#viruses

LIVE
darqueloaf:bogleech: studying-with-adult-adhd: antarestyl:siphersaysstuff:eabevella: toopunktofuck:rdarqueloaf:bogleech: studying-with-adult-adhd: antarestyl:siphersaysstuff:eabevella: toopunktofuck:rdarqueloaf:bogleech: studying-with-adult-adhd: antarestyl:siphersaysstuff:eabevella: toopunktofuck:rdarqueloaf:bogleech: studying-with-adult-adhd: antarestyl:siphersaysstuff:eabevella: toopunktofuck:r

darqueloaf:

bogleech:

studying-with-adult-adhd:

antarestyl:

siphersaysstuff:

eabevella:

toopunktofuck:

rubyredrose1207:

kari-izumi:

viostormcaller:

blueinkblot:

gahdamnpunk:

VACCINATE YA KIDS FFS

The other thing about measles is that it resets your body’s memory of other diseases. So all those times you’ve gotten sick? Your body’s memory cells no longer remember those illnesses, so even if you get the same type of illness again your body will react like it’s the first time you’ve been sick.

It’s so much worse than “just a disease”. 

Measles does WHAT

Holy fuck

What the fuck what the fuck what the fUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK

antivaxxers also, in part, helped sabotaged the human lyme disease vaccine for lyme disease caused by borrelia burgdorferi infection (until 2016 the only known species of lyme disease causing bacteria in the USA). In 1998, the first lyme disease vaccine for the strain of the bacteria prevalent in the USA licensed. It passed clinical trials and was shown to be safe and effective; it was between 76 and 92% effective at preventing lyme disease with 3 injections. Antivaxxers proceeded to abuse the adverse affect reporting system, often complaining of arthritis, and this caused media and general hysteria about the vaccine. if you remember the flu vaccine hysteria around the swine flu epidemic, it was kind of like that. despite double-blind trials conducted both before and after licensing, that was unable to support their claims and instead displaying that the vaccine was safe and effective, the damage was done, and the vaccine was shelved in the USA. you can get a lyme disease vaccine in Europe, but Europe has a different strain of the bacteria that causes lyme disease.

Lyme disease can become very serious, it can infect the nervous system and cause neurological problems especially in young children who are often bitten on the head or the neck, undiagnosed it can cause chronic health issues that mimic other diseases. Without safe prophylactic measures beyond trying to minimize contact w ticks, this has driven people who have had lyme disease, have chronic effects from mass-disseminated lyme disease infection, or people who believe they have chronic lyme disease to go to quack doctors and undergo unsafe, unapproved medical treatment in an attempt to stop suffering.

This would not be happening on the scale that it is if antivaxxers didn’t straight up execute a supervillain plot to sabotage the lyme disease vaccine. the vaccine was licensed in december 1998, which was the year andrew wakefield published his fraudulent research on the MMR vaccine

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/5/7/17314716/lyme-disease-vaccine-history-effectiveness

https://www.niaid.nih.gov/diseases-conditions/lyme-disease-vaccines

these people are fucking dangerous beyond compare

edited for clarity

antivaxer are terrorists and should be dealt like one

H.Bomberguy’s video on the anti-vaccine movement is absolutely worth watching in its entirety. Because it lays out just how fucking twisted and wrong the entire thing is, and how this entire movement that is KILLING CHILDREN is based on a lie for money.

wait wait wait wait WAIT!

YOU GUYS HAD A VACCINE AGAINST FUCKING LYME????

AND THOSE ASSHATS HELPED TO SHELF THAT STUFF?????????

Do you people even KNOW just how much trouble lyme disease makes every fucking year? Holy shit think of the possibilities!!!

So when I say I hate anti-vaxxers, yeah. This is why.

Yeah its not a viable belief system, it doesn’t have any nugget of truth or good intentions in it, the lie and the packaged alternatives that come with it are quicker easier money than you could ever make climbing the ranks of “big pharma,” these lies kill people, they become politicized and contaminate government legislation, and believers are not just quaint fringe eccentrics who only harm themselves. They’re abusing their kids, hampering medical progress, robbing other people of medical choice in situations like the Lyme vaccine, and actively making the world around them worse and deadlier. No mercy or tolerance for anti vaccine propaganda. Make it legally terrorism.

