Rhiza Labs FluTracker Forum

Faithful asked:




Perhaps I can try to give an answer. Dr. Niman can correct it if I am wrong.

People are interested in knowing whether or not vaccine is reaching at-risk populations (as defined by the CDC) before others like hockey players, Goldman-Sachs, CitiGroup employees, county health employees who don't interface with the public, etc. If some groups are "jumping the queue", we may be outraged. I think what you are saying is that if swine flu tests are not being done for most people, testing a pet cat is like placing a higher value on a cat than a child, and that seems wrong.

However, it is very important to know when viruses are "jumping species". There should have been more surveillance testing of pigs and poultry raised as farm animals on an ongoing basis (hindsight is easy). Then researchers would be more certain where h1n1 originated and when it jumped species to humans.

After h1n1 was widely circulating, reports emerged about h1n1 virus in pigs on farms and at fairs, and in turkeys in Chile and Canada. Then there were reports about ferrets used as test-subjects for flu, and then reports about pet ferrets contracting flu.

When a family brought their sick cat in to the vet, he ruled out some likely cat illnesses and said that this cat's symptoms didn't look like typical cat pneumonia, but knowing that the family had been sick with the swine flu, it was logical to wonder if the cat might be infected. It is of value to know what species of animals can contract flu and whether it passes easily between them. What if we thought that we are approaching a level of herd immunity, based on the percentage of people who have either had the swine flu or received a vaccine, and never realized that it could spread efficiently among cats, dogs, pet birds, who knows? I am in favor of some surveillance testing like this vet did in order to find out.

From this NY Times account: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/0 ... swine-flu/

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VJP thanks for the reply. My stories were from yesterday the 8th. I did speak with the CVS pharmacist about availability of doses. He indicated that there was a shortage of child dosages from the supplier, that this CVS only had adult dosages on hand, and they did not have the ability to compound. That's why they sent me to another pharmacist.

Since the name of this thread is "Unknown Virus", I am going to share some information I found.

I have pulled the more pertinent information from this article, in order to break down some of the technical jargon.

Please take a look at this.

The name of the illness is called Leptospirosis

Here is what pubmed has to say about it.

Leptospirosis: The “mysterious” mimic

Leptospirosis is a potentially fatal bacterial disease that can display a wide array of clinical presentations thus mimicking better-known illnesses. Although, leptospirosis is primarily a zoonotic disease, it frequently inflicts severe illness and death on communities around the globe. A comprehensive overview of the disease in wake of the 2006 outbreaks in India is hereby presented and discussed.

The pulmonary form of leptospirosis is characterized as a hemorrhagic pneumonia that can resemble pneumonic plague and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.[7]

CAUSATIVE AGENT OF LEPTOSPIROSIS

Leptospirosis is caused by leptospires, which are spiral-shaped bacteria from the family Leptospiraceae and genus Leptospira. These bacteria are long, thin, and motile spirochetes that can be either free living in the environment or found as parasites in animal hosts.

[8] Leptospires require moist environments for survival. They can survive in contaminated freshwater sources (lakes and ponds) and muddy environments for many months. However, they can only survive for a few hours in saltwater.[9]

ANIMAL RESERVOIRS OF LEPTOSPIRES

Although, leptospirosis is typically a zoonotic disease, leptospires can also infect humans. These bacteria can infect and colonize a wide variety of wild and domestic animals. However, the rat is typically the reservoir of leptospires

PREVIOUS OUTBREAKS OF LEPTOSPIROSIS

Since the original identification of leptospirosis by Dr. Weil,[22] outbreaks of leptospirosis have occurred sporadically throughout world.

Elsewhere in the world in 2005, there were at least 27 cases and eight deaths due to leptospirosis in the Ukraine.

Concurrent with these human cases, a significant percentage of the local mice populations, up to 25%, were testing positive for leptospirosis.

