Airborne AIDS?

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WASHINGTON, May 4 (UPI) -- The global swine flu threat is receding, but it could return in a far more deadly form in the fall.

The warning was given Monday by Dr. Margaret Chan, head of the 193-nation World Health Organization, in an interview with the Financial Times of London.

Chan warned that the swine flu virus known as H1N1 that caused the Mexico City-centered outbreak could return in the fall as a far more dangerous mutation.

After last week's warnings, school closings across the United States and the near shuttering of Mexico City, the current outbreak seems to have peaked. TheWHO said Monday there were 985 confirmed cases of H1N1 spread over 20 countries. There have been 25 confirmed deaths.

As of Monday there were 286 reported cases of swine flu in 36 U.S. states. Both U.S. and Mexican authorities expressed confidence that the spread of thedisease was slowing down.

The World Health Organization said the higher number of reports of cases from Mexico -- 590 -- comes from testing of previously gathered samples.

The four strands of the swine flu virus come from pigs, humans and birds. Experts believe that the virus mutated into its current form in the bodies of pigs.Health authorities are particularly worried that the capability to mutate already exhibited by the virus could eventually let it combine with the humanimmunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS.

That could cause a lethally dangerous global health problem on a comparable scale to the 1918 Spanish influenza epidemic that eventually infected more than 500million people -- more than one-quarter of the human race -- and killed 10 percent of them. That death toll of 50 million was more than five times the totalfatalities of World War I. The epidemic killed more Americans than died in World War I and World II combined.

Canadian health officials said Sunday they have confirmed that the H1N1 swine flu virus had, in at least one case, leaped back into a herd of 200 pigs. Thatraised the possibility it could mutate again in pigs and move back into the human population.

Chan told the Financial Times that, given the potential scale of the possible threat, the World Health Organization did not overreact to the swine flu threat.While the number of new cases hasn't grown as fast as expected, Chan said the disease could return in a few months in a much more lethal strain. She alsosaid she would rather be over-prepared than have to answer questions about why the World Health Organization didn't take sufficient action.

The reaction of the U.S. government headed by President Barack Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was measured, restrained and less toughthan that of the 27-nation European Union or of nations like China in closing cross-border traffic or imposing comprehensive screening.

The Chinese government was horrified at the possibility that swine flu could spread among its 1.3 billion people, almost 20 percent of the human race. Itsemergency measures, however, have infuriated the Mexican government and led to a major diplomatic row between the two nations.

Mexican travelers were quarantined in hotels, and the Mexican ambassador to China was not allowed to meet with one group he tried to visit. The anger of theMexican government at the Chinese measures, however, has obscured the real possibility that the global impact of swine flu has been limited precisely becauseof the swift measures that were taken globally to contain it.

The global swine flu crisis recalls the so-called millennium bug, which was supposed to crash computers around the world as the machines' internal clocksturned over Jan. 1, 2000. That didn't happen, but some experts said that was because the precautions taken helped prevent the problem. Some said therewasn't a problem to begin with. The whole controversy revolved around a negative proposition that couldn't be proved.

Skeptics are already arguing that the global fever over swine flu should fall into the same category. However, human history is filled with little-known buthorrifying examples of global pandemics from diseases like Spanish flu, cholera, syphilis or bubonic plague that swept the world, killing hundreds of millionsof people, destroying civilizations and reshaping the demographic patterns of the planet.

In a modern world of unprecedented population scale and social mobility, Chan's caution therefore appears completely justified. The alternative is to riska biological disaster that could eventually prove more devastating than a thermonuclear war.

Source: UPI
 
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Well, such a mutation wouldn't cause airborne AIDS, it would cause airborne transmission of HIV.
It's a definite possibly though. Viruses are constantly mutating to remain in existence in their ecological environment. However, it's more likely thatHIV will mutate on its own into an airborne strain, rather than combine with another virus.
 
We know it will return come flu season, but this is getting ridiculous.

There is a new strand of the flu every year....just stay healthy and wash your hands often.
 
A Swine Flu/Bird Flu recombination is much more likely...

Bird Flu with its 50% kill rate spread human to human sounds good.
 
Originally Posted by CJDynasty

Originally Posted by drsfinest72

regardless HIV cant survive outside its host body. it would die naturally.
Not if HIV mutated such that it could survive outside the host. That's the point of a virus mutating. The mutations allow it to become morevirulent, transmissible, and deadly. It's all about the virus's survival.....
 
dude, I would never want anything as horrible as airborne HIV. SMH and I just have to watch them damn zombie movies when I am bored just to get myself shook,then come on NT to read these damn things!
 