Gonna say it on every reblog of this post I see - This began because of ableism against autistic people. Jenny McCarthy insisted that her child’s autism was caused by vaccines, and enough people hated the thought of ever having an autistic child that they wouldn’t use vaccines. They did not care that their child would die of the illnesses prevented by vaccines, they would rather have a dead child than an autistic one.

Measles is also THE most communicable disease. It has an R value of 16-18 which means that every person with measles will infect 16-18 people.

As a comparison, the most communicable Covid variant, omicron has an R value of about 3-4. And yet colonized the entire world in a few months.

Just think what a measles outbreak in an unvaccinated community could do. A measles infection in a child does to their immune system what 7 years of HIV does.

Vaccinate your kids!!


Post link
Remember when the pandemic started and some people were really into baking bread?Lots of people embrRemember when the pandemic started and some people were really into baking bread?Lots of people embrRemember when the pandemic started and some people were really into baking bread?Lots of people embrRemember when the pandemic started and some people were really into baking bread?Lots of people embrRemember when the pandemic started and some people were really into baking bread?Lots of people embrRemember when the pandemic started and some people were really into baking bread?Lots of people embrRemember when the pandemic started and some people were really into baking bread?Lots of people embrRemember when the pandemic started and some people were really into baking bread?Lots of people embrRemember when the pandemic started and some people were really into baking bread?Lots of people embr

Remember when the pandemic started and some people were really into baking bread?

Lots of people embraced the comfort of sourdough to get them through the frightening first months of the pandemic. Ironically, the reason we can eat bread at all is because thousands of years ago a virus helped us develop a new enzyme that made it easier to digest carbohydrates.

Viruses have developed hand-in-hand with humankind, sometimes — as we’ve seen with COVID-19 — to deadly effect. Humans have fought back, developing in the process the concept of vaccines, with the first effective, modern vaccine coming on the scene more than 200 years ago.

Today’s COVID-19 vaccines work in much the same way as those early inoculations but are safer and more effective. It’s true that they were developed with historic speed — but only because they were built on decades of basic research that allowed us to deliver them in record time.


Post link
monsternium: BIG UPDATE! I’ve finally finished my biological patches set! After many months of desigmonsternium: BIG UPDATE! I’ve finally finished my biological patches set! After many months of desigmonsternium: BIG UPDATE! I’ve finally finished my biological patches set! After many months of desigmonsternium: BIG UPDATE! I’ve finally finished my biological patches set! After many months of desigmonsternium: BIG UPDATE! I’ve finally finished my biological patches set! After many months of desigmonsternium: BIG UPDATE! I’ve finally finished my biological patches set! After many months of desigmonsternium: BIG UPDATE! I’ve finally finished my biological patches set! After many months of desig

monsternium:

BIG UPDATE!

I’ve finally finished my biological patches set! After many months of designing, editing, and trial and error, I’m proud to post up photos of the final products!

They are woven with bright, beautiful colors that will endure many washes and adventures to come. They’re only $8 in my store:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/Monsternium



Here are the first five patches in my biological patch set. Once all ten are made, the rainbow of studies will be complete! Each one is illustrated, digitized, and embroidered by me. Stay tuned for more! Next up is herpetology ;)

Reblogging this post for the update!


Post link

alexseanchai:

afigmentofyour-imagination:

inklingofadream:

grrlcookery:

bisexualbaker:

labelleizzy:

nachttour:

idontevenhaveone:

naamahdarling:

blackbearmagic:

euryale-dreams:

brancadoodles:

wind-on-the-panes:

pizzaback:

sorry if i’m being a party pooper but because rabies is apparently the new joke on here ??? please remember that rabies has an almost 100% fatality rate after symptoms develop so if you’re bitten or scratched by an animal that you aren’t 100% sure is vaccinated then GO TO A DOCTOR. it’s not a joke. really. 

