West Nile Virus
Albany, NY — State agriculture officials (click here) are advising horse owners in New York to vaccinate their horses against West Nile virus.
The Department of Agriculture and Markets says there have been four confirmed equine cases of the mosquito-borne infection in the state this year, in Steuben, Suffolk, Cattaraugus and Livingston counties.
Infected mosquitoes can pass West Nile virus to humans, horses and other animals. Symptoms can resemble the flu, with horses appearing mildly anorexic and depressed. Other symptoms are muscle and skin twitching, fever, hypersensitivity to touch and sound, drowsiness and unsteady gait.
Twelve cases of West Nile virus have been reported in humans this year. Most people have no signs of illness but some develop flu-like symptoms. Fewer than 1 in 150 experience serious symptoms.
There is no vaccine for humans.
September 14, 2018
A horse in York County (click here) has tested positive for the West Nile virus, according to the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.
The horse showed signs of the virus last week before testing positive....
September 14, 2018
By Tony Leys
Late-summer mosquitoes (click here) are sparking Iowa’s worst West Nile virus outbreak in 15 years, state experts said Friday.
The virus is believed to have seriously sickened 73 Iowans so far this year, killing three, the Iowa Department of Public Health said. Iowa saw just 12 confirmed cases in all of last year. Mosquito season is likely to continue for at least a few more weeks. "We expect these numbers to rise," said Ann Garvey, the department's deputy epidemiologist.
The virus, which can cause dangerous fevers and brain swelling, arrived in Iowa in 2001 and peaked here in 2003, when it caused 147 confirmed illnesses and killed six Iowans. This year’s total is the highest since then. Garvey said all three deaths were among residents older than 81. Two were in northwest Iowa and one was in central Iowa, she said. Their identities were not released.
Although mosquitoes tend to be more numerous earlier in the summer, the types most likely to carry West Nile tend to come out in late summer and early fall. Culex species of mosquitoes like to feed on birds, including blue jays and crows, which often carry the virus, then bite humans, infecting them....
Zika Virus is a highly specialized virus. It's attack first destroys any possibility to kill the virus with its' host cell. Then it attacks the very
September 10, 2018
By Heather Buschman, PhD
Macrophages are immune cells (click here) that are supposed to protect the body from infection by viruses and bacteria. Yet Zika virus preferentially infects these cells. Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have now unraveled how the virus shuts down the genes that make macrophages function as immune cells.
The study is published the week of September 10 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...
...“We know Zika virus destroys a number of cell types, particularly in the brain, but we don’t yet understand how it causes cells to die or malfunction,” said first author Aaron Carlin, MD, PhD, associate physician at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “So this loss of general gene transcription and identity we saw in macrophages could also be crucial when a neural stem cell is trying to develop into a new neuron.”...
...The difference they found with the new technique was startling.
“We were surprised at just how different infected and uninfected cells looked, in terms of the genes they had turned on or off, even two cells next to each other,” Glass said. “What’s amazing is that even though they are exposed to the same environment, their responses are completely different. And now we know those differences are truly due to the virus, not any of the other events going on around the cells during an immune response.”
This approach provided a more accurate account of Zika’s effect on macrophages and revealed that the virus suppressed gene production in the cells by two methods. First, the virus specifically blocks hundreds of macrophage genes that should be stimulated by interferon, a molecule that triggers an immune response. For example, the IFITM1 gene, which inhibits Zika virus, is expressed 73-fold less in Zika-infected cells than in neighboring uninfected cells. Second, Zika infection leads to general suppression of gene production because the virus targets RNA Pol II, a crucial part of the cell’s gene transcription machinery. The loss of RNA Pol II is especially notable at genes responsible for macrophage function and identity.
Collectively, these approaches allow Zika virus to stop macrophages from making many genes involved in immune cell recruitment and anti-viral defense....
This research was funded, in part, by the National Institutes of Health (R01DK091183, P01DK074868, R01AI116813, R21NS100477, R21AI127988, 1KL2TR001444), Kyowa Kirin Pharmaceutical Research and Burroughs Wellcome Fund.
Was this virus genetically produced? The argument can be made if there is this depth of knowledge regarding the human genome. I remind that the Novichok was used in Great Britain. I suppose one can argue Russia's biological and chemical weapons are not that advanced, but, they are causing deaths in the United Kingdom.
From the beginning I have wondered what type of mutation of a mosquitoes ability to harbor and carry such specific attacks is possible. In the bigger picture this virus only effects the fetus of human women. That is the strangest form of mutation I can ever imagine.
Why would a virus target the brains of infants in utero? It doesn't make sense. There is nothing the organism (mosquito) needs from a fetus. When I think of a mutation of any kind it is in regard to survival.
This past year a yellow cardinal was discovered as a variant of the red species. The cause is unknown as to why the bird is yellow instead of red. I am sure that is in the works, but, the point is the embryos to the species adapted a different color. The most likely culprit is the food source the mother was eating and then the juveniles were eating the same diet and the color changed. We see that in Flamingos, yes? So, we know the fetus can change/mutate when the mother doesn't. The reason for the survival in this instance was most likely a biochemical reaction from a new diet by the female because the environment didn't produce enough of the preferred diet of the affected cardinal. It is an adaptation that was imposed by the female on the embryo before it is in the eggshell before hatching. It could be both male and female if the males are experiencing the same degree of food stress and it effected their genes. In one case the female has a different biochemical balance before laying her eggs. In the other it is a change of the genetic structure which is far more profound than the female's biochemical diet. In this case, the cardinals probably DID NOT experience a genetic shift, BUT, their offspring might have a permanent variant to their genes. Follow that? The most likely scenario is that a food source to the female caused a biochemical shift in the color of the offspring, so that the offspring now have a variant of colored feathers that is genetically passed on to their offspring, which means there is a new species of cardinal with yellow feathers. OR. The biochemical shift is only temporary for the offspring IF they return to the preferred diet of the parents. HUGE DIFFERNCE one is temporary and one maybe permanent, especially if the food source is permanent. Again, the Flamingos.
But, to return to Zika, this is a permanent shift for the infant that did not occur because of something the mother did, but, from a virus implanted into the blood supply to the fetus. The mother remains healthy throughout her pregnancy with no residual effects to her, but, the infant never had a chance. The infant was the target of the virus. It is a massively important question as to what the heck caused Zika. Was it engineered to end the lives of the human race if it was allowed to spread unabated? How were the mosquitoes exposed to the virus that came to reside in their secretions?
Here there is a virus that has mutated to attack a fetus. What benefit does the mosquito have to that outcome? If, going forward there were only infants born that could not survive on their own it would end the opportunity for the virus to survive. It would kill the host forever.
Zika is a very different type of virus and I challenge the idea it developed/mutated in the natural world.
One could possibly say the same thing about HIV. However, HIV is an attack on the exposed adult. There is nothing genetic about it. except, it uses RNA of it's own and the DNA of the host to reproduce. No one can really call HIV a genetically engineered virus because we know for a fact, that viruses that cross species lines have the capacity of being fatal. HIV crossed species lines and became a fatal virus. The original virus that was found in other primates still exists, regardless, of the outcome of humans. HIV crossing species lines was more a survival method than a mutation method.
Zika is not about survival. If all humans were microcephalic in one generation, Zika dies. It is a very strange virus and I am probably dead wrong and the virus is just a new type of virus that developed in the natural world.
But, remember, Zika is only successful in warm climates. Russia doesn't have that issue unless it's citizens travel.
But, remember, Zika is only successful in warm climates. Russia doesn't have that issue unless it's citizens travel.
JUST SAYIN'.
