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Biotech / Medical : SARS and Avian Flu -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Think4Yourself who wrote (2641)	10/13/2005 10:47:48 PM
From: SG	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4232

Well, Im still going to get my standard flu shot this year. Agreed? SG

To: Think4Yourself who wrote (2641)	10/14/2005 5:27:07 PM
From: Elroy Jetson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4232

What many people call a "cytokine storm" is the excessive immune response to a "super-antigen". Only some disease causing pathogens create this response. The "storm" is usually an over-production of interleukin-1 and TNF-a (tumor necrosis factor) and sometimes interleukin-2. Down-regulators of this response include interferon-alpha. Super-antigens are either toxins, like those produced by the botulism bacteria, or a fragment of a virus (if H5N1 does induce a super-antigenic response). If used early in the process, cortico-steroids (such as IV Solumedrol) are fairly effective in damping down the excess immune response. The general term of cytokine storm includes conditions with more specific terms such as sepsis and toxic-shock. Sepsis is now treated with man-made monoclonal antibodies to the antigen the immune system is responding to. People infected with flu virus which preferentially infect the lungs do not need to experience a "cytokine storm" in order to die, coughing up bright red foamy blood, from lung destruction and or embolism. .