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192 Comments
- apathy9, on 07/11/2009, -0/+164WE ARE ALL GONNA DIE!
- Tanktunker, on 07/12/2009, -3/+107The solution is clear.
We have to eat all the pigs. - Kakumeikeahi, on 07/12/2009, -1/+66Yup. One day
- tiresias2, on 07/12/2009, -3/+56Factory farms do it again...
- onimusha115, on 07/12/2009, -0/+44This is not a good year to be a pig.
- novenator, on 07/12/2009, -7/+44Madcow and now this. Another victory for factory farms!
- pixelguru, on 07/12/2009, -2/+34FTA: The good news is that so far the virus appears to pose no risk to humans, and none of the infected farm workers have shown signs of illness.
I'd hate to see what would happen thogh if a pig became exposed to both Ebola *and* Swine Flu. Those two bugs trading DNA back and forth like baseball cards could cause some real problems. - basex, on 07/12/2009, -0/+27ebola might be a bigger problem in 3rd world countries.
the fatality rate for humans is around 50–89%. - Junior612, on 07/12/2009, -0/+27In other news Outbreak jumps 148% in popularity this week.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114069/ - osteor10, on 07/12/2009, -0/+27*creeeekkk*
"The storm is over kids, come out and look how beautiful the world is! OH, OH GOD. Back to the storm shelter!" - lolwatermelon, on 07/12/2009, -0/+26Ebola's not quite new...
- Tanktunker, on 07/12/2009, -0/+23You are a true patriot.
- LukeBeaumont, on 07/12/2009, -0/+22It is still very deadly in developed countries.
- evil-doer, on 07/12/2009, -5/+26maybe jews and muslims were onto something with not eating this animal.
nah screw that, gimme my bacon. - Regulator980, on 07/12/2009, -2/+22UP NEXT: Mad Cow Disease Makes a Comeback
- inactive, on 07/12/2009, -0/+20This is serious, I hear Madagascar has already SHUT DOWN EVERYTHING!
- Rotzooi, on 07/12/2009, -3/+23chooochooo: nothing. The rest of the world will just keep on living and ***** ***** up, while your body rots away in the ground. Or is being digested by a shark, you name it.
- lolwatermelon, on 07/12/2009, -3/+22I blame Obama for there being no "blame Obama" posts.
- Denominator88, on 07/12/2009, -0/+18I'll get out my griddle.
- twiztidsinz, on 07/12/2009, -3/+21IT'S NOT SWINE EBOLA!!!!!!
IT'S N1H2 - Veni_Vidi_Vici, on 07/12/2009, -0/+17Read "the hot zone" by Richard Preston. One of my favorite books.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hot_Zone - rocknog, on 07/12/2009, -0/+16Gee, a slow, horrible death bleeding out of every orifice and *****/vomiting out your internal organs... For bacon, it's a risk I'm willing to take.
- fuzzybeard, on 07/12/2009, -0/+14@ basex: The only things that have kept Ebola from ravaging our species (to date) are:
1) Lack of roads in the part of the world where Ebola has a natural reservoir (Central Africa).
2) The Ebolavirus genera hasn't quite got the hang of aerosol transmission.
3) It appears that the species of Ebola found in the Philippines is innocuous (so far) to humans.
@ dudemoo22: From the Wiki entry for Ebola:
"Prognosis
The incubation period can range from 2 to 21 days but is generally 5–10 days.[44]
Ebola hemorrhagic fever is potentially lethal and encompasses a range of symptoms including fever, vomiting, diarrhea, generalized pain or malaise, and sometimes internal and external bleeding. The span of time from onset of symptoms to death is usually between 2 and 21 days. By the second week of infection, patients will either defervesce (the fever will lessen) or undergo systemic multi-organ failure. Mortality rates are typically high, with the human case-fatality rate ranging from 50–89%, depending on the species or viral strain.[45] The cause of death is usually due to hypovolemic shock or organ failure."
I'm with LukeBeaumont on this one; a minimum 50% mortality rate on any bug with that short of an incubation cycle is something I would call very deadly. - Val451, on 07/12/2009, -1/+15 "No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."
-George Orwell, the conclusion of Animal Farm - Disgod, on 07/12/2009, -1/+15The article doesn't mention the type of farming method that they've found these samples in. It maybe factory farming, but the article doesn't mention it. It maybe that these farmers are just peasant farmers. You maybe right about the method they're using, but then the question must be asked what are their sanitary standards in comparison to US/European farming methods.
- skate3214, on 07/12/2009, -1/+14But...they're so tasty....
- Rodik, on 07/12/2009, -0/+13Shame so many diggers are going to die virgins.
- yifanlu94, on 07/12/2009, -0/+13*****. The swine flu was just a warmup, now comes the big scary virus...
- UnterDenLinden, on 07/12/2009, -0/+12No only a few strains are really bad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola#Classification - viking0895, on 07/12/2009, -1/+13pigs are out to get us.
- thejackyl, on 07/12/2009, -0/+12We'll talk about your hobbies later, right now we're discussing the Ebola virus.
- chooochooo, on 07/12/2009, -2/+13what's going to happen after we die?
- inactive, on 07/12/2009, -0/+11or maybe it has something to do with pigs being filthy animals probably living in filthy conditions.
I <3 bacon. - Khast, on 07/12/2009, -0/+11♫It's the end of the world as we know it. ♫
Anyways, I am not sure, but I think that it has something to do with how we create an artifically overpopulated situation for the animals which we farm for food. Think about it, pestilence thrives in overcrowded populations, and strains of diseases which affect humans will most likely be easier to jump species with little adaptation...
It is only going to get worse until we can figure out how to control diseases in these overcrowded farms... and I do mean the potential for a truly deadly pandemic is staring us in the face. - DouglasQ, on 07/12/2009, -1/+11Swine Ebola! Oh d-d-d-deeeaar!
- bkraj, on 07/12/2009, -0/+10Sure,
BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8143823.stm
And since you probably don't have access to the journal Science(which alongside Nature is considered a paramount journal, I'll paste the fulltext article):
"
Science 23 January 2009:
Vol. 323. no. 5913, p. 451
DOI: 10.1126/science.323.5913.451a
Prev | Table of Contents | Next
News of the Week
EMERGING INFECTIOUS DISEASES:
Scientists Puzzle Over Ebola-Reston Virus in Pigs
Dennis Normile
An international team of human- and animal-health experts is in the Philippines this month, studying the first known outbreak of Ebola-Reston virus in pigs. The virus, which is related to the Ebola virus that causes the highly fatal Ebola hemorrhagic fever, had previously been found only in monkeys and a few humans who had been in contact with the sick animals. It has not caused any known incidents of serious illness or death in humans. But experts are concerned "because this is new, because it is unexpected, because the virus is slightly different [from previous isolates], and because it is in pigs," which live in close proximity to humans, says Julie Hall, an infectious disease expert for the World Health Organization (WHO) and a member of the investigative team.
"The finding is cause for further study but not further alarm," says Stuart Nichol, a virologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. He says ongoing investigations may lead to a better understanding of Ebola viruses.
Ebola viruses belong to the Filoviridae family and come in five strains: Zaïre, Sudan, Côte d'Ivoire, Bundibugyo, and Reston. The Zaïre, Sudan, and Bundibugyo strains have caused outbreaks of Ebola hemorrhagic fever among humans in Africa, killing up to 90% of those infected. Ebola- Reston was first isolated in 1989 from cynomolgus macaques imported from the Philippines for medical research in the United States. Unusual numbers of the monkeys started dying while in a quarantine facility in Reston, Virginia. About 1000 monkeys died or were euthanized. Subsequently, 21 animal handlers at the Philippine exporter and four employees of the quarantine facility were found to have antibodies to the virus, indicating that they had been infected, but just one reported flulike symptoms. Further outbreaks in monkeys in the Philippines were reported in 1992 and 1996.
An increase in pig mortality on several farms in central Luzon, the Philippines' largest island, in 2007 and 2008 prompted an investigation by Philippine agencies. Last October, international reference laboratories studying samples supplied by the Philippines confirmed that the pigs were infected with a highly virulent strain of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome as well as the Ebola-Reston virus. Which virus is responsible for the increased mortality is not yet clear.
The presence of Ebola-Reston virus on pig farms increases the odds of human exposure and infection. Previous human infections occurred in young men, who happened to be employees at both the Philippine exporter and the Reston lab animal supplier, Hall says. "We now have that virus in pigs that live in very close contact not just with fit, healthy, young men, but with pregnant women, children, and people with underlying medical conditions," Hall says. Initial laboratory tests on animal handlers and slaughterhouse workers who might have been exposed were negative, the Philippine Department of Health has reported.
Figure 1 Unexpected. A Philippines outbreak shows that pigs may host Ebola viruses.
CREDIT: ROMEO GACAD/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
At the request of the Philippine government, WHO, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, and the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health assembled an 18-member team that began its 10-day investigation on 6 January. So far, they have more questions than answers. It is not clear whether the virus alone causes clinical illness in pigs, how easily it spreads among the animals, or how it invaded the separate farms. The implications of the slight genetic differences in this strain are also not known.
Answers to some of these questions should trickle in over the next several weeks. The international agencies and their local counterparts are planning further studies to determine, among other issues, whether the virus is in wider circulation in pigs and what its natural habitat might be. Meanwhile, the government is being cautious, quarantining the affected farms, even though there are no longer signs of illness among their pigs, and suspending all pork exports.
Gary Kobinger, a virologist at Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, says there have long been rumors of unusual die-offs of pigs before Ebola outbreaks among humans in Africa. "The question is: Is it possible that pigs are hosts that amplify and transmit the virus to other animals and humans?" he asks.
"
Enjoy. - MaverickSmooth, on 07/12/2009, -0/+9I suggest that you do keep on doing more research on these things.
- rocknog, on 07/12/2009, -0/+9Actually, you've got about a week, but the basic point remains.
- A5204, on 08/13/2009, -2/+10I was under the impression there's always a few cases of ebola per year. Oh, sorry...AHH! SCARY GERMS! AHH!
- X9001, on 07/12/2009, -0/+8Often it kills to fast to spread
- richmomz, on 07/12/2009, -1/+9Thanks Baxter.
- Rudegar, on 07/12/2009, -0/+7the day people do stop all the domestic animals will die out
cows and pigs will just be pests eating our crops
and we will react with retribution - chooochooo, on 07/12/2009, -0/+7it is the truth man!
- h8red42, on 07/12/2009, -1/+7no its because two thousand years ago they didn't understand trichinoses,and proper cooking technique.
- mafax, on 07/12/2009, -0/+6I think thats why jews and muslims dont eat pigs!
- Jaime2000, on 07/12/2009, -0/+6Dammit, the virus hadn't gotten yet there! Another lost game, I guess...
- thejackyl, on 07/12/2009, -0/+6Humanity has a real talent for shooting itself in the foot.
- Ninjapope, on 07/13/2009, -0/+5This is just crazy enough to work.
- Ajajadude, on 07/12/2009, -0/+5Hooray!
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