You’re being kind when you say “almost 100% fatality”. What people need to hear is: if you get to develop rabies symptoms, you’re dead. If you get heavytreatment after developping symptoms, you still need a miracle. Like, a real miracle, you should enter some religion if you escape that.

ALSO, I don’t want people feeling confident about petting stray/wild animals because there’s a vaccine available, either. I’ll explain why from my own experience (I’m not a doctor).

I got bitten by a wild tamarin once, on the pulp of my index finger. It drew blood, there are many wild animals in the area (tamarins, possums, bats, foxes) and it isn’t that uncommon to hear about 1 or 2 rabies cases every now and again (a puppy we gave to a friend got it, for instance), so I went to an ambulatory immediately.

Because I was bitten in an ultrasensitive area, I needed fast treatment. But it was also a small area, so the usual thing they do - inject the vaccine in the place - wasn’t a choice. They told me they’d divide the shot in 5 small ones, and inject me all over my body, so the antidote would get to my entire system fast.

Please stop for a moment and think that the disease is so worrysomethat they’d rather needle me all over than to give me one shot and wait until it spread through my system.

Then they said that, okay, but there was a catch first. I needed to take an antiallergic shot. “Why?” “Because the virus is devastating, and as the vaccine is made from it, but weakened (like almost every vaccine) it will still create a reaction, and it’s a strong one, and it’s veru common for people to have strong allergic reactions to it.” YOU HAVE TO TAKE AN ANTIALLERGIC SHOT IN ORDER TO TAKE THE VACCINE COZ THE VACCINE COULD POTENTIALLY MAKE YOU REALLY SICK

ALSO IT WASN’T JUST “A LITTLE ANTIALLERGIC SHOT”

image

IT WAS ONE OF THESE FUCKERS HERE.

It was OBVIOUSLY dripped in my body and not injected because HAHAHAHA. Truth be told I was an adult already and I’m tall so I have a lot of mass but STILL.

So after I had taken the antiallegic and was starting to feel drowsy (as a side effect of it) the doctor came with the 5 shots.

- One in each buttock

- One in each thigh

- One in my left arm

They all stung like a bitch and I usually don’t care about shots.

“Okay so can I go home now?”

“No, we have to keep you under observation for 2h so we’re SURE the vaccine won’t give you any reaction.”

BINCH I WAS GIVEN A BUTTLOAD OF MEDICINE BUT THERE WAS STILL A RISK.

I slept through the two hours and then was liberated to go home. My legs, butt, and left arm hurt all over, like I had been punched there, for a few days. I also had a fever (not feverish, a fever)

BUT DID YOU THINK IT WAS OVER?

WRONG!!!

I had to take fourreinforcement shots in the next month, one a week, so I could be positively be considered immunized.Every time I took a shot, my arm would swell and hurt like it’d been hit, and when night came I’d have a fever. Because that’s how fucking strong the vaccine is, BECAUSE THAT’S HOW VICIOUS THE VIRUS IS.

So yeah. DO NOT PUT YOURSELF IN RISK, GODDAMNIT. Rabies is a rare condition all over, THANK GOD, and 1 confirmed case can be already considered a surge and a reason for mass campaigning, AND FOR A REASON.

If you like messing with stray/wild animals, don’t go picking them up and be extra careful. Or just, like, DON’T- call a vet or an authority that can handle them safely.

I must add that I live in a country with universal healthcare, so I didn’t pay a single penny for my treatment. Is this your reality? If not, ONE MORE REASON TO NOT FUCKING PLAY WITH THIS SHIT.

Rabies is 100% lethal. Period. If you are scratched or bitten by an animal you’re not positive is vaccinated, you need to find treatment NOW. And probably go through all that shit I’ve been through (also if you are immunosupressed? I DON’T KNOW WHAT’D HAPPEN)

Stay safe and don’t be stupid ffs

Guys, I know this isn’t art nor anything like that, but I’ve been hearing about this rabies thing and ???? Look I trust none of you would risk yourselves like this, but maybe you can educate someone through my experience and stuff.

