Over time, those who contracted the virus developed an immunity to the novel strand of influenza, and life returned to normal by the early 1920s, according to historians and medical experts. Reports at the time suggest the virus became less lethal as the pandemic carried on in waves.
Common cold combats COVID-19
File under: Nature is Amazing
In a new Yale-led study, researchers found that in patients with the COVID-19 infection only, antiviral defenses are low and SARS-CoV-2 viral load is high, as represented in the circle on the left. When patients also have the common cold early in the COVID-19 infection, antiviral defenses are high and SARS-CoV-2 viral load is low, as shown on the right.
Exposure to the rhinovirus, the most frequent cause of the common cold, can protect against infection by the virus which causes COVID-19, Yale researchers have found.
In a new study, the researchers found that the common respiratory virus jump-starts the activity of interferon-stimulated genes, early-response molecules in the immune system which can halt replication of the SARS-CoV-2 virus within airway tissues infected with the cold.
These findings may help explain why at times of year when colds are common, rates of infections with other viruses such as influenza tend to be lower, Foxman said. There are concerns that as social distancing measures ease, common cold and flu viruses — which have been dormant over the past year — will come back in greater force. Interference among respiratory viruses could be a mitigating factor, creating an “upper limit” on the degree to which respiratory viruses co-circulate, she said.
“There are hidden interactions between viruses that we don’t quite understand, and these findings are a piece of the puzzle we are just now looking at,” Foxman said.
In sum, our results demonstrate an important role for IFN-mediated defenses in curtailing SARS-CoV-2 replication at the start of infection, including heterologous innate immune responses induced by prior RV infection. These results, and our findings in longitudinal patient samples, support the concept that airway innate immunity is dynamic, with innate immune defense rapidly changing in response to current and recent viral infections. Our findings also demonstrate that ISG-mediated defenses can profoundly curtail SARS-CoV-2 replication under certain conditions and compel further studies of the role of heterologous innate immunity in protecting against SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory viruses.
Molecular, Antigen, and Antibody Tests Explained
COVID-19 Testing: Molecular, Antigen, and Antibody Tests Explained
There are three types of tests available for COVID-19: molecular, antigen, and antibody (serology) testing. Molecular and antigen tests detect whether a person is currently infected, and serology detects whether a person had an infection in the past. This document is designed to explain the differences between molecular, antigen, and serology testing, and when one test might be used over another.
Diagnostic tests can show if you have an active Covid-19 infection and need to take steps to quarantine or isolate yourself from others. Molecular and antigen tests are types of diagnostic tests than can detect if you have an active COVID-19 infection. Samples for diagnostic tests are typically collected with a nasal or throat swab, or saliva collected by spitting into a tube.
Antibody tests look for antibodies in your immune system produced in response to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Antibody tests should not be used to diagnose an active COVID-19 infection. Antibodies can take several days or weeks to develop after you have an infection and may stay in your blood for several weeks or more after recovery. Samples for antibody tests are typically blood from a finger stick, or blood drawn by your doctor or other medical personnel.
CDC Guidelines
Lightning is one of the leading causes of weather-related fatalities. But the odds of being struck by lightning in a given year are only around 2 in 1,000,000. However, some factors can put you at greater risk for being struck. Regional, seasonal, and occupational differences affect your risk of being injured by lightning.
Males are five times more likely than females to be struck by lightning; around 85% of lightning fatalities are men.
People aged 15–34 years account for almost half of all lightning strike victims (41%). The majority (89%) of lightning deaths occur among whites.
About one-third (32%) of lightning injuries occur indoors.
Outdoor Safety Tips
Don’t stay in open vehicles, structures, and spaces
During a thunderstorm, avoid open vehicles such as convertibles, motorcycles, and golf carts. Be sure to avoid open structures such as porches, gazebos, baseball dugouts, and sports arenas. And stay away from open spaces such as golf courses, parks, playgrounds, ponds, lakes, swimming pools, and beaches.
Don’t stay near tall structures
Do NOT lie on concrete floors during a thunderstorm. Also, avoid leaning on concrete walls. Lightning can travel through any metal wires or bars in concrete walls or flooring.
Indoor Safety Tips
Avoid water
Do NOT bathe, shower, wash dishes, or have any other contact with water during a thunderstorm because lightning can travel through a building’s plumbing.
Avoid electronic equipment
Do NOT use your computers, laptops, game systems, washers, dryers, stoves, or anything connected to an electrical outlet. Lightning can travel through electrical systems, radio and television reception systems, and any metal wires or bars in concrete walls or flooring. Equip your home with whole-house surge protectors to protect your appliances.Avoid corded phones
Corded phones are NOT safe to use during a thunderstorm. Do NOT use them. However, it is safe to use cordless or cellular phones during a storm.Avoid windows, doors, porches, and concrete
Do NOT lie on concrete floors during a thunderstorm. Also, avoid leaning on concrete walls. Lightning can travel through any metal wires or bars in concrete walls or flooring.
polio vaccine
The Cutter Incident
In April 1955 more than 200,000 children in five Western and mid-Western USA states received a polio vaccine in which the process of inactivating the live virus proved to be defective. Within days there were reports of paralysis and within a month the first mass vaccination programme against polio had to be abandoned. Subsequent investigations revealed that the vaccine, manufactured by the California-based family firm of Cutter Laboratories, had caused 40,000 cases of polio [20%], leaving 200 [1%] children with varying degrees of paralysis and killing 10 [0.005%].
As a result, `vaccines were among the first medical products almost eliminated by lawsuits'. Indeed, the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program was introduced in 1986 to protect vaccine manufacturers from litigation on a scale that threatened the continuing production of vaccines.
