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Biotech / Medical : Bioterrorism -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (656)	3/16/2003 3:47:52 PM
From: Biomaven	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 891

From the latest CDC release: No link has been made between this illness and any known influenza, including the "bird flu" (A[H5N1]) outbreak reported in Hong Kong on February 19. I've seen reports that the Japanese say it's not 'flu, and other reports saying the Japanese conclusion is premature. From the symptoms and apparent mode of transmission it sounds similar to a vicious strain of 'flu, though. Peter

To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (656)	3/17/2003 9:41:03 PM
From: scaram(o)uche	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 891

Off topic: We are not suspicious that this is a common organism, or we would have found it by now. So that leads us to conclude that it's either a difficult-to-grow organism or one that we have less experience with. cdc.gov

To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (656)	3/22/2003 3:15:28 PM
From: scaram(o)uche	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 891

off topic (SARS)........ who.int 22 March 2003 SARS virus isolated, new diagnostic test producing reliable results A team of scientists in the department of microbiology, University of Hong Kong, has announced today success in culturing the viral agent that causes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Further progress in the development of a reliable diagnostic test was simultaneously announced by the same team. Using a special cell line, the Hong Kong scientists isolated the virus from the lung tissue of a patient who developed pneumonia following contact with a professor from Guangdong Province in southern China. Both the professor and the contact have died. Isolation of the virus now lays the solid foundation for very rapid development of a diagnostic test. The Hong Kong scientists have devised a basic test, relying on the technique of neutralizing antibodies. In today’s experiments designed to determine the accuracy of the test, scientists found that it was able to detect tell-tale antibodies in sera taken from eight SARS patients. The consistency of these findings indicates that the test is reliably identifying cases of SARS infection. This “hand-made” test will now be further developed into a more sophisticated diagnostic test. A rapid and reliable diagnostic test for SARS is urgently needed to assist the many clinicians who need a tool for rapid confirmation of genuine cases. Such a test can also help reassure the many “worried well” who are flooding health facilities as international concern about this disease and its rapid spread to new areas continues to increase. Many common and usually self-healing illnesses mimic the symptoms of SARS in its early stage. With the virus now isolated, scientists in Hong Kong and elsewhere can move forward quickly to characterize the agent, determine its relationship with known viruses, and establish a definitive identity. Results will be shared among 11 leading laboratories in a network set up on Monday 17 March by WHO. Exceptionally rapid progress Close collaboration, with findings shared daily in teleconferences and by email, has allowed advances that normally need months to take place in a matter of days. “This spectacular achievement is an example of what the world can do when the intellectual resources of nations around the world are focused on a single problem,” says Klaus Stöhr, a WHO virologist who is coordinating the global laboratory network. “Scientists who are by default academic competitors are now working virtually shoulder to shoulder. In less than a week, they have produced results which, in other circumstances, would likely have taken months or more. This rapid advance is fuelling the hope that SARS can and will be contained.” The virus responsible for SARS is considered by some research groups to be a member of the well-known Paramyxoviridae family. Yesterday, Canadian researchers released findings suggesting that the metapneumovirus, which belongs to this family, may be the cause. The metapneumovirus was first discovered by Dutch scientists in June 2001 at a laboratory that is also included in the new WHO network. At the time of its discovery, the virus was known to cause respiratory disease in humans, including some cases of pneumonia, but showed a different transmission pattern and was much less severe than the SARS agent. At this point, it cannot be ruled out that an entirely different virus from another family may be responsible for the SARS outbreak. Identity of virus remains elusive WHO cautions that the race to identify the SARS causative agent is by no means over. Although the virus has now been isolated, its identity remains elusive. Other research groups in the network of collaborating labs are producing hints that the causative agent may belong to another virus family. SARS is an emerging disease, first recognized in Asia in mid-February, that has sickened over 380 persons on three continents and caused severe pneumonia in a large proportion of patients. A cumulative list of affected countries and numbers of cases and deaths is released each day on the WHO web site. Today’s data indicate that slightly more than half of currently reported cases have occurred in health care workers and medical students. The remaining cases are in family members and other persons in close contact with patients. Investigative team travelling to China A WHO team of five experts is now en route to China to investigate the possibility that an outbreak of a disease having similar symptoms and affecting similar groups – health care workers and close contacts of patients – may be linked to the current SARS outbreak. As of today, Hong Kong remains the most seriously affected area. Authorities there have reported a total of 222 cases in health care workers, medical students, and family members and hospital visitors who have been in close contact with patients. Of these, 217 have developed symptoms of pneumonia, and many are in serious condition.

