Bird Flu

[eucaryotic]

It's all the rage in the media at the moment, what do you guys think? Are we all going to die?

[zami'87.]

Yeah it'll be extinction....
just evolution:)
Nope, our time is not finished! )

[new_guy]

All of us going to die because of the bird flu ? The probability of this event to happen is low (I'm really afraid of using the word "impossible) .
Who knows , maybe the bird flu mutate and become invicible or maybe some mad peoples uses bird flu as a biological weapon . Anything can happen .

[Poison]

Not all of us, hopefully. Researchers are working to get the best threatment and vaccine.

[MrMistery]

While there is no vaccine for this desease, there are drugs to treat it, but they are expensive and hard to produce, so it would be impossible to treat everyone in case of an epidemics

[victor]

While there is no vaccine for this desease, there are drugs to treat it, but they are expensive and hard to produce, so it would be impossible to treat everyone in case of an epidemics

Yup, it's name is Opseltanavir phosphate. Expensive and hard to produce..
Actually, according to the Microbiologists, this kind of virus (H5N1) doesn't have any receptor in human but the have the receptors in birds. (in Human it's called receptor 26, in birds it's called receptor 28.
For the mutation, it can do a recombination between H5N1 with human ordinary flu..(exchanging the anti-receptor)..but it can happen in the 'certain' blood vessels..(i.e. in the pig)

[MrMistery]

Yeap that is what they are afraid. The H5N1 virus mutating and combining with the human flu virus. I saw on the news that in an avian flu epidemics so much as 1.5 bilion people can die. That is a bit extra very hyper exagerated if you ask me, but anyway, they say that if it does reach a form that will be passable from human to human, we will be in big trouble. That is why so many people are buying flu vaccines these days.

@victor
So for you, a virology dude, this news is actually fascinating, right?

[mith]

not sure how much of this is fact(probably patrick could verify it ) I heard on the radio from an expert that all flu was avian but around every 30 years it mutates into a more virulent strain. He cited the example of the 1920's flu that started in europe killing many americans post-war and the 1958 flu that started in china.

[new_guy]

But still , how does this bird flu is made anyway? Is it originally inside of a bird species , or some people in the past made it while experimenting in the kitchen , or maybe a normal flu mutate in a thousand years and become bird flu.

I sometime have crazy imagination...

[MrMistery]

It simply is bird flu. It comes from... bird flu

[Poison]

Birds carry nearly all of the flu viruses. It mutated and infected people.

[victor]

Yeap that is what they are afraid. The H5N1 virus mutating and combining with the human flu virus. I saw on the news that in an avian flu epidemics so much as 1.5 bilion people can die. That is a bit extra very hyper exagerated if you ask me, but anyway, they say that if it does reach a form that will be passable from human to human, we will be in big trouble. That is why so many people are buying flu vaccines these days.

@victor
So for you, a virology dude, this news is actually fascinating, right?

Yup, as you said Andrew...Beside being a Biochem dude, I also try to be a virology dude..
Actually what makes this influenza virus can mutate is because of their special RNA..Their RNA is unlike the common RNA, their RNA divided into 8 segment which can be recombined with other RNA even from different strain.
Then, why pigs can be the source of this virus' mutation? It's because some pig cells have both human and bird receptors, so it enables different strains from the influenza virus (Orthomyxovirus) to enter and doing a recombination...
We see that human influenza and H5N1 are totally different. But if each of them recombined their RNA, you know what will happen...the beginning of nightmare.
Oh one more thing, H = hemagglutinase, N = Neuroaminidase.