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Pastimes : SARS - what next? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (582)	6/22/2003 9:16:32 AM
From: skinowski	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1070

Well done. Would you like a job as an epidemiologist? Well done indeed. Now, since you've asked... Viruses keep mutating continuously. What are the odds that a mutation similar to SARS never occurred in the past? There must have been many such mutations. Yet, the last time there had been an episode of massive loss of life due to a viral disease was in 1918 (interestingly, during a period of wars and upheavals). The time before that must have been the great Smallpox pandemic. Could it be that most of the time those nasty, given to frequent mutations chunks of RNA have a propensity of dying off - or, quickly mutating themselves into less harmful forms, thereby disappearing off our radars? I sure hope so.