To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (656)	3/24/2003 5:06:46 PM
From: scaram(o)uche	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 891

off topic again, sorta...... coronavirus??..... Cold-Causing Bug Suspected in Mystery Flu By DANIEL YEE, Associated Press Writer ATLANTA - The mysterious and deadly flu-like illness from Asia that has stymied health officials around the world appears to be caused by a new variety of a common cold virus, U.S. health officials said Monday. The head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) said a number of tests had revealed traces of a form of microbe known as a coronavirus in the tissue of people infected with the unidentified disease. "There's very strong evidence to support coronavirus" as the cause, said CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding at a news conference. However, she cautioned that more testing is needed before experts can be certain. Many different viruses can cause colds, including three different varieties of the coronavirus. Until now, in fact, the cold is the only human ailment known to be caused by coronaviruses, but the CDC said the culprit in the Asian outbreak appears to be genetically different and probably represents a fourth type. Just what that means for treating severe acute respiratory syndrome, SARS, which has sickened 456 and killed 17 since Feb. 1, is unclear. There are no certain treatments for colds caused by this or any other virus. Nevertheless, Gerberding said the Defense Department will test the virus against all known antiviral drugs to see if any work. Researchers worry that any virus they find in patients may be an innocent bystander. Among the bits of evidence suggesting the new coronavirus really is the cause is the discovery that victims develop an immune system response to it during the course of their illness. The illness first gained attention in Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam, where it has spread among health workers in hospitals. Health authorities say it appears to spread from close contact, primarily through nasal fluids by coughing or sneezing. The Geneva-based World Health Organization (news - web sites) issued a worldwide travel alert March 15 warning people to watch for symptoms after traveling to places where the disease had appeared. The WHO also got its network of 11 labs around the world working to find the cause and treatment of the disease. Gerberding's announcement followed comments earlier Monday from a WHO scientist who said for the first time that coronavirus was a possible cause. But the virologist, Dr. Klaus Stohr, continued to give more weight to a different virus, described by WHO officials earlier, the paramyxovirus. Gerberding said her researchers had not found that virus in their tissue samples. Meanwhile, fears of the disease seemed to spread in some Asian centers: Singapore quarantined more than 700 people who may have been exposed to the disease, threatening them with fines; Hong Kong officials met to draw up health guidelines for everything from restaurants to bus systems in an attempt to slow its spread. Hong Kong's health secretary, Dr. Yeoh Eng-kiong, called SARS "a really very alarming disease," the likes of which Hong Kong has never seen. On Sunday, the territory's top health official was hospitalized with the respiratory symptoms indicative of the disease, which merely added to the anxiety. "I think it's spreading very quickly," said Lisa Fung, a masked 44-year-old worker at a domestic help recruitment agency. "Even William Ho has got it and he hasn't had to go treat the patients." Many residents wore surgical masks around the city, hoping to avoid infection. Health authorities suspect SARS is linked with an earlier atypical pneumonia outbreak in mainland China's Guangdong province that killed five people and sickened 305. A WHO team that arrived over the weekend in Beijing said Monday it was analyzing the Chinese cases in the scramble to unravel the disease. Some of the sickest Hong Kong patients were receiving injections of antibodies obtained from victims who have recovered and their initial responses appeared good, Yeoh said.

To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (656)	3/25/2003 9:43:23 PM
From: scaram(o)uche	Respond to of 891

more off topic SARS....... cdc.gov We have been able to culture Coronavirus from two of the patients that we've evaluated so far of the four that we have tissue from. In one patient, the tissue is culturing virus in our laboratories, but in addition we can see the virus, and you can see here pictures of what this virus looks like in tissue cultures. What you see is a circular virus that looks like it has a corona or sort of a crown effect, and that is basically little spikes and protein globules that surround the virus so that it gives it that very characteristic appearance. This is the enlarged picture, and then over here on the left we see many virus particles as they've been growing in tissue culture, and on a lower power magnification some sense of the size of these particles in the context of an overall cell. I think the important message here is that we've grown it out of two of the patients that are affected. That, in and of itself, does not imply causality because we have many common respiratory viruses that could be cultured out of patients. But what's interesting to us is not only are we culturing it, but we're finding evidence of it in actual affected tissues. In one patient, we see the virus in kidney specimens very clearly on the electron microscope. We also have done PCR, which is a way of probing for the genetic material of the virus, and we're finding virus PCR, very specific evidence of that, in lung tissue, as well as the kidney in this individual patient. Also, this patient, when tested with an antibody, in an antibody test to the virus, had a negative antibody test at the very beginning of the illness, and by the end of the illness that antibody test had become positive. So, in other words, the patient seroconverted using a very specific assay for this new Coronavirus. We have evidence of an infection in seven other patients that we've evaluated so far. The evidence is in a variety of forms. A total of three patients have seroconverted, meaning they had a negative test and then a positive test in paired serum later in their illness, and we're actively getting late serum now from many of the suspected cases so that we can see if others will seroconvert as their illness progresses as well. We also are finding evidence of the virus genetic material in lung secretions, in lung tissue and in many, many other samples. So as the day progresses, and as the week progresses, we will be looking at more specimens with more tests. And in collaboration with our partners in the global arena, we hope to be able to ascertain whether this really is related to the onset of disease and, if so, what is the relationship. This, in scientific terms, is very strong evidence supporting Coronavirus as an etiology, but we know from sequencing pieces of the virus DNA that it is not identical to the Coronaviruses that we've seen in the past. So this may very well be a new or emerging Coronavirus infection, but we also are very respectful of the findings of other laboratories that are collaborating in this investigation, and it's very premature to assign a cause or to make dogmatic statements about the etiology. We're still learning as we go, and we will maintain that spirit of collaboration.

