Pssst, ALL viruses are immune to anti-biotics. Anti-biotics only work on bacterial infections. Viruses are controlled through the use of vaccines that help your cody develop anti-bodies to the virus before it gets to you, so once it does, you can already fight it off. To develop a vaccine, they have to "crack the code" of the virus first.

<font color=deeppink>Quite right. Instead you use antiviral chemotherapy. Plenty of such substances out on the market today, AZT is perhaps the most known. Unfortunately quite a lot of research is needed for the development of these drugs. As for masks, they can be very useful if properly prepared.

As for the poll, I think that shutting down all schools is not the most appealing way of dealing with this. If a child at one school develop symptoms it might be time to shut down that particular school for a while. [img]smile.gif[/img] </font>

well, if you are scared of getting the thing. you could wear a surgical mask or wash you hand after doing anything. avoid close contact and stay at home. that's whar the government people told us to do.

however, my mum has banned us from eating chicken. does it transmit from chicken as well?

<font color=deeppink>I doubt it since this is a respiratory virus. The acid in your stomach will thoroughly destroy the virus particles if you should ingest them. But chicken can spread other diseases, so the general rule is to cook the chicken thoroughly! [img]smile.gif[/img] </font>

hmmm..guess you are right. if it does transmit from chicken then the government people would have kill every chicken there is.

<font color=deeppink>That´s generally the flu. ;) That virus is canny indeed. It can join together different segments to form a new genome. This happens especially in pigs (when regarding the strains dangerous for humans). When a dangerous strain is found, most often in Asia, the hosts are killed to minimize the risk for a worldwide epidemic. [img]smile.gif[/img] </font>

hey guess what everyone! I live in orlando...tourist city. THe disease should be here any minute now!

oh bother, there's a report saying that someone in town has got SARS. this has caused some kind of a panic. I guess these few days will be very very " suspense ". :(

<font color=deeppink>Quite right. Instead you use antiviral chemotherapy. Plenty of such substances out on the market today, AZT is perhaps the most known. Unfortunately quite a lot of research is needed for the development of these drugs. As for masks, they can be very useful if properly prepared.

As for the poll, I think that shutting down all schools is not the most appealing way of dealing with this. If a child at one school develop symptoms it might be time to shut down that particular school for a while. [img]smile.gif[/img] </font></font>[/QUOTE]MMM! AZT not really the best analogy there, although HIV mutates so that it avoids the bodies immune systsem, its relatively vulnerable to antiviral therapy: Influenza, corona and picorna viruses mutate far faster and therefore antivirals don't get a chance to do their stuff (this is why there has never been a cure for the common cold, or flu for that matter).

<font color=deeppink>Not true. There are several substances on the market for the flu, for instance Amantadine and Ribavarin. There is also WIN-substrates against picornaviruses. And they do work just fine! ;) The reason you don´t get them is that they are reserved for critical patients. This restriction ensures that the influenza virus will not mutate. Of course there already are existