Thursday, March 23, 2006

Bird Flu Pandemic? Not Likely

Our own UW-Madison researchers hit the news, disappointing thousands of reporters for the MSM--they'll have to find a new "story"....

Although more than 100 people have been killed by the avian influenza virus, the fact that it does not spread easily to other humans has been a biomedical puzzle. Now, a study of cells in the human respiratory tract reveals a simple anatomical difference in the cells of the system that makes it difficult for the virus to jump from human to human.

A group led by University of Wisconsin-Madison virologist Prof Yoshihiro Kawaoka, showed that only cells deep within the respiratory system, rather than the nose or throat, have the surface molecule or receptor that is the key that permits the avian flu virus to enter a cell.

"Our findings provide a rational explanation for why H5N1 viruses rarely infect and spread from human to human," the authors report.

Back to "polls" about GWB, boys and girls.

1 comment:

Joey said...

yeah, the MSM just can't handle good news. unless it's something "crazy" like an anonymous million dollar donation to Katrina victims (notice the connection to disaster/bad news), they just won't cover it.