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Politics : Dutch Central Bank Sale Announcement Imminent? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: long-gone who wrote (17838)	4/4/2003 7:22:08 PM
From: sea_urchin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81122

long-gone > Doesn't current problem with it have something to do with China;s unwillingness to work in an open manner with other public health officials? I can't answer that but it could very well be so. I do know, however, that there is a serious public health problem in China and it has something to do with the close proximity between people and animals, particularly pigs and ducks. This was the reason given for the new influenza viruses which develop every year in China and which then travel round the world. Apparently the virus from the human infects the animal and then mutates. After that the virus reinfects the human, but as a new strain. It's quite conceivable that the SARS virus has also mutated in this way from another well-known and less pathogenic virus. It is of interest that the HIV virus, which causes AIDS, is also said to have arisen from the mixing of human blood with that of baboons in Central Africa in certain ceremonial rites. At the present level of medical knowledge, viral diseases are very serious because there is no specific treatment for them. There are some experimental drugs but they are very expensive and not particularly effective. That is why this SARS epidemic is really a cause for concern. If we are not careful, although I'm not sure what careful means, it could lead to something like the influenza epidemic of 1918 in which millions of people died.