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QUESTION Beware 'Disease X': the mystery killer keeping scientists awake at night

Lions and tigers and....disease X. Add this to list of "things to worry about when you awaken at 3am (along with the zombie apocalypse, of course)".

BookDeath 8 Mar 10
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Disease X is an unknown disease. Why are they trying to frighten us?

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I'm wondering why nothing in the article referred to the melting permafrost. With growing concerns of what's been locked up in the permafrost for several millennium you would think it deserves a mention.

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Ohferpetessake.......

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Poor researchers, they couldn't find an actual illness to use as scare tactics to generate more research funds, so they talk about the next danger, they just haven't got one yet.
They are right, there will be one, but this sort of scare tactic annoys me. Making out they know something that they don't.
My money is on a genetic variation of something as simple as e-coli.

Ebola is freakishly scary, but after playing with mathematical scenarios on spread of viruses for many years I do not believe the Ebola virus is a big threat. The reason is it is highly visible, as proven by the fact we are all informed about a minimal number of cases. It is not in a viruses best interest to kill its host. The maths show that the viruses we need fear are those that spread unnoticed than can quickly become deadly.

We have all heard of e.coli. A gut bacterium that survives in the wild, pollutes water supplies gets into food supplies. This beastie mutates like crazy, there are so many different strains, I have been in contact with a few in recent years and have almost lost some people close to me due to the resistance the bug is gaining. So, the 2 to watch are c.diff (Clostridium difficile) and E.coli ST131 (Escherichia coli sequence type131) - subclone H30 has a major multi immune sub lineage RX sub type (techy I know) that is pretty much made that last step. It is multi drug resistant and extremely virulent, spreads fast in and out of the body. The trick now is for medical people to become aware of it and try and reduce the spread. It is not in Africa, but Canada.

Front up to a hospital and have a blood test confirming either one of these and you get special treatment, better than private health cover for a private room.
Yes they are prevalent in Australia, and they are also pretty much immune to treatment with all but the last resort anti-biotics.

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