H1N1 Swine Flu Resembles 1918 Virus
July 14th, 2009As with many events, the extensive Cryptogon archives are very useful. From 2004 we find this:
Researchers resurrect deadly ‘Spanish’ flu
Updated Thu. Oct. 7 2004 4:09 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
A tiny genetic change may be all that stands between us and the next deadly flu pandemic.
A team of scientists at the National Microbiology Research Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba arrived at that chilling conclusion after they managed to create a cousin of the deadly 1918 Spanish flu virus in the lab.
The results of their work are published in the journal Nature.
Working with American and Japanese partners, the researchers used two synthetic genes copied from the 1918 virus, as well as three other human viruses, to come up with something that mimics the deadly effects of the 1918 strain.
When the lab-produced virus was injected into the noses of lab mice, it went on a deadly rampage through their lungs, causing fatal internal bleeding and inflammation.
When they examined the virus, scientists realized their bug had fundamental structural features that distinguished it from other, less deadly strains.
The gene known as HA (haemagglutinin) may be the key, they say, as it is believed to give the virus a superior ability to break though a cell’s defences and bind to it.
According to the study, a large segment of the world’s population would be extremely susceptible to a virus containing that gene.
“Once the properties of the (1918) HA gene that gave rise to its lethal infectivity are better understood, it should be possible to devise effective control measures and to improve global surveillance networks for influenza viruses that pose the greatest threat to humans as well as other animal species,” the researchers wrote in Nature.
The strain from the 1918 outbreak — which infected an estimated one billion people and killed more than 20 million people in a single year — is believed to have jumped to people by way of pigs.
Set against the current spate of animal-to-human outbreaks, such as avian influenza, that has instilled a new sense of urgency in research on the historic pandemic.
Then, from the Guardian a year later: Security Fears as Flu Virus That Killed 50 Million is Recreated:
Ian Sample, science correspondent
Thursday 6 October 2005
Scientists have recreated the 1918 Spanish flu virus, one of the deadliest ever to emerge, to the alarm of many researchers who fear it presents a serious security risk.
Undisclosed quantities of the virus are being held in a high-security government laboratory in Atlanta, Georgia, after a nine-year effort to rebuild the agent that swept the globe in record time and claimed the lives of an estimated 50 million people.
The genetic sequence is also being made available to scientists online, a move which some fear adds a further risk of the virus being created in other labs.
The recreation was carried out in an attempt to understand what made the 1918 outbreak so devastating. Reporting in the journal Science, a team lead by Dr Jeffery Taubenberger at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Maryland shows that the recreated virus is extremely effective. When injected into mice, it quickly took hold and they started to lose weight rapidly, shedding 13% of their original weight in just two days. Within six days, all mice injected with the virus had died.
In a comparison experiment, similar mice were injected with a contemporary strain of flu, and although the mice lost weight initially, they recovered. Tests revealed that the Spanish flu virus multiplied so rapidly that after four days, mice contained 39,000 times more flu virus than those injected with the more common strain of flu.
The government and military researchers who reconstructed the virus say their work has already provided invaluable insight into its unique genetic make-up and helps explain its lethality. But other researchers warned yesterday the that virus could escape from the laboratory. “This will raise clear questions among some as to whether they have really created a biological weapon,” said Professor Ronald Atlas at the centre for deterrence of biowarfare and bioterrorism at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.
Publication of the work and the filing of the virus’s genetic make-up to an online database followed an emergency meeting last week by the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, which concluded that the benefits of publishing the work outweighed the risks. Many scientists remained sceptical. “Once the genetic sequence is publicly available, there’s a theoretical risk that any molecular biologist with sufficient knowledge could recreate this virus,” said Dr John Wood, a virologist at the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control in Potters Bar.
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If a kill off event is about to go down, the authorities will say that a mutation with this H1N1 flu has occurred. At that point, nobody will remember the information above. HA. Hardly anyone remembers it now. I even posted about it and I didn’t remember it until I started searching my archives for 1918.