To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (656)	3/29/2003 5:37:27 PM
From: scaram(o)uche	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 891

wo!........... cdc.gov I'd like to first begin, though, with just a reflection on some sad news that CDC received this morning. Dr. Urbani, who is the WHO physician investigating the outbreak in Hanoi, died of SARS that he acquired during his investigation. He was a very close colleague of ours and someone that we had worked closely with in both Hanoi and Thailand through the past several years, and we are very sad and our condolences certainly go to his family and his colleagues as well as our colleagues in the area who've been working with him over the past few weeks on this investigation. The global epidemic continues to expand. Today, WHO is reporting 1,491 cases and 54 deaths, plus the 62 cases that we are reporting here in the United States. As you know, the U.S. cases are constantly undergoing revision and updating as additional information about the patients is determined, so that number may change over time. We continue to regard the new coronavirus as the leading hypothesis for the etiology of this condition. The evidence is mounting from a number of international laboratories, that this is indeed the case; but we are also exploring other potential viruses as are our collaborators, and we will keep you posted as we go forward on that part of the scientific investigation. A number of things are in progress, including sequencing of the whole virus genome, and we'll have more information on that, potentially next week or the week thereafter.

To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (656)	3/30/2003 11:54:51 AM
From: scaram(o)uche	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 891

more off topic, sort of....... cdc.gov Coronavirus What are coronaviruses? Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that have a halo or crown-like (corona) appearance when viewed under a microscope. These viruses are a common cause of mild to moderate upper-respiratory illness in humans and are associated with respiratory, gastrointestinal, liver and neurologic disease in animals. What evidence is there to suggest that coronaviruses may be linked with SARS? CDC scientists were able to isolate a virus from the tissues of two patients who had SARS and then used several laboratory methods to characterize the agent. Examination by electron microscopy revealed that the virus had the distinctive shape and appearance of coronaviruses. Tests of serum specimens from patients with SARS showed that the patients appeared to have recently been infected with this coronavirus. Other tests demonstrated that coronavirus was present in a variety of clinical specimens from patients, including nose and throat swabs. In addition, genetic analysis suggests that this new virus belongs to the family of coronaviruses, but differs from previously identified coronaviruses. These laboratory results do not provide conclusive evidence that the new coronavirus is the cause of SARS. Additional specimens are being tested to learn more about this coronavirus and its link with SARS. If coronaviruses usually cause mild illness in humans, how could this new coronavirus be responsible for a potentially life-threatening disease such as SARS? There is not enough information about the new virus to determine the full range of illness that it might cause. Coronaviruses have occasionally been linked to pneumonia in humans, especially people with weakened immune systems. The viruses can also cause severe disease in animals, including cats, dogs, pigs, mice, and birds. Have other laboratories found evidence of coronavirus in SARS patients? CDC has been working with the World Health Organization (WHO), international partners at laboratory centers, and ministries of health in this investigation. Some of the laboratories participating in this WHO network have also reported positive results for the presence of coronavirus in specimens from SARS patients. Additional testing is under way at the WHO network laboratories. What about reports from other laboratories suggesting that the cause of SARS may be a paramyxovirus? Researchers from several laboratories participating in the World Health Organization (WHO) network have reported the identification of a paramyxovirus in clinical specimens from SARS patients. Laboratories in the WHO network are still investigating the possibility that a paramyxovirus is a cause of SARS. CDC has found no evidence to date of paramyxovirus in clinical specimens, but additional testing is under way.