Haynes.tv

The WHO and others are now discussing a new name for swine flu because of the adverse affects it is having on the pig markets. As many of you know I mentioned in a previous post that Egypt has ordered the slaughter of all their pigs. Also I imagine this does not help the pigs rap much as it is also considered unclean in Judaism and Islam. The dietary laws of Kosher or Kashrut under Jewish tradition and Halal under Islamic tradition, because it does not ruminate or chew the cud. Of course under most Christian tradition the pig is now considered clean because Jesus freed us from the obligation of the dietary laws.

So how has swine flu affected pigs, well it is known to affect them, but there are no know pigs in the United States with swine flu, at the moment. Also, pork is still completely safe to eat so long as you cook it properly.

This is affecting really hard pig export from North American nations to places such as Russia and China who have imposed bans on exports of live pigs and pork.

Currently the WHO thinks their name was appropriate because there is a large competent of swine influenza in the flu virus, along with genes from North American avian influenza, human influenza and a form of swine influenza normally found in Asia and Europe, according to Nancy Cox, chief of the CDC’s Influenza Division.

As of right now it remains to be seen whether the WHO and others will end up deciding to change the name of swine flu to something more straightforward name like “H1N1 flu”. Although, that name wouldn’t be anywhere near as catchy or as fun for the news media to throw around.

Swine Flu continues to spread throughout the world today, and is now confirmed in 13 nations and suspected in up to 27 more nations all over the world. Today we remain at phase 5 alert status out 6 phases on the World Health Organization’s warning system. Below is a chart of their warning system.

Still no one knows for sure where swine flu orginated, but it is suspected to have come from Mexico, altough Mexico has sought to point to its orgins elsewhere. It is through to have Zoonotic ogrins, meaning the disease likely crossed over from animals. There are prevention mentions for Zoonotic disease you which you can find here. Unforutnately it is a little late for them now, unless you are going to visit the pig farm, then make sure you take a look at them.

Swine flu is currently treatable with the flu drugs Tamiflu or Relenza, but not with two older flu medications. Currently there are no vaccines for swine flu.

The only prevent methods are the good old fashion ones such as covering your mouth when you cough washing your head regularly, and staying away from others when you are sick.

Still no one knows for sure where swine flu originated, but it is suspected to have come from Mexico, although Mexico has sought to point to its origins elsewhere. It is through to have Zoonotic origins, meaning the disease likely crossed over from animals.

There are prevention mentions for Zoonotic disease you which you can find here. Unfortunately it is a little late for them now, unless you are going to visit the pig farm, then make sure you take a look at them.

The current strain going around is called the H1N1 H and N stand for the two viral proteins, hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N), characteristic of all influenza A viruses the numbers after the viral proteins represent genetic mutations in the structure of the proteins. For some reason the virus has been more lethal in Mexico thus far; perhaps because of reduced access to health care and the poor living conditions in much of Mexico.

With Avian flu I recall it was the H5N1 variant they were really worried about, and I believe they are still concerned about the possibility of the H6N1 crossing over to humans. Likewise with swine flu I think our biggest concern is if it mutates into another variant that cannot be treated with our current antiviral medications.

There are also theory circulating that the swine flu may have been cooked up in lab somewhere, as some sort of population control method to help curve global warming. This is because of its high geographical diversity. Although, that is not necessarily true in today’s world of globalization it is still a possibility, as no one knows for sure the origins.

What they do know is the characteristics:
The new virus has genes from North American swine influenza, avian influenza, human influenza and a form of swine influenza normally found in Asia and Europe, said Nancy Cox, chief of the CDC’s Influenza Division.

Now as I have said before I am opposed to many aspects of Darwin’s theory of evolution. Mutations here are solely a micoevolutionary thing they will lead to any new species or any radically different virus. If it mutates the virus will still have the same basic structure and the two same proteins hemagglutinin and neuraminidase just slightly different organization.

Within the virus genome they are not creating new genes they are simply rearranging current and preexisting genetic materials. The influenza A viral genome consists of eight negative-sense RNA segments that can generate new variants by genetic reassortment.1

In fact virus are not even alive, as they cannot even function without a host organism. They are stripped down parasites. In fact it is likely their simplicity, and not their complexity that allows them to be so adaptable. As they don’t need much material of their own. Granted they are still very complex for our understanding but comparative to the genetic material in the human genome they are not. Also, being that influenza is an RNA virus it is much more flexible than a DNA based virus, RNA while only a half helix and therefore replicates much easier.




WHO PANDEMIC ALERT PHASES
# Phase 1: No viruses circulating among animals causing infections in humans
# Phase 2: Animal influenza virus causes infection in humans, and is considered potential pandemic threat
# Phase 3: Influenza causes sporadic cases in people, but no significant human-to-human transmission
# Phase 4: Verified human-to-human transmission able to cause community-level outbreaks. Significant increase in risk of a pandemic
# Phase 5: Human-to-human transmission in at least two countries. Strong signal pandemic imminent
# Phase 6: Virus spreads to another country in a different region. Global pandemic under way

‡ Not all cases have been confirmed to be due to this strain.
Some are cases of influenza-like illness (ILI) that have not been confirmed through testing to be due to this strain.


