that, at present, vaccines were "not a path that they want to go down". "Vaccination offers potential benefits but currently available vaccines are too limited to provide a general solution," he added. Increased vigilance The UK has not yet been struck by the virulent form of bird flu, H5N1; but ministers admit the chances of it arriving are increasing and have called for raised vigilance. Were an outbreak to occur, emergency measures would be enacted. Infected flocks would be culled and bio-secure zones would be set up around affected farms - but vaccination of infection-free birds is not planned at present. Stephen Lister, a poultry veterinarian, told the BBC News website that, in his view, this tactic should be adequate. "As an island country, I think that vigilance, surveillance and the stamping out of any case that appears very quickly is the best way to approach it," he explained. It is a tool to help us control the situation, but not a 'silver bullet' to wipe the disease out Stephen Lister, poultry vet "I can't see enough to warrant us vaccinating all of our susceptible birds, because I don't think the risk is high enough at the moment." However, scientists agreed that vaccination should not be ruled out as it could be a useful measure for controlling the disease if it spreads in the UK. "The obvious benefit is that you can stop the virus in its tracks," said Dr Wendy Barclay, a virologist at the University of Reading. "And the fewer number of chickens infected, the less the exposure of people; and from an economic point of view, you lose fewer birds. It's all about breaking the train of transmission." Animal welfare Dr Bob McCracken, president of the British Veterinary Association, also said vaccination should be considered for free range birds. "We don't necessarily need to be thinking about vaccinating the entire poultry population in the UK," he said, "but we should consider vaccinating those free range birds that have been brought indoors. If you vaccinate you will protect from disease, but you will not necessarily give complete protection from infection John McCauley, Institute of Animal Health "The time will come when we have three options. We can turn these birds out and risk infection. Keep them in but recognise this would be very detrimental to their health and welfare; or we could vaccinate them." But the scientists stressed that while vaccinating against bird flu can be advantageous, there are problems associated with it. "If you vaccinate you will protect from disease, but you will not necessarily give complete protection from infection," explained Dr John McCauley, at the Institute of Animal Health. HOW VACCINES WORK All vaccines trigger immune response to ward off disease Attenuated vaccine: contains weaker version of live virus Inactivated: contains virus inactivated by heat, chemicals Subunit: introduces gene to make disease antigens Vaccines slow to stockpile; grown in chicken eggs Flock needs simultaneous inoculation to be effective Some vaccines require two doses for full immunity "So whilst the birds are infected with the highly pathogenic flu virus which would normally kill them, they are not dying." Dr Barclay added that this could be dangerous for human health, increase the risk of passing the virus from poultry back into wild birds, and be worrying in terms of virus mutations. "The Chinese have made a vaccine based on reverse genetics made with H5N1 antigens, and they have been using it," she said. "There has been a lot of criticism of what they have done, because they have protected their chickens against death from this virus but the chickens still get infected; and then you get drift - the virus mutates in response to the antibodies - and now we have a situation where we have five or six 'flavours' of H5N1 out there." Vaccine stockpile One method of protecting against this would be to introduce "sentinel birds" into vaccinated flocks. These purposefully unvaccinated birds would indicate if the flock has become infected by the H5N1 virus. Dr John McCauley also cautioned that once vaccination was stopped, infection could arise again. "When you vaccinate you will reduce the intensity of the infection and disease, but when you stop vaccinating the disease will come back again, because you haven't eliminated it," he said. Stephen Lister concurred: "It is a tool to help us control the situation, but is not a 'silver bullet' to wipe the disease out." Professor Neil Ferguson, of Imperial College London, said a long-term strategy for bird flu in the UK was needed. "I think it is maybe a little bit premature for us to be vaccinating right now in this country, but we need to at least be stockpiling vaccine," he said. "I think we need to be thinking what we will be doing in 12-48 months' time in terms of having a sustainable policy which minimises the chance of the infection getting into domestic poultry." Story from BBC NEWS: news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/4737276.stmPublished: 2006/02/22 10:17:58 GMT © BBC MMVI
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Post by Tulameen on Jun 30, 2006 11:03:59 GMT -5
