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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (90691)	12/2/2006 1:44:46 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 363092

Cooling towers are a hotspot for evolving disease 25 August 2006 From New Scientist Cooling towers could be evolutionary hotspots for new respiratory diseases. Many species of bacteria, including those that cause legionnaires' disease, are thought to have evolved in association with an amoebic host. Now it seems that the warm, wet conditions found in cooling towers at factories and oil refineries make them a perfect spot for amoebas and bacteria to thrive, increasing the chances of new strains of pathogenic bacteria emerging. Sharon Berk of Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville and her colleagues have found that amoebas in cooling towers are about 16 times as likely to host bacteria as those in ponds and lakes. "It's a problem that we have suspected, but now this confirms it," says Jeffrey Cirillo, a microbiologist at Texas A&M University in College Station. Genetic tests identified several previously unknown strains of bacteria, including some that were similar to Legionella pneumophila, the cause of legionnaires' disease. Berk suggests that they might have been missed in the past because many of the bacteria could not be cultured outside of amoebas. The cause of up to 50 per cent of pneumonia cases is unknown, and Berk says cooling towers might be one source of these pathogens, creating aerosols that help them to spread more widely. Cirillo says cooling towers should now be monitored for emerging pathogens. From issue 2566 of New Scientist magazine, 25 August 2006, page 19 newscientist.com

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (90691)	12/2/2006 2:18:56 PM
From: Patricia Trinchero	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 363092

IN theory, that scenario is certainly possible. However, I think the devil is in the details of delivery. It's kinda like the claim that every man has enough sperm in 3cc of semen to impregnate 250,00 women. Yes it's true, but can he actually deliver ????????? LOL It's possible that some strands of RNA or DNA could still be viable if kept under frozen conditions for that long. All enzymatic activity stops at -80 so I would bet they would have to be kept that cold for the stands to "survive". Virus's are obligate intracellular parasites that require a living cell to function.................they are like particles of dust and aren't, " alive". Bird droppings would be flash frozen as they hit the glaciers.The visual would be "splat"! I have worked with New Castle's Disease virus which is Avian and it is cold sensitive when out of cells. Plus I helped developed a mouse and rat vaccine years ago which was for rodent influenza!!!