A Lab Escapee in Korea (1933 Influenza)?

[pandemic_1918]

I'm not sure what I am missing, but the latest flu sequences from pigs in South Korea contain genes from a very dangerous human flu virus. This isolate is grown in many labs and is an off-spring of the first human virus isolated (in England in 1933).

Since it is H1N1, it can be easily passed from human to human, and it would seem that those born after 1933 would have little immunity (it is also related to the 1918 pandemic strain)

http://www.recombinomics.com/1933_2004_H1N1.html

Comments?

[Old and In the Way]

1. yes.

Oh shit.

[pandemic_1918]

25. WHO Comments

I think that's what WHO said when they heard fact that the human H1N1 1933 virus was found on a farm in South Korea

http://www.recombinomics.com/1933_2004_H1N1_farm.html

[NYC]

2. What was the source of the swine sequences released by GenBank this week?

[whalerider55]

3. of course...

the Republican National Committee

whalerider55

[pandemic_1918]

4. Source of Sequences

The sequences are from a Veterinary School in South Korea.

[pandemic_1918]

5. Link to Sequences

Here is a link to one of the sequences

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/viewer.fcgi?db=nucleotide&val=55925821

Submitted (24-OCT-2004) Immunology Laboratory, College of Veterinary Medicine, Chung Nam National University, Gung-Dong 220, YuSeong-Gu, Dae Jeon, Chung Nam 305-764, The Republic of Korea

[NYC]

6. So these are current?

These flus just showed up?

I'm going to read the link now.

[shraby]

7. I believe the dangerous flu is H5N1

it's a bird flu. That's the 1918 flu. There was a breakout last spring in birds in Asia and millions of birds were killed to prevent spreading. 32 people who had contact with infected birds contracted the flu and died from it. They got it under control, but there has been a smaller outbreak recently.
If a pig gets the bird flu and also gets human flu at the same time and the two virii exchange the right genes it could become transmissible human to human after catching it from animals.

If you want to read up on it, put google on news then type in bird flu and sort by date.

[NYC]

8. I read a lot about that.

What I'm reading now is that these isolates came from current pigs. (I was wondering how old the samples were.)

...Two of these viruses are H1N1, but have not been isolated since 1933. Thus, they would be capable of infecting humans.

Humans born after 1933 may have little immunity to these viruses, which have 7 human genes and 1 avian gene...

http://www.recombinomics.com/flu_bioterrorism.html

[pandemic_1918]

10. Samples are from 2004

>>I was wondering how old the samples were<<

Viral isolates are named by the location and date of isolation. These viruse were isolated this year in South Korea

Influenza A virus (A/swine/Korea/S10/2004(H1N1)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?mode=Info&id=300743&lvl=3&lin=f&keep=1&srchmode=1&unlock

Influenza A virus (A/swine/Korea/S175/2004(H1N1)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?mode=Info&id=300744&lvl=3&lin=f&keep=1&srchmode=1&unlock

[pandemic_1918]

23. Pigs on Farm

The source of the virus was pigs on a farm. This is looking like a major problem.

[pandemic_1918]

9. H5N1 vs H1N1

The 1918 pandemic flu was H1N1. The one in Korea is H1N1 and it is closely related. H5N1 has a high case fatality rate, but human to human transmission is not efficient.

http://www.recombinomics.com/H5N1_case_fatality_rate.html

WSN/33 human to human transmission is VERY efficient. It is from the first human flu virus ever isolated (WS/33). It was isolated in 1933 in England. Most people born after 1933 would not have good immunity to it.

There have been reports of serious human flu in Asia, but the serotype has not been given (just that it is influenza A).

1933 H1N1 is not something to sneeze at, literally or figuratively.

[pandemic_1918]

11. Pandemic Flu

The reason pandemic flu takes a large toll is lack of immunity. the 1918 pandemic killed 20-100 million worldwide, but most were young because they didn't have immunity

http://www.recombinomics.com/1918_case_fatality_rate.html

The H1N1 is from 1933, so many born after that would have a problem, and H1N1 would readily transmit human to human

http://www.recombinomics.com/1933_2004_H1N1.html

[pandemic_1918]

12. H5N1 With Human Sequences

H5N1 can pick up human or pig sequences

http://www.recombinomics.com/swine_human_signatures.html

However, in the case of the 1933 H1N1 virus in pigs in Korea, the virus already can transmit from human to human.