Originally Posted by Jumpshot

Originally Posted by CJDynasty

Originally Posted by drsfinest72

regardless HIV cant survive outside its host body. it would die naturally.
Not if HIV mutated such that it could survive outside the host. That's the point of a virus mutating. The mutations allow it to become more virulent, transmissible, and deadly. It's all about the virus's survival.....
if this was to happen. i wouldnt think it would be in our generation. maybe our kids kid generation. HIV have not change or mutated at all. andits been like 40 years since its first victim i believe. so for it to just mutate out of nowhere is highly unlikely without the help of humans to artificiallymutate it. besides. come to think about it.

HIV + Swine flu = 95% death rate. thats like the ultimate virus. one to attack your immune system. and the other to attack your body generally. pretty scarystuff if you asked me.
 
man if this is true thats crazy. I say we all put our money together and go make a colony on the moon and just start life over there
 
Originally Posted by drsfinest72

Originally Posted by Jumpshot

Originally Posted by CJDynasty

Originally Posted by drsfinest72

regardless HIV cant survive outside its host body. it would die naturally.
Not if HIV mutated such that it could survive outside the host. That's the point of a virus mutating. The mutations allow it to become more virulent, transmissible, and deadly. It's all about the virus's survival.....
if this was to happen. i wouldnt think it would be in our generation. maybe our kids kid generation. HIV have not change or mutated at all. and its been like 40 years since its first victim i believe. so for it to just mutate out of nowhere is highly unlikely without the help of humans to artificially mutate it. besides. come to think about it.
good point. Human facilitation is another real possibility.....
 
Originally Posted by drsfinest72

Originally Posted by Jumpshot

Originally Posted by CJDynasty

Originally Posted by drsfinest72

regardless HIV cant survive outside its host body. it would die naturally.
Not if HIV mutated such that it could survive outside the host. That's the point of a virus mutating. The mutations allow it to become more virulent, transmissible, and deadly. It's all about the virus's survival.....
if this was to happen. i wouldnt think it would be in our generation. maybe our kids kid generation. HIV have not change or mutated at all. and its been like 40 years since its first victim i believe. so for it to just mutate out of nowhere is highly unlikely without the help of humans to artificially mutate it. besides. come to think about it.

HIV + Swine flu = 95% death rate. thats like the ultimate virus. one to attack your immune system. and the other to attack your body generally. pretty scary stuff if you asked me.
You are missing the point that Swine flu can be the catalyst for mutation. We have to wait and see though. But like I said it is much more likelyfor Swine Flu and Bird Flu to recombine because they are of the same exact make up. But it is kinda of funny that Swine Flu it self started with out anydocumented cases in pigs. In fact, last i read, in Canada people have given "swine" flu to pigs. Now isnt that funny. But there is always thepossibility of human intervention in these matters.
 
I always had this question. Aren't viruses self defeating? I mean if they want to survive, why would they want to kill their host? if a virus wipes out thehuman species, wouldn't the virus then die out too?
 
Originally Posted by flight club sucks

I always had this question. Aren't viruses self defeating? I mean if they want to survive, why would they want to kill their host? if a virus wipes out the human species, wouldn't the virus then die out too?

thats why viruses spread and are contagious
 
Originally Posted by flight club sucks

I always had this question. Aren't viruses self defeating? I mean if they want to survive, why would they want to kill their host? if a virus wipes out the human species, wouldn't the virus then die out too?

It's certain strains of a virus that are self defeating, not the virus itself. That's why a virus mutates, to create more improved strains that'llbe more fit for survival. It's Darwinism at it's finest. When an extremely lethal strain of a virus has wiped out its host, the virus then mutates tocreate a more reasonable strain which will assure it's continued existence. The death of the host is simply a side effect.
 
Originally Posted by Jumpshot

Originally Posted by flight club sucks

I always had this question. Aren't viruses self defeating? I mean if they want to survive, why would they want to kill their host? if a virus wipes out the human species, wouldn't the virus then die out too?

It's certain strains of a virus that are self defeating, not the virus itself. That's why a virus mutates, to create more improved strains that'll be more fit for survival. It's Darwinism at it's finest. When an extremely lethal strain of a virus has wiped out its host, the virus then mutates to create a more reasonable strain which will assure it's continued existence. The death of the host is simply a side effect.


Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

EDIT:
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@that pic.
 
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