Untied States	Cases
State	Laboratory confirmed	Probable	Suspected‡	Deaths Confirmed (unconfirmed)‡
Total	94	143+	477+	1
Texas	16	14+	6+	1
New York	51	8+	75	0
California	14	29	-	0
Maine	3	-	12+	0
Michigan	2	1	2	0
Massachusetts	2	-	2	0
Kansas	2	-	0	0
Indiana	1	2	0	0
Ohio	1	1	9	0
Arizona	1	-	24+	0
Nevada	1	-	0	0
South Carolina	0	17	-	0
Arkansas	0	12	0	0
Delaware	0	10	0	0
Illinois	0	9	0	0
New Jersey	0	7	0	0
Louisiana	0	6	0	0
Maryland	0	6	0	0
Washington	0	6	0	0
Connecticut	0	3	5	0
Wisconsin	0	3	0	0
Iowa	0	2	150	0
Colorado	0	2	0	0
Minnesota	0	1	50+	0
Tennessee	0	1	10	0
Nebraska	0	1	6	0
Missouri	0	1	0	0
Pennsylvania	0	1	0	0
Utah	0	1	0	0
Rhode Island	0	3	0	0
Alabama	0	2	29	0
Florida	0	0	80	0
Oregon	0	0	14	0
North Carolina	0	-	11	0
Mississippi	0	-	10	0
New Mexico	0	0	5	0
Idaho	0	-	4	0
Hawaii	0	0	3+	0
Oklahoma	0	-	1	0
New Hampshire	0	-	TBD	0

While searching around for swine flu related marital I found this graphic, I apologize for the somewhat ghastly nature of it. Nonetheless I think it sums up Swine Flu well, and the powerful nature of it focuses us to the problem while not overwhelming us too greatly. The graphic was originally created for a video game entitled Biohazard (the Japanese name of Resident Evil)

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So far there are 91 confirmed cases of Swine Flu in the United States as of 11:24 a.m. ET and the World Health Organization (WHO) has raises their alert level for swine flu to phase 5.

In Egypt they are slaughtering all of their pigs, roughly 300,000 as a preemptive precaution against swine flu. Egyptian farmers are very unhappy and some have even refused to slaughter their pigs. Also there are now 6 probably cases in Maryland according to the governor there, and possible cases in Chicago Illinois.

Also now google has put their flu tracker to work on Swine Flu in Mexico, and I imagine they will probably have one for the US soon or maybe they already do. You can see the Mexican flu tracker here

Update 8:30 p.m. EST
Wow I am not sure how I missed this one, but I just found from my neighbor and then got hit with a comment on Facebook as soon as I walked back in. Now North Kingstown High School has a probably case of swine flu, and that is my town! Now school at NKHS has been canceled for the rest of the week, as a precautionary measure.

Swine Flu is starting to spread, and for many it is coming a little too close to home. According to the Associated Press it has struck in Boston now. For me living in Rhode Island I through New York was pretty close when I heard three days ago that eight N.Y. high school Students tested positive for Swine Flu, according to the N.Y. Mayor. Now that I know it is near Boston it is getting way too close for comfort.

BOSTON (AP) — Two young brothers in Massachusetts who became sick after a trip to Mexico have tested positive for swine flu, health officials confirmed Wednesday. The boys, ages 8 and 10, are from Lowell – about 35 miles northwest of Boston. They are the first confirmed cases in New England.

Monday the World Health Organization raised their Pandemic Alert Level to 4 because of Swine Flu and in Mexico many public gatherings were canceled and many people are wearing masks out in public.

Now we sadly have our first confirmed dead from Swine flu in the United States today

First U.S. Death From Swine Flu — 23-Month-Old From Texas — the CDC Confirms [6:54 a.m. ET]

David Kellerman the acting CFO (Chief Finical Officer) of Freddie Mac hung himself today in his home, and was found dead just this morning. The question of why he would kill himself could be answered in one of two ways: either he had an enormously guiltily conscious, or he was under an abnormally huge degree of stress. Either, way we can see the damage that can be done to a man physiological when they are involved in such a catastrophic, whether he was at fault or not; he was suffering the consequences of losing so much of this countries money.
It is certainly awfully hard for me to believe that this man was not involved in some crucial decisions that led to the collapse of Freddie Mac being that before he took over as acting CFO he was a senior vice-president and led the company’s accounting and finance operations.

According to the guardian.co.uk

At least six other financial services executives have committed suicide under stress from the current credit crisis. Those include Germany’s fifth richest man, Adolf Merckle, who in January threw himself under a train in an act his family blamed on his company’s “desperate situation”. In December, a French fund manager who had lost $1.4bn of clients’ money to Bernard Madoff’s ponzi scheme was found dead at his desk in New York.

While I do not know the hearts of these people these people are examples of the damage money can do to a person. Just because you have money does not mean you are well off. Money is only good if it does not come with undue stress and comes ethically, ultimately for these people that was not the case and they had to pay the ultimately price for their money.

NASA has captured a photo of what appears as the Hand of God. While this certainly does not prove the existence of God any more than an interestingly shaped cloud would. Certainly, God has already provided sufficient wittiness and proof of His existence, and is pleased to do so through things, which many would consider foolish. Accordingly, we need not believe that this is the necessarily the hand of God, but simply that this is the work of God to be impressed. The mere possibility that this could be an image of the hand of God is enough.