Cautionary Tale of the Nipah Virus and the Need for Science

[jedishrfu]

http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsan...for-pork-helped-a-deadly-virus-jump-to-humans

 

[COWilliam]

That is actually really interesting. Thanks for sharing it!

 

[jedishrfu]

It was the basis for the movie Contagion staring Matt Damon and bunch of other big name stars.

The thing I thought was curious is how they used some simple notions to identify the hosts namely that only non-muslim people got the disease ruling out mosquitos as the carrier and then were able to focus on the pigs.

There's a related article published a few days earlier on how tourism can give rise to pandemics because of the exotic places they visit. In one instance a beautiful cave system in Indonesia is a popular place loaded with bats, guano and roaches where researchers discovered 15 known viral pathogens and 48 unknown ones. Yikes!

http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsan...-next-pandemic-could-be-dripping-on-your-head

 

[teacherman]

Wow! Is this the same as "swine flu"?

Thanks for sharing,
Teacherman

 

[jedishrfu]

No they are diferent, Nipah affects the brain and is much more deadly:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henipavirus#Nipah_virus

whereas swine flu is an influenza virus which produces fever, lethargy, sneezing, coughing, difficulty breathing and decreased appetite.[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swine_influenza