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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gary Ng who wrote (92586)	4/12/2003 12:53:38 AM
From: FaultLine	Respond to of 281500

Genome Sciences Centre in partnership to sequence the SARS virus genome bccancer.bc.ca BC Cancer Agency 2003 News - 2003/04/07: As the spread of SARS continues to cause world-wide concern, scientists at the BC Cancer Agency's Genome Sciences Centre (GSC) are working to find to ways to halt the virus. Tomorrow, the GSC is scheduled to begin sequencing the SARS genome, in collaboration with the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) and the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg. Determining the sequence of the virus will provide information immediately useful in the detection of the virus, as well as suggestions as to why the virus causes such serious illness. The information generated could also support the design of a vaccine to prevent the disease. "It is our hope that sequencing the genome of the virus responsible for SARS will reveal its identity, and provide the information necessary to enable rapid diagnostic tests," explains Dr. Marco Marra, Director of the GSC. "Perhaps as importantly, the experience we gain by sequencing the SARS genome will enable us to react even more rapidly in the likely event there is another viral or bacterial outbreak in the future." The first phase of the GSC's efforts, now underway, focuses on recovering segments of the viral genome, expected to be complete by tomorrow or Wednesday. The second phase is the sequencing of the viral segments, and is expected to take about a week to complete.That information will then be shared with the BCCDC and the National Microbiology Lab, who can immediately start developing a diagnostic test for the virus. In the long term, having the sequencing information may help develop a vaccine. Although the GSC is working with segments of the SARS virus, the research will not expose patients or staff to the risk of contamination. At no point will there be infectious agents at the BC Cancer Agency. In fact, no GSC staff will come in contact with the infectious virus. For the virus to be contagious, it must be intact, explains Dr. Caroline Astell, Project Leader at the GSC and an expert in viral biology. The GSC will work only with segments of the virus's RNA genome, and these small fragments are not infectious.

To: Gary Ng who wrote (92586)	4/12/2003 1:15:39 AM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I saw this rumor, complete nonsense. he did a presentation in Russia yesterday on this. this so-called Russian medical expert really gives those Guangdong farmers too much credit. the first 30 or so deaths all occurred in one county and they were all farmers raising chickens or other birds. I can only hope people in Hongkong knows better than that, and won't believe those kind of crap. And the key word this Russian used is "hybrid", and claimed that this type of virus could be only made in lab. However, I have absolutely no idea that where he got this type of "hybrid" virus. they are definitely NOT from SARS patients from China, and from what I read, only coronavirus has been found in all other western researches. Chinese scientists at the beginning only isolated out a typical chlamydia-like agent, and then later through cloning genes and also isolated out 3 coronavirus, which is extremely hard to isolate. And these two are COMPLETELY SEPARATE TWO different types of virus. And doctors in Canada and other western countries, maybe also in HK, only isolated out coronavirus, not typical chlamydia-like agent. So the fact is there is NO hybrid virus at all. And from what I read, I think one way to explain why the research outside China has not found any chlamydia-like agent is because China was looking at original carriers, while Canadian doctors were looking at 2nd/3rd generation carriers. And this may also explain why the original carriers had higher death rate because the co-existence of two types of virus. Of course, all this just my own hypothesis. and what do I know! Chinese government has never engaged in developing agents for biological war, not before, not now, not ever.