Also rabies does not necessarily cause frothing-at-the-mouth aggression in animals. Docility is also a very common symptom so any wild animal that is ‘friendly’ or ‘likes to be pet’ is suspect. Literally any wild animal is a vector.

Finally, you don’t need to be bitten. All you need is to come into contact with an infected animal’s bodily fluids through a cut that maybe you didn’t notice when you were handling it when it drooled on you.

Never touch a wild animal.

Infection with the rabies virus progresses through three distinct stages.

Prodromal: Stage One. Marked by altered behavioral patterns. “Docility” and “likes to be pet” are very common in the prodromal stage. Usually lasts 1-3 days. An animal in this stage carries virus bodies in its saliva and is infectious.

Excitative: Stage Two. Also called “furious” rabies. This is what everyone thinks rabies is–hyperreacting to stimuli and biting everything. Excessive salivation occurs. Animals in this stage also exhibit hydrophobia or the fear of water; they cannot drink (swallowing causes painful spasms of the throat muscles), and will panic if shown water. Usually lasts 3-4 days before rapidly progressing into the next stage.

Paralytic: Stage Three. Also called “dumb” rabies. As the infection runs its course, the virus starts degrading the nervous system. Limbs begin to fail; animals in this stage will often limp or drag their haunches behind them. If the animal has survived all this way, death will usually come through respiratory arrest: Their diaphragm becomes paralyzed and they stop breathing.

And to add onto the above, saliva isn’t the only infectious fluid. Brain matter is, too. If, somehow, you find yourself in possession of a firearm and faced with a rabid animal, do not go for a head shot. If you do, you will aerosolize the brain matter and effectively create a cloud of infectious material. Breathe it in, and you’ll give yourself an infection.


When I worked in wildlife rehabilitation, I actually did see a rabid animal in person, and it remains one of the most terrifying experiences of my life, because I was literally looking death in the eyes.

A pair of well-intentioned women brought us a raccoon that they thought had been hit by a car. They had found it on the side of the road, dragging its hind legs. They managed–somehow–to get it into a cat carrier and brought it to us. 

As they brought it in, I remember how eerily silent it was. Normal raccoons chatter almost constantly. They fidget. They bump around. They purr and mumble and make little grabby-hands at everything. Even when they’re in pain, and especially when they’re stressed. But this one wasn’t moving around inside the carrier, and it wasn’t making a sound.

The clinic director also noticed this, and he asked in a calm but urgent voice for the women to hand the carrier to him. He took it to the exam room and set it on the table while they filled out some forms in the next room. I took a step towards the carrier, to look at our new patient, and without turning around, he told me, “Go to the other side of the room, and stay there.”

He took a small penlight out of the drawer and shone it briefly into the carrier, then sighed. “Bear, if you want to come look at this, you can put on a mask,” he said. “It’s really pretty neat, but I know you’re not vaccinated and I don’t want to take any chances.” 

And at that point, I knew exactly what we were dealing with, and I knew that this would be the closest I had ever been to certain death. So I grabbed a respirator from the table and put it on, and held my breath for good measure as I approached the table. The clinic director pointed where I should stand, well back from the carrier door. He shone the light inside again, and I saw two brilliant flashes of emerald green–the most vivid, unnatural eyeshine I had ever seen. 

“I don’t know why it does it,” the director murmured, “but it turns their eyes green.”

“What does?” one of the women asked, with uncanny, unintentionally dramatic timing, as she poked her head around the corner.

“Rabies,” the director said. “The raccoon is rabid. Did it bite either of you, or even lick you?” They told us no, said they had even used leather garden gloves when they herded it into the carrier. He told them to throw away the gloves as soon as possible, and steam-clean the upholstery in their car. They asked how they should clean the cat carrier; they wanted it back and couldn’t be convinced otherwise, so he told them to soak it in just barely diluted bleach.

But before we could give them the carrier back, we had to remove the raccoon. The rabid raccoon.