SV40 Contamination and Cancer
Some of the polio vaccine administered from 1955–1963 [8 years] was contaminated with a virus, called simian virus 40 (SV40). The virus came from the monkey kidney cell cultures used to produce the vaccine. Most, but not all, of the contamination was in the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV).
Cancer risk associated with simian virus 40 contaminated polio vaccine
Conclusions: These data suggest that there may be an increased incidence of certain cancers among the 98 million persons exposed to contaminated polio vaccine in the U.S.; further investigations are clearly justified.
Materials and methods: Using data from SEER, we analyzed the incidence of brain tumors, bone tumors, and mesotheliomas from 1973-1993 and the possible relationship of these tumors with the administration of the SV40 contaminated vaccine.
Results: Our analysis indicates increased rates of ependymomas (37%), osteogenic sarcomas (26%), other bone tumors (34%) and mesothelioma (90%) among those in the exposed as compared to the unexposed birth cohort.
"vaccine-derived" polio outbreaks
In 2015, the WHO declared Type-2 wild polio eradicated. But the problem was that the oral polio vaccine still contained live weakened Type-2 virus and while the wild Type-2 was gone, occasionally there continued to be outbreaks of vaccine-derived Type-2 polio.
vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2
In 2020, 959 human cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) and 411 cVDPV2-positive environmental samples were reported globally from 27 countries, of which 21 countries were from the African Region and six countries from reported from the regions of the Eastern Mediterranean, Europe and the Western Pacific. The number of cVDPV cases and environmental samples increased in 2020 compared to 2019 when 366 cVDPV2 cases and 173 cVDPV2-positive environmental samples were reported.
No on-going Polio Boosters?
Routine poliovirus vaccination of U.S. adults (i.e., persons aged >18 years) is not necessary. Most adults do not need polio vaccine because they were already vaccinated as children and their risk of exposure to polioviruses in the United States is minimal.
Poliomyelitis
Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus. It invades the nervous system, and can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours. The virus is transmitted by person-to-person spread mainly through the faecal-oral route or, less frequently, by a common vehicle (for example, contaminated water or food) and multiplies in the intestine. Initial symptoms are fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness of the neck and pain in the limbs. 1 in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis (usually in the legs). Among those paralysed, 5% to 10% die when their breathing muscles become immobilized.
People most at risk
Polio mainly affects children under 5 years of age.
Prevention
There is no cure for polio, it can only be prevented. Polio vaccine, given multiple times, can protect a child for life.
Global caseload
Wild poliovirus cases have decreased by over 99% since 1988, from an estimated 350 000 cases in more than 125 endemic countries then, to 33 reported cases in 2018.
Of the 3 strains of wild poliovirus (type 1, type 2, and type 3), wild poliovirus type 2 was eradicated in 1999 and no case of wild poliovirus type 3 has been found since the last reported case in Nigeria in November 2012.
Polio through history
Polio epidemics did not begin to occur until the latter part of the 19th century, but evidence indicates that polio is an ancient disease. A well-known stele from the 18th dynasty of ancient Egypt (1570–1342 BCE) clearly depicts a priest with a telltale paralysis and withering of his lower right leg and foot. The mummy of the pharaoh Siptah from the late 19th dynasty (1342–1197 BCE) shows a similarly characteristic deformity of the left leg and foot. However, because of the sporadic appearance of the infection, the absence of epidemics until relatively recent times, and the nonspecific nature and infrequency of the acute illness, there is hardly another recognizable trace of the disease until the 18th century. In 1789 a pediatrician in London, Michael Underwood, published the first clear description of paralytic disease of infants in a medical textbook. In the early 19th century, small groups of polio-afflicted patients began to be reported in the medical literature, but still only as sporadic cases.
It is an irony of medical history that the transformation of polio into an epidemic disease occurred only in those industrialized countries in North America and Europe that had experienced significant improvements in hygiene during the 19th and 20th centuries. That has led health experts to conjecture that the infection was common in earlier times but that people were exposed and infected (in typically unhygienic environments) at very young ages, when they were less likely to suffer permanent paralysis as an outcome. As hygiene improved, the certainty of young people of successive generations being exposed to the virus was gradually reduced, and in that new situation it was not long before enough susceptible children and adults had accumulated to allow epidemics to break out.
Why End Polio?
To end polio, we must stop transmission of the virus in the two countries where it remains endemic: Afghanistan and Pakistan. We must also keep all other countries polio-free until we're certain it won't resurface. Up to 60 high-risk countries still operate large-scale immunization campaigns to protect children against polio.
fortnight
fortnight noun
fort·night | \ ˈfȯrt-ˌnīt \
Definition of fortnight
: a period of 14 days : two weeks
Usage:
They stayed with us for a fortnight.
Nobel Prize winner says virus curve will flatten in 'a fortnight'
By Peter Hartcher
March 24, 2020 — 11.50pm
"I think the steps announced by the Prime Minister and the premiers will dampen this down. I would expect to see the curve flatten in the next fortnight, see it start to come down," he says.
What It Means to Contain and Mitigate the Coronavirus
By Robert P. Baird
March 11, 2020
Gatherings larger than two hundred and fifty people have been banned and where, starting tomorrow, the public schools will be closed for a fortnight.
The zone was not exactly a quarantine—people would still be allowed to move freely in and out of it, and small businesses could remain open, but large gathering places, including schools and houses of worship, will be closed for at least a fortnight.
Cut along the dotted line slip in and seal the flap.
Postal competition crazy, though you wear the dunce's cap.
Win a fortnight in Ibiza line up for the big hand out.
You'll never know unless you try what winning's all about
