Originally posted by: Arnie.d
Ofcourse the chance this happens is very very small and probably no one would believe it could happen if it didn't happened before. But it already happened multiple times in the past. Also the human population in Asia has grown a lot since then. There's more livestock and the people practically live with the animals.
I'm not worried about it, but saying it won't happen again is like saying the Earth will never get hit by a big asteroid again.
Originally posted by: Shimraa
you know nanner is pretty accurate on this one. the big fear is that the virus will mutate into a human virus then away we go, cause no one will have any natural resistance to it. now the chances of it mutating are very small, and thats why nanner is right. literally what needs to happen is for two virus's to infect the same cell. one avian flu, the other some human airborn virus. so they infect the same cell at the same time. then by shear luck there RNA gets mixed up. and the part of the RNA in the human strain that involves infecting people gets mixed in with the avian flu genome. after all that happens, the few viruses that get this combination much survive to get into another cell(once again very hard, there is a reason why viruses have to make 10000 of themselves after each replication cycle.) once it infect the new cell it needs to successfully replicate itself, the new RNA combination might nto be complete and the virus could be a dud. and there you have it all the unlikely events that have to happen before we get the killer flu. and thats a VERY genral overview.
you know nanner is pretty accurate on this one. the big fear is that the virus will mutate into a human virus then away we go, cause no one will have any natural resistance to it. now the chances of it mutating are very small, and thats why nanner is right. literally what needs to happen is for two virus's to infect the same cell. one avian flu, the other some human airborn virus. so they infect the same cell at the same time. then by shear luck there RNA gets mixed up. and the part of the RNA in the human strain that involves infecting people gets mixed in with the avian flu genome. after all that happens, the few viruses that get this combination much survive to get into another cell(once again very hard, there is a reason why viruses have to make 10000 of themselves after each replication cycle.) once it infect the new cell it needs to successfully replicate itself, the new RNA combination might nto be complete and the virus could be a dud. and there you have it all the unlikely events that have to happen before we get the killer flu. and thats a VERY genral overview.
Ofcourse the chance this happens is very very small and probably no one would believe it could happen if it didn't happened before. But it already happened multiple times in the past. Also the human population in Asia has grown a lot since then. There's more livestock and the people practically live with the animals.
I'm not worried about it, but saying it won't happen again is like saying the Earth will never get hit by a big asteroid again.
yeah i know it happened with sars it happened with a few other flu's that i cant exactly recall right now but the thing is there is nothing we can do to prevent it. killing 100 000 chickens cause one had the flu isnt gonna do much, the thing with bacteria is that they are sneaky little buggers and they will always find a way to survive. heck if they can take on our immune system then we are a peice of cake... most of the time
. but yeah its interesting to note, with major flu's like the flu in 1918, that it wasnt the flu itself that killed people it was cytokine storms. cytokines are (i donno if you call them chemicals or hormones or what) but yeah they are made by the immune system for the purposes of organizing an immune response. ah the famous cytokine is called interlukin 2, thats the one that causes flu like symptoms, that one truly is a bitch.alas my point is not to be afraid cause there isnt much we can do to stop it, but what we can do is prepare for it, and that involves research and all that jazz. but yeah dotn fear something you can change.