[donhakman]

13. The latest developments in biowarfare

are capable of human destruction that is preferable to the use of nuclear weapons since they leave property intact.

I have seen a deadly campaign starting with the NY to Paris flight that exploded in midair over Long Island Sound carrying our 2 top virus experts and now continuing worldwide costing the lives of no fewer than 36 bio war research scientists under the most suspicious circumstances.

If a scientist's ability to keep the bio war secret is questioned, they will cease to be.

There are now very few independent scientists left that would be able to either trace or produce a vaccine for the 1918 flu.

Which led me to create this picture of a hypothetical event.

[pandemic_1918]

14. Vaccines

Making vaccines that are nominally effective against flu is not that hard. Right now just the H and N of interested is added to the other 6 genes. The virus is then killed and injected. The problem is predicting it ahead of time. But the sequence of the H and N of the 1918 pandemic strain are known and the genes have been created in the lab.

The presence of a 1933 sequence in 2004 pigs in Korea is not that predictable, and the reason for these sequences being there should be of great interest

http://www.recombinomics.com/1933_2004_H1N1.html

[pandemic_1918]

15. Googling

>> no fewer than 36 bio war research scientists under the most suspicious circumstances.<,

Google hits?

[ShaneGR]

16. Nothing really...

I varied the words too.

[pandemic_1918]

17. Dead Scientists

The dead scientists is a old story that gained some currency right after 9/11 and the anthrax attacks. Lots of googling led to lists of scientists dying in plane crashes, locked in coolers, falling off bridge, hacked to death by relatives. Any scientist who died prematurely was added to the list.

For flu the most famous was Don Wiley from Harvard who attended a St Jude's' banquet and his empty car rental was found on a bridge under construction. Lots of kidnapping by terrorist speculation. His body was found downstream several weeks later.

Report indicated his rental struck some construction barricades and when he stood on ledge on bridge he fell off. Nothing to contradict official story, but Wiley remains as one of the mysterious scientist deaths because he worked on flu and Ebola (however his work was on the structure of the virus and his knowledge would have little practical use for terrorist seeking a bio-weapon and kidnapping on a long one lane bridge is not the smartest move by would-be terrorists).

[pandemic_1918]

22. CDC on H5N1

Today CDC said that an avian flu pandemic was "very likely".

[pandemic_1918]

19. H and N Sequence Homologies

Yes, the virus is current, but it looks like 1933. There are two H1N1 isolates in 2004 from pigs. At the amino acid level, in H1 they differ with each other by 2 out of 290 positions. They differ with WSN/33 at 5 positions, but differ with the original WS/33 virus by 23 positions. Moreover, there are 60 differences with New Caledonia, the H1N1 human virus in today's vaccine. With 60 differences, those born after 1933 would have little immunity.

The same situation is present in N1. There is only 1 amino acid differences between the two avian isolates (out of 364 positions) and 2 differences with WSN/33. Again there are 10 differences with WS/33 and 45 with New Caledonia (not counting the 16 amino acid deletion found in all except New Caledonia - all current human N1 isolates have the extra 16 amino acids).

Similar situations are found for the other 5 human genes. Only PB2 is from birds (H9N2 found in Korea).

The other H9N2 isolates from 2004 Korean pigs have H and N from the same Korean avian isolate and have 3-5 WSN/33 genes (and one is a recombinant in PB2 (between WSN/33 and the H9N2 sequence found in the other swine isolates).

[pandemic_1918]

24. 1933 H1N1 on Farm in Korea

The deposited sequences were from pigs on a farm in Korea. If this is not some sort of artifact by the sequencing lab (and it doe not look like it is), this could become very serious

http://www.recombinomics.com/1933_2004_H1N1_farm.html

[pandemic_1918]

18. Not a Lab Experiment

Since the viruses were discovered by a veterinary lab, it seems unlikely that they were planned experiments. There is more information on WSN/33 at

http://www.recombinomics.com/1933_2004_H1N1.html

This is a VERY dangerous human virus that can easily be transmitted human to human.

[lectrobyte]

20. Damn! I had that "Mother Abigail" dream, too! nt

[pandemic_1918]

21. Dreaming

There is an H5N1 dream and a H1N1 dream, but H1N1 may be closer to reality (no further genetic change required)

http://www.recombinomics.com/1933_2004_H1N1.html