The clinic director readied a syringe with tranquilizers and attached it to the end of a short pole. I don’t remember how it was rigged exactly–whether he had a way to push down the plunger or if the needle would inject with pressure–but all he would have to do was stick the animal to inject it. And so, after sending me and the women back to the other side of the room, he made his fist jab.

He missed the raccoon.

The sound that that animal made on being brushed by the pole can only be described as a roar. It was throaty and ragged and ungodly loud. It was not a sound that a raccoon should ever make. I’m convinced it was a sound that a raccoon physically could not make

It thrashed inside the carrier, sending it tipping from side to side. Its claws clattered against the walls. It bellowed that throaty, rasping sound again. It was absolutely frenzied, and I was genuinely scared that it would break loose from inside those plastic walls. 

Somehow, the clinic director kept his calm, and as the raccoon jolted around inside the cat carrier, he moved in with the syringe again, and this time, he hit it. He emptied the syringe into its body and withdrew the pole.

And then we waited.

We waited for those awful screams, that horrible thrashing, to die down. As we did, the director loaded up another syringe with even more tranquilizer, and as the raccoon dropped off into unconsciousness, he stuck it a second time with the heavier dose. Even then, it growled at him and flailed a paw against the wall.

More waiting, this time to make sure the animal was truly down for the count.

Then, while wearing welder’s gloves, the director opened the door of the carrier and removed the raccoon. She was limp, bedraggled, and utterly emaciated, but she was still alive. We bagged up the cat carrier and gave it to the women again, advising them that now was a good time to leave. They heeded our warning.

I asked if I could come closer to see, and the clinic director pointed where I could stand. I pushed the mask up against my face and tried to breathe as little as possible.

He and his co-director–who I think he was grooming to be his successor, but the clinic actually went under later that year–examined the raccoon together. Donning a pair of nitrile gloves, he reached down and pulled up a handful, a literal fistful, of the raccoon’s skin and released it. It stayed pulled up.

Severe dehydration causes a phenomenon called “skin tenting”. The skin loses its elasticity somewhat, and will be slow to return to its “normal” shape when manipulated. The clinic director estimated that it had been at least four or five days since the raccoon had had anything to eat or drink. 

She was already on death’s doorstep, but her rabies infection had driven her exhausted body to scream and lunge and bite. 


Because, the scariest thing about rabies (if you ask me) is the way that it alters the behavior of those it infects to increase chances of spreading. 

The prodromal stage? Nocturnal animals become diurnal–allowing them to potentially infect most hosts than if they remained nocturnal. 

The excitative stage? The infected animal bites at the slightest provocation. Swallowing causes painful spasms, so they drool, coating their bodies in infectious matter. A drink could wash away the virus-charged saliva from their mouth and bodies, so the virus drives them to panic at the sight of water.

(The paralytic stage? By that point, the animal has probably spread its infection to new hosts, so the virus has no need for it any longer.)

Rabies is deadly. Rabies is dangerous. In all of recorded history, one person survived an infection after she became symptomatic, and so far we haven’t been able to replicate that success. The Milwaukee Protocol hasn’t saved anyone else. Just one person. And even then, she still had to struggle to gain back control of her body after all that nerve damage.

Please, please, take rabies seriously.

This has been a warning from your old pal Bear.

I knew how bad it was, but I had never read anything like the raccoon story.

I am not exaggerating when I say that is literally terrifying.

Y'all please read this. That is absolutely hideous. That’s literally like something from a horror movie.

Do not fuck around with wildlife. Or weird strays.

TFW Rabies education comes across your dash because some fuck up calls themselves Rabiosexual.

Rebloggin’ for that raccoon. o.o The original post I can pretty much guarantee is a troll, but it’s useful to know just why rabies is such serious shit. 

Education right here

Extra reminder: If you see any animal other than a dog who’s been attacked by a porcupine? It’s rabid.

Dogs are dumb, friendly fucks who will investigate anything; everything else in the animal kingdom knows better than to mess with a porcupine, unless their brain is being ravaged by something beyond their control.