An added sidenote: In the past there have been several outbreaks of Leptospirosis in India, and this very well could be the pathogen responsible for the unknown virus and mysterious deaths there.

TRANSMISSION OF LEPTOSPIRES

Infected rodents are typically the source of human infections. These human infections are most commonly due to contact with water or environmental surfaces contaminated with infected urine.[13,49] Other rodent body fluids (excluding saliva) can also transmit leptospires to humans, animals, and the environment.

PATHOPHYSIOLOGY OF LEPTOSPIROSIS

Leptospirosis has symptoms that may mimic better-known diseases including influenza, dengue fever, meningitis, hepatitis, and other viral hemorrhagic diseases.[1,18] With the greater publicity of these other diseases, leptospires are frequently overlooked as a source of disease.

Leptospirosis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of individuals who have an abrupt onset of fever, muscle aches, jaundice, headache, conjunctival suffusion, and chills. Conjunctival suffusion and muscle aches in the calf and lumbar areas are also highly characteristic of leptospirosis; however, these signs and symptoms are not confirmatory for leptospirosis.

During the course of infection, leptospires invade all the internal organs and tissues, and damage the endothelial linings of the small blood vessels.

Glycoprotein toxin produced by the leptospires causes capillary leakage which can result in severe hemorrhaging.[50]

This damage is the source of the majority of the signs and symptoms of leptospirosis.

As the damage progresses, lesions develop throughout the organs. This damage results in

(1) injury in the proximal convoluted tubules (leading to interstitial nephritis) in the kidneys,
(2) hepatic capillary damage with hepatic cell damage leading to jaundice, blood-clotting problems, and possible liver failure, and
(3) inflamed meninges resulting in the symptoms of aseptic meningitis in the immune phase.

TREATMENT OF LEPTOSPIROSIS

Milder cases of leptospirosis can be treated with amoxicillin, ampicillin, doxycycline, penicillin, streptomycin, tetracycline, or erythromycin. Ceftriaxone and cefotaxime, and quinolone antibiotics may also be used for treatment of mild leptospirosis cases.

Treatment with antibiotics should begin as soon as leptospirosis is suspected and if possible before the fifth day after the start of symptoms. However, serological tests will not be positive until about 1 week after the onset of symptoms and cultures may not be positive for several weeks.

For individuals with severe infections and Weil's syndrome, hospitalization in an intensive care unit is typically required. Intravenous penicillin should used for severe leptospirosis.[1] Dialysis will likely be necessary for the renal failure.

Transfusions may be needed for hemorrhaging; and, steroids may be necessary for treatment of thrombocytopenia.

Leptospirosis can be labeled a truly menacing disease. It fits the spectrum of agent, host, and environment which relates to clinical diseases with a community focus.


Now after having read the article, a few things came to mind. If a Bioweapon was indeed used, the perfect mode of transmission would be water. Think about it. This bacteria thrives in water. It would explain why the rate of infection seems to rise so quickly. It would also allow the guilty party to maintain some control, of who is infected and in what regions.

Leptospirosis would not be suspected during a world wide pandemic. It mimics Pneumonic Plague, Influenza, and a few other hemorrhagic virus'.

It also looks very much like the Spanish flu of 1918.

Unless one were testing for it, it would go unnoticed. In order to have a good prognosis Antibiotics need to be started by the 5th day, yet it takes almost 7 days for the titers to be high enough representing acute infection.

Just throwing around some other ideas, since Swine Flu was only detectable in half of the cases.

What do you think about this possibilty?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2700559/

http://wecf.eu/english/projects/46-ukraine-safesanitation.php

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=1&ved=0CAcQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.day.kiev.ua%2F197787%2F&rct=j&q=garbage+problem+Ukraine&ei=ZKT3StCKBsGX8AawuZ3zCQ&usg=AFQjCNHvdJNizKDd9dn6UihpFDAOjJe8kQ&sig2=FRERw1dogJgLKwbUA7UgTA