BBC NEWS By Matt McGrath Science reporter, BBC News Avian flu experts meeting in Paris have been told that a viable vaccine against the human form of the disease could take 10 years to develop. Dr David Fedson, a retired professor of medicine, told the conference that there were well-documented problems with the H5N1 virus when it came to making a vaccine. Scientists normally grow such a vaccine from an inert form of a virus, using chicken eggs as their favourite growing medium. According to Dr Fedson, who also worked for a number of years in the vaccine manufacturing industry, the vaccine produced from H5N1 was proving particularly difficult to grow up. It was also proving ineffective at stimulating an immune response that would give a person a good defence against bird flu. He told BBC News: "Right now, worldwide, we can produce 300 million doses of seasonal flu vaccine, but it turns out that the H5N1 vaccine is so poorly immunogenic and replicates so poorly that... we could immunise globally, with six months of production, about 100 million people. "From a public health point of view this is catastrophic," the former professor of medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, US, said. "We have had reverse genetics H5N1 viruses available to work with for three years and after three years this is all we can say: 'We could produce enough vaccine worldwide, for 100 million people'. Is that good enough? I don't think so." Leadership 'needed' Dr Fedson's views were echoed by Professor Albert Osterhaus, a leading European virologist based at the Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam. He was involved in decoding the virus behind the Sars (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic. He told the meeting that a global influenza task force was needed to get to grips with the situation. A mutated virus has yet to take hold in human populations On the subject of a vaccine, he said: "If a pandemic were to happen tomorrow, we would not have a vaccine; at least not a vaccine with which we could vaccinate the European population or the American population - and we need a vaccine for the world. "Basically, if we don't invest now in suitable clinical trials, there will be a shortage of vaccine - if we have a vaccine at all." Governments were in denial about the potential danger and this was the root of the problem, according to Dr Fedson. "If you look to the UK, France, the Netherlands and Italy (countries with companies that produce vaccine) - are any of the health authorities in these counties spending public funds on clinical trials of H5N1 vaccine? The answer is 'no'. "Not a single pound sterling is spent by the Department of Health in the UK on clinical trials - why is this so? Contrast this with spend on the Eurofighter for European defence, a weapon system no longer needed. Our priorities have got mixed up. Governments are feckless." "Why can't governments be driving the boat on this? Especially in the UK. Your experience of developing the meningitis vaccine is a role model of how to do it. The Department of Health said they would be in control, be in charge of data; they said here's the schedule and we have the money - from A to Z, the process worked like a charm." Commercial world There was no point blaming the vaccine manufacturing companies, said Dr Fedson, who was at one time director of medical affairs at Aventis Pasteur. "We've got to get away from the fantasy that pharmaceutical companies are charities - they make hard-nosed decisions about where they are going to make their profits. "Some companies have sensed that by building supplies or stockpiles of pre-pandemic vaccine, they can make easy money by just selling millions of doses to governments - they don't have to hire a sales force. "They're doing good business based on governments being fearful of what might happen if they are perceived to have done nothing. "When governments say they have bought, say, eight million doses of pandemic vaccine, all they are doing is buying a bucket full of antigen, because we really don't know how it is going to be formulated and there is no licensed, registered pre-pandemic vaccine in the world. "They are hedging their futures." The First International Conference on Avian Influenza in Humans has been taking place this week at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. Story from BBC NEWS: news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/5132910.stmPublished: 2006/06/30 14:27:11 GMT © BBC MMVI
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Post by Tulameen on Sept 19, 2005 21:06:16 GMT -5
My first reaction is "Eeeewwww!!!!" It looks more like a parasite than a disease, but I'm not an expert...
eeewww!
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Post by Tulameen on Aug 12, 2005 14:02:56 GMT -5
BBC NEWS More than 80 people have died of water-borne diseases in the western Indian state of Maharashtra which was badly hit by floods two weeks ago. Health officials say more than 5,000 people are suffering from high fever and cholera. But they say that leptospirosis, a disease spread through rats, caused many of the deaths. The floods killed more than 1,000 people and affected 20 million others in the state and its capital, Mumbai. Reports say some hospitals are unable to cope with the flow of patients, with some lying on floors as beds run out. "We're finding more and more cases of people with shooting fevers who are collapsing," senior health official P Doke is quoted as saying by AFP. Piles of garbage Leptospirosis is causes by exposure to water contaminated by rats urine, and outbreaks are known to occur in the monsoon season. Health officials say they are concerned but there is no threat of an epidemic. Residents in some of the flood-hit areas have clashed with civic officials, complaining that garbage in the areas had not been cleared and was spreading disease. The authorities say they are doing their best to clean up. Correspondents say most of the victims live in shantytowns where flood and sewage water had entered homes. Some 300 medical teams have been sent across the state to combat the spread of disease. Civic authorities and politicians were severely criticised after the recent flooding for failing to provide proper drainage systems and other flood protection measures. Have you been affected by the floods in Maharashtra? Are you a health worker fighting the spread of disease or caring for the sick? Send us your experiences using the form below. Do you have a picture to send? Email your pictures and video to: yourpics@bbc.co.uk Story from BBC NEWS: news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/4144402.stmPublished: 2005/08/12 16:42:30 GMT © BBC MMV
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