If you see a non-dog animal that has porcupine quills sticking out of it? Don’t try to help it yourself. Call animal control.

@talesfromtreatment@is-the-cat-video-cute tagging you to spread the word? Apparently people have forgotten that rabies is a brain disease, terrifying, is fatal if not treated immediately, the treatment is horrid, and the treatment is very expensive

Also I heard that in the USA, human rabies pre-exposure vaccines are not widely available and cost something like $900

Get your pets rabies vaccine every year, folks. Aside from everything else - and that’s a lot of everything - the test for rabies involves the brain, so the animal will be killed first.

And that is a kind end. The videos of rabies seizures are nightmarish

This is also why you’re not supposed to sleep outside without cover (ie a CLOSED tent) if there are swooping bats in your area. Apparently it can be very hard to realize you’ve been bitten by a bat (vs a bug, I guess it’s very small). Some students from my university were on a trip where they came into contact with bats, taking lots of selfies holding them etc, in the area they were supposed to be sleeping and the professor lost it when they saw some of the pictures. The students were housed elsewhere and the university had everyone vaccinated at the school’s expense- the pre-exposure vax may be expensive, but the number of shots you get post-exposure can vary (as demonstrated above) and it was ASTRONOMICAL.

When I looking for places to move to when I can finally leave the states, I looking to laws and procedures to bring my cat with. Any place that had eradicated rabies, intense policies and quarantines for any animal entering the country, unless you were coming from a different place that had also eradicated it. Some of would put your animal down if they were symptomatic at all. I remember thinking “what can’t rabies just treated?” No it can’t be, putting your pet down is the humane option if there symptomatic.

[image: a sixty-milliliter syringe, with human hand for scale. the syringe barrel is likely around five inches long and likely has an inside diameter of an inch or more.]

whatamicrobiallife:

I have discovered there is a small subset of people who do not believe the virus has ever been isolated, therefore it does not exist. They will link you to random sites that claim no one has ever isolated purified COVID-19. They will also discredit electron microscope experiments that showed the COVID-19 virus in infected tissue, because to them that is not proof, because they did not isolate the virus from the infected tissue.

However, they’re wrong. COVID-19 has been isolated and here is a fabulous study published in November 2020 that did electron micrography of the purified COVID-19 isolate. If they want a photo of the purified virus, they can have a photo of the purified virus. Just to further emphasize that COVID-19 has been isolated and imaged, I will just copy and paste the photo.

Figure from Liu et al., 2020. Cryo-electron microscope images of a purified clinical isolate of the COVID-19 virus.

So how do you change their mind? Honestly, I don’t think they will change their mind. They will not trust any of the science you would use to justify electron microscope photos of COVID-19. They do not trust PCR, genome sequencing, or any genetic assay. So why bother responding to them? For me, it’s to prevent others from falling for their misinformation. This virus has done so much damage, denying its existence is plain ignorance at this point.

Interferon stimulated production of MxA protein and its antiviral response to Influenza A Virus | De

Interferon stimulated production of MxA protein and its antiviral response to Influenza A Virus | December 2015

A simplified immunological illustration signifying the production of MxA protein via interferon signalling and its method of attack against influenza.

Note: most literature today is unclear of the precise degradation pathways MxA takes with removing viral contents from a host cell.


Post link
yahoo-geddon: UPDATED 12/20/2019Update To Earlier Warning About Virus Alerts In Verizon’s GetMyDat

yahoo-geddon:

UPDATED 12/20/2019

Update To Earlier Warning About Virus Alerts In Verizon’s GetMyData YahooGroups! Data

After more testing, here is what we have learned.Verizon’s “GetMyData” (GMD) files will be flagged by antivirus software in two main areas:

  • Messages.zip
  • Files.zip

The flags are handled differently for Messages vs. Files, and depending on your virus software, the flags may result in some - or all - of your groups data being deleted - even the uninfected files.

What to do? 

Read the latest update out the Google Doc (link)

We offer streamlined suggestions and an offer to help.

