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Biotech / Medical : NNVC - NanoViricides, Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: donpat who wrote (1184)	3/26/2006 9:48:25 PM
From: Solid	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12865

Generally good reply about most viruses. They are a portion of RNA [half of the DNA molecule] and have the ability to inject themselves into cells and in effect force the cell to then replicate more viruses in place of normal cellular activity. They tend to exist in hosts or for relatively short time frames outside of hosts and some are more persistent then others. That is why colds can be spread with contact on mucus membranes often through touch but even with someone sneezing on you and tiny particulate matter from the ejecta lodging on your eye or sinus membrane, etc. HIV is tougher to spread and needs to be in body fluid and then transferred to another’s body fluid. Can't get it from the proverbial door knob. Usually blood to blood. That is why once a virus like smallpox is eradicated it may actually be gone from the world stage unless intentionally preserved in cold storage as you stated which is exactly what was done, and how Saddam came by via our intermediaries in '84. A more interesting and quite dangerous and persistent pathogen is the spongiform for mad cow disease, a prion. One of the most simple and tenacious life forms on our planet. That puppy can exist in the most harsh environments for up to 10,000 years and be unaffected by its lodging awaiting opportunity to enter an available life form and weave its spell. That is why cooking, even well done and drinking strong alcohol with meals or even soaking the meat in it before hand basically has no effect on the prion, nor does sun or wind or rain. One resilient MF'er. Be grateful they are not on the memorabilia from 1918/19's viral outbreak. Good job of listing some interesting articles and the need for companies to research cures and controls. Virus may represent the single most dangerous threat and challenge to life on Earth, though as with all life forms ultimately it too is a part of our evolutionary balancing act. Pox virus is one of the most common around and basically has served to be a governor on over population for birds and animals and perhaps insects as well, not sure there. Smallpox is simply a specific virus that affects humans and generally needs a large high density population to take hold, hence the reason for massive outbreaks in urban regions. Spreads easily and takes off quickly with high density populations... Hence over population facilitates natural virus mutations to take hold when they mutate in a way that is beneficial to the virus gaining access to a new population of hosts. These occur all the time as adaptation to their environment. A large dense population of any creature susceptible to a virus potentially allows the virus to take hold more readily then very sparse populations that literally don’t lend a bridge to other hosts and hence can/do die out when other susceptible hosts are not around. I hope that helps the poster with the old stuff. Not a problem at all. An aside. Those surgical masks that some old photos showed from the 1918/19 outbreak did absolutely nothing. They were like putting a huge fish net over your face, way to porous to stop the tiny virus. But is may have stimulated the immune system with the positive belief that you were doing something very helpful, the placebo effect.