Be ready to isolate yourself as soon as the H1N1 “vaccine” is deployed. If the so called “mutation” event is going to happen, my guess is that some number of the vaccines will contain the weaponized payload.
Via: Reuters:
The new H1N1 influenza virus bears a disturbing resemblance to the virus strain that caused the 1918 flu pandemic, with a greater ability to infect the lungs than common seasonal flu viruses, researchers reported on Monday.
Tests in several animals confirmed other studies that have shown the new swine flu strain can spread beyond the upper respiratory tract to go deep into the lungs — making it more likely to cause pneumonia, the international team said.
In addition, they found that people who survived the 1918 pandemic seem to have extra immune protection against the virus, again confirming the work of other researchers.
“When we conducted the experiments in ferrets and monkeys, the seasonal virus did not replicate in the lungs,” said Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin, who led the study.
The H1N1 virus replicates significantly better in the lungs.”
The new swine flu virus has caused the first pandemic of the 21st century, infecting more than a million people, according to estimates, and killing at least 500. The World Health Organization says it is causing mostly moderate disease but Kawaoka said that does not mean it is like seasonal flu.
“There is a misunderstanding about this virus,” he said in a statement. “There is clear evidence the virus is different than seasonal influenza.”
Writing in the journal Nature, Kawaoka and colleagues noted that the ability to infect the lungs is a characteristic of other pandemic viruses, especially the 1918 virus, which is estimated to have killed between 40 million and 100 million people.
So, seriously, what would be the point? Better than war? Would this help a teetering U.S. debt market? From an economic standpoint reduce demand and output? Let China gain leverage in population numbers? What can all of the superpowers be expected to play, Russia, China, Germany, France, Japan, India, Brazil, the U.S., England?
Ok yeah yeah something is going on but are these people that freaking insane that they’ll jeopardize their own families, I like tin foil and Gold as much as many of us do but maybe they just opt for the “slow grind”! Let things deteriorate while they play diplomacy and leadership 101, wait for a tipping point.
I dunno, you can try to think and determine what the hell “they” are going to do, but really until you get to an actual event you can choose the best course of action. Maybe they are trying to honey pot all of the thinkers so all that they have is sheople left.
My vote is for slow burn and deterioration.
disclosure: long bill gates hurricane control systems inc.
NEWS FLASH:
England is not a superpower. Neither is Germany, France, Japan, India or Brazil. Russia is resource rich but not a superpower. China is a soon-to-be-former manufacturing powerhouse. the US is on a long journey downwards, from superpowerdom to chaos (y’know, New Orleans x 1,000).
countries are relatively unimportant and have relatively little power. clusters of industrial and financial oligarchs call the shots. less than 0.1% of the US population. will the families of these people be at risk if a pandemic is deliberately engineered? somehow, i doubt it.
war has not killed many americans recently. lots of people from other places though. but still not like in the 100s of millions a replay of 1918 would entail. does the economy benefit? of course not. has the economy benefited from the bubbles of the last 10 years? no. but i wonder who has? some oligarchs, possibly? how coincidental.
I am more for a “Lihop than for a Mihop” respective to this flu-story. And relating to everything else, the governmental elites just let things go awry, because they are either incompetent (banking regulation), uneducated (generational gap regarding the internetz) or just plain calculating (climate rel. stuff, environmental procrastination, GMO) for the next election.
Full educated bioengineers look for work and they can do everything – good or bad – so he who employs them, controls what they _can’t_ do, that is to say working for the competitors in the particular field. And after that, they just work what they want and nobody really watches them. That is the problem, no oversight what biolabs do and what they are build for. There is no state intervention needed, public information will suffice.
“And relating to everything else, the governmental elites just let things go awry, because they are either incompetent (banking regulation)”
if you believe that, have i got some MBS with great interest rates to sell you, sir!