************************************************ 

 December 19, 2019

Both the Yahoo Gedden and Archive Teams are doing more testing. There is malicious HTML code buried inside some of the mbox messages...how and when (or even if)  it could be activated is still a question. There is no question however, that the GMD Files.zip contain questionable items which most virus programs seem capable of detecting and deleting. 

The bigger problem is that while some virus programs don’t even see the ‘bad code’ inside the mbox files, others do and they are triggered to either delete the entire mbox (thousands of uninfected messages are deleted) or even worse, the entire GMD file (all the downloaded Groups).

 We plan to reach out to Wilson (PG Offline) to confirm our thinking that the downloaded PG Offline emails in of themselves are not a problem,. However, PG Offline was set to download attachments and of course people used it to download files and photos and links (HTML).  In any event users should scan their PG Offline folders first (which are usually stored in C:\Users\XXXX\AppData\Local\PG Offline 4 

Check back at the Google Doc for updates:  (link)

************************************************

December 18, 2019

Please check your Verizon YahooGroups! data downloads for virus, trojan and spyware. Verizon offers “Get My Data” downloads of Yahoo Group email messages, links and files. They maycontain security risks for desktop users (Windows and Mac Users)

Those who downloaded their Groups using third party tools like PGOffline and Python - you may also be impacted if you downloaded attachments, files, links or photos. PGOffline automatically includes attachments along with messages. And some of the messages themselves might have buried malicious HTML code so even if so you only downloaded messages, please scan your PGOffline database and download folders.

***Please follow these suggestions at your own risk. When in doubt, contact your virus software manufacturer.***** (link to more info)

Reblogging for the streamlined suggestions and an offer of help.


Post link
Evolution of Ebola Virus – Where are we now?Scientists continue to study the evolution of the EbolEvolution of Ebola Virus – Where are we now?Scientists continue to study the evolution of the EbolEvolution of Ebola Virus – Where are we now?Scientists continue to study the evolution of the Ebol

Evolution of Ebola Virus – Where are we now?

Scientists continue to study the evolution of the Ebola virus following the West African outbreak to determine how extraordinary numbers of humans became infected. 

Their results showed genetic changes occurring as the virus transmitted from human to human. 

To be sure, the theory was put to test. Researchers focused on the surface protein which the virus uses to bind a protein receptor on the surface of the target cell in order to gain entry. After identifying genetic changes accruing in the surface protein, synthetic clones were generated to see if mutant proteins behave differently to those seen in virus samples at the start of the outbreak.

The data was clear, a number of genetic changes that occurred during the outbreak increased infectivity. One change in particular, a substitution of an amino acid involved in receptor binding, was particularly striking: not simply because it dramatically increased infectivity, but also because it was present in viruses that dominated the West African outbreak.

Another twist from the study, mutations that increased infectivity in human cells seemed to reduce the ability of the protein to mediate entry into cells obtained from fruit bat cells - said to be the natural host for ebola virus.

Unprecedented number of human to human transmissions gave the virus an opportunity to adapt to humans; an opportunity the virus didn’t miss.

Read more

Images: 
Credit: NIAID; String-like Ebola virus particles are shedding from an infected cell in this electron micrograph. 
Credit: Nixxphotography; Ebola Virus Disease 
Credit: Credit Maurizio De Angelis, Wellcome Images; Ebola virus structure, illustration


Post link

UK artist Luke Jerram managed to impress us through his art of “Class Microbiology”. The artist created intricate glass sculptures of deadly viruses and bacteria such as HIV, swine flu, small pox, and E. coli. 

Jerram’s personal experience with swine flu fueled his motivation for the collection. Check out photos below or go to his website to see more of Jerram’s stunning glass work :)

image

Human Papillomavirus

image

T4 Bacteriophage

image

Swine Flu

image

E. coli

image

SARS

cr: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/12/glass-microbiology-luke-jerram-viruses_n_3586354.html

- irda w

biggest-gaudiest-patronuses:

why do so many viruses look like abstract crochet art projects

image
image
image
image

Why do so many abstract crochet projects look like viruses?


We yearn to either be or own the viruses

loading