CDC confirms first case of MERS infection in US

AP ^ | 5/2/14 | MIKE STOBBE

[Kartographer]

Health officials say a deadly virus from the Middle East has turned up for the first time in the U.S.

No details about the case have been released. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention planned a Friday afternoon briefing about the case.

The CDC says it is investigating along with health officials in Indiana.

[Hugin]

Meh. About 30,000 people die in the USA every year from ordinary flu. This virus is much less contagious than the flu. It takes close personal contact to be infected. Biggest ado over not much since the West Nile Virus scare, which has been in my area for years now. WNV mostly kills horses, and a handful of people each year. Bad if you get it, but spare me the hype.

[Kartographer]

Some people are just invincible.

[exDemMom]

So what’s the difference between MERS and bronchitis/pneumonia? The symptoms appear to be the same.

The symptoms of many diseases are the same, even though they have different causes.

[exDemMom]

Yes I do know know that probiotics are bacteria, and bacteria are quite different from viruses. However, probiotic are proven to bolster the immune system and that never hurts when something, viral or bacterial, is going around. Probiotics are not a fad. They are quite medically beneficial.

In many cases, death is caused by the immune system being *too* strong. Furthermore, since bacteria and viruses are handled by different components of the immune system, sometimes, infection with a virus leaves you more open to bacterial infection, and vice versa.

Probiotics are fine. But they won't protect you from a viral infection.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

PING!

[PistolPaknMama]

It’s a Coronavirus. Noooooooo! I drank some last night.

I had some just hours before I read this. Actually it was a Coronitavirus. Not sure if that's in the same family.

[PistolPaknMama]

Don’t these people have anything better to do with their free time?

Well, if they don't have iPads and it's too cold to plant a garden. I don't know.

[JouleZ]

Me, three!

[Mears]

Welcome! :-)

.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Smokin' Joe]

You’re Welcome, Alamo-Girl!

[Veggie Todd]

Wasn’t Vito Corleone quarantined for 3 months because of small pox. What happened to examining immigrants....oh never mind.....

[MarMema]

You are absolutely correct. New research on gut flora is showing it be a much bigger player in immune support than ever imagined.

Iris’ study is the first to demonstrate that commensal bacteria provide a signal to the body that prepares other organs, in this case the lungs, to mount an immune response against viruses.

[exDemMom]

They used a mouse model of respiratory influenza, giving mice a combination of antibiotics in their drinking water to deplete the bacterial composition in the gut and then infecting the mice with the flu virus. The animals exhibited a significantly impaired immune response compared to the control group. The bacteria-deficient mice had reduced levels of T-cells and influenza-specific antibodies, which play a key role in fighting infection. As a result, the animals had high amounts of virus in the lungs. Together with Ichinohe, they uncovered an unexpected role of the commensal bacteria's contribution to host sensing of viral-inflicted damage and adaptive immunity to flu.

It is a bit difficult to determine exactly what the experiment was, since this article was written in simplified language for a wide audience. However, one of my guesses as to what is going on here is that the gut flora typically induces a certain amount of inflammation, keeping the immune system running at low speed. When they killed off the gut flora in the experimental mice, they removed the source of inflammation and the immune system activity dropped as a result. So when the mice were challenged with the influenza virus, they had to start building up an immune response from scratch, instead of from its normal state of activity.

[exDemMom]

Meh. About 30,000 people die in the USA every year from ordinary flu. This virus is much less contagious than the flu. It takes close personal contact to be infected. Biggest ado over not much since the West Nile Virus scare, which has been in my area for years now. WNV mostly kills horses, and a handful of people each year. Bad if you get it, but spare me the hype.

The concern is that since the virus is always evolving, it may become contagious. People with highly lethal but minimally contagious viruses are kept in isolation to reduce the possibility of this happening. However, if this virus should become highly contagious, it will probably also become less deadly.

WNV is not contagious, but it is carried by mosquitoes. So the concerns about WNV are different. It also mostly kills elderly people, whose immune systems are weakened because of their age.

[MarMema]

well apparently it was quite a bit more.

It turned out that neomycin-sensitive bacteria naturally present in the mice's bodies provided a trigger that led to the production of T cells and antibodies that could fight an influenza infection in the lungs.

[exDemMom]

Indeed.

That “trigger” would be induced by the low level of inflammation always present in the gut, caused by the bacteria living there. The immune system is always fighting those bacteria, because if they escape the gut, they are deadly. The immune system fights by releasing cytokines and chemokines and by producing various T cells.

Any antibodies induced by the bacteria would not be effective against influenza, because antibodies are highly specific to a pathogen. However, the low level of inflammation always present because of the gut flora could induce the production of naive B cells, which are ready to respond to infection.

[Coleus]

good choices.

[Ellendra]

I’ve always put the cut off ends of flea and tick collars in my vacuum bag and between the box springs and the mattress.

I never thought of that!

Black walnut hulls repel most biting insects, including fleas. Just remember to put them in something you don't mind getting stained.

As for rodents, my kitty earns her keep there :)

[MarMema]

the low level of inflammation always present in the gut, caused by the bacteria living there.

What makes you think this?