Category: Health and Medicine

Sciencebase news and views on health and medicine, including posts on Covid-19, bird flu, cancer, asthma, obesity, vaccines, and much more.

Flu is Not the Only Germ

Flu isn’t the only pathogenic threat at this time of year, according to a report on News Medical Net [link now defunct], metapneumovirus, rhinoviruses, coronaviruses, parainfluenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and others knock many of us for six each winter and are responsible for thousands of deaths. They don’t make the headlines because they’re not so easy to pronounce as “bird flu” nor is there anything particularly newsy about how you catch them (from doorknobs, faucets, and appliance handles, if you must know). They also lie dormant in your nose and lungs too waiting the right conditions to pounce. Despite their low profile, however, these are killer diseases that claim lives needlessly, while celebrity viruses such as H5N1 and SARS steal the headlines.

Zoo Watch

London Zoo is carrying out an animal inventory, according to the BBC. Counting the fish, ants, spiders, even the grass snakes might present quite a task, but the BBC news anchor mentioned specifically that they would be counting the elephants too.

So, that’s going to be: one, two, three, er, come out from behind that bush Jumbo, five, six.

Turkish H5N1

This joint statement from the UK’s Medical Research Council’s National Institute for Medical Research and the World Health Organisation just in:

The genetic and antigenic analyses of viruses recovered from two fatal cases of H5N1 influenza in Turkey have been completed at the WHO International Influenza Centre at the MRC’s National Institute for Medical Research in Mill Hill, London.

These viruses are very closely related to current avian H5N1 viruses in Turkey, and also to those isolated at Qinghai Lake in Western China last year.

The gene sequences of the viruses indicate that they are sensitive to the antivirals Tamiflu and amantadine.

Virus from one of the human cases contains mutations in the receptor binding protein, haemagglutinin. One of these has been observed before in viruses from Hong Kong in 2003 and Vietnam in 2005. Research has indicated that the Hong Kong 2003 viruses preferred to bind to human cell receptors more than to avian receptors and it is expected that the Turkish virus will also have this characteristic.

You can read more on the bird flu story

Cloning – it’s a pup!

I received a press statement from Nature today in which the journal “welcomes the announcement by the inquiry organised by Seoul National University concluding that the Afghan hound Snuppy was indeed a clone”, as originally reported in Nature (Nature 436, 641, 2005).

To quote: “Three weeks ago, as soon as it became clear that there was a strong possibility of fraud in some of the publications from Dr Hwang and colleagues, Nature commissioned Elaine Ostrander, at the National Human Genome Research Institute, in Bethesda Maryland USA, to conduct independent DNA tests on samples supplied by colleagues of Dr Hwang. The authenticity of the samples used was overseen by In Kwonchung Chung of Yonsei University, Korea, a member of the Investigative Committee at Seoul National University.

The tests conducted include DNA fingerprinting analysis of nuclear and
mitochondrial DNA from blood samples of Snuppy, the dog who donated the nucleus, and unrelated Afghan hounds. We heard informally, late yesterday, that these tests are most consistent with Snuppy being a clone.

We have as yet received no technical report or data. The data will be peer reviewed and hopefully published promptly, as well as an account of our review of our procedures in handling such papers. However we feel it in everybody’s best interests to confirm these preliminary indications of the outcome of our test.”

It’s probably too little, too late. The mainstream media has already cast the team involved as fraudsters and the sector of the lay public that cares simply sees this as yet another example of “tampering with nature” gone wrong. Let’s just hope that the peer-reviewed assessment further supports the claim that Snuppy is a clone and that this fascinating area of science can move forward once more.

Dogs Sniff out Cancer

Can dogs detect cancer? There have been numerous popular science stories doing the rounds over the last two years and anecdotal evidence is mounting. But, in a world where lung and breast cancers are among the leading causes of cancer death, it seems that any early detection method is highly desirable, however canine it might be.

Now, a study published in the March 2006 issue of the journal Integrative Cancer Therapies presents astonishing evidence that man’s best friend, the dog, may indeed be able to sniff out cancer.

Apparently, the dog’s extraordinary sense of smell can distinguish between healthy people and those with both early and late stage lung and breast cancers from healthy controls.

Coughing and spluttering

Scientists at Northwestern University in the US have determined the molecular structure of a viral protein, the parainfluenza virus 5 fusion (F) protein. The parainfluenza virus 5 is part of a family of viruses (paramyxoviruses) that causes everything from pneumonia, croup and bronchiolitis to cold-like illness and is responsible for many hospitalizations and deaths each year. The results are published in the Jan. 5 issue of the journal Nature. Also, check out our how to avoid colds and flu page for advice on sidestepping viruses.

Detox – Don’t Bother

Feeling chock full of cr*p after the festivities, wondering about which detox program to choose? Don’t bother! According to The Sense About Science group, a charitable trust that aims to provide the public with the truth about purportedly scientific and medical claims, a glass of tap water and an early night are the best remedies.

As it turns out, evolution has endowed us with our own built-in “detox” mechanisms, thankfully. The gut, for instance, prevents bacteria and many toxins from entering the body in the first place. If you think about it you are a hollow tube from mouth to anus, the interior of that tract is essentially “outside”.

However, when harmful chemicals enter the body, the liver, that great chemical plant, rips apart toxin or makes them water soluble so that they can be filtered out and excreted by the kidneys. The body thus detoxifies itself. That phrase “water soluble” is key to understanding how to help things along. The body is re-hydrated with ordinary tap water. It is refreshed with a good night’s sleep.

These processes do not occur more effectively as a result of taking ‘detox’ tablets, wearing ‘detox’ socks, having a ‘detox’ body wrap, eating Nettle Root extract, drinking herbal infusions or ‘oxygenated’ water, following a special ‘detox’ diet, or using any of the other products and rituals that are promoted. They waste money and sow confusion about how our bodies, nutrition and chemistry actually work.

King Kong’s Monkey Love

Sex smells, according to Joshuah Bearman of the LAWeekly who wrote to sciencebase today to alert us to his article on King Kong’s Monkey Love (obviously, he’s well aware that Kong is an ape not a monkey, but allow him some artistic licence, he is after all telling us about the birds and the bees, well beast, actually).

Anyway, his essay meanders from Gigantopithecus blacki, the 12-foot prehistoric ape that died out 100,000 years ago to the recent re-classification of chimpanzees into the hominidae family and even discusses the biological potential for a consummated love between man and ape.

All that aside, his essay concludes with a quote from Peter Singer who, along with many other people, suggests that the great apes should be endowed with “human” rights. It raises the ancient morality conflicts of how we treat all animals, of course, and whether we should use them for biomedical experimentation or not…

Bird Flu Symptoms

Judging from the gradual tailing off of visitors to my bird flu symptoms page, it’s almost as if people have already forgotten the hype. This is probably mainly due to reduced exposure to bird flu in the mainstream press, and as they say no news, is good news.

Regardless, the science behind the scenes goes on and you can read my feature on the Tamiflu shortage in Nature online this week.

Meanwhile, news just in points to mutations in the viral polymerase gene as explaining how strains of influenza can jump the species barrier. According to Juergen Stech of the Institute of Virology in Marburg, Germany, writing in this week’s PNAS, polymerase mutations may be a pre-requisite to a pandemic, although he also points out that although convergent evolution in the polymerase gene plays a role, polymerase is not the whole story.

The mainstream media is quiet on the bird flu front at the moment, for as long as it stays that way, we’re probably flu free.