Killer flu swept through the world 3 times in the last century, and it almost happened again in 1997. Now experts say a killer virus strain my be making its way to our shores from Hong Kong again.
The Spanish flu of 1918 killed millions of people. Scientists managed to stop the spread of the virulent 1997 Hong Kong virus, but a new report show that a similar virus reappeared in Hong Kong in 2001, just in time to make it over here in 2002.
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A virus that infects animals but was thought to be relatively harmless to humans might contribute to some cases of mental illness, according to virologist Norbert Nowotny, of the University of Veterinary Sciences in Vienna. The Borna disease virus, which causes a fatal brain disease in animals, might be linked to schizophrenia, depression and chronic fatigue syndrome in humans.
The virus infects the nervous system tissue in horses and sheep, and triggers severe brain inflammation. The animals stop eating, become depressed and in almost all cases progress to paralysis and death within 3 weeks. There is no effective treatment.
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Cattle could be breeding grounds for future flu outbreaks, according to researchers who are tracking emerging strains in animals in the hope of averting further human pandemics.
The last flu pandemic swept the globe in 1968, killing nearly half a million people. Flu viruses originate in wild birds and are become lethal when they cross into poultry or pigs. Then the viruses pick up genes that enable them to infect humans.
Ian Brown and his colleagues at the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in the U.K. believe that cows, too, could be harboring new strains of flu, because they have detected influenza genes in cattle for the first time.
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It?s been discovered that people who take a garlic supplement each day catch fewer colds. The common cold is the most common disease of humans and adults catch between two and four colds a year. Infants and young children get between six and 10 colds each year. A 75-year-old man has suffered through about 200 colds during his lifetime. There are more than 200 known different viruses which cause a cold, and each person spends between two and three years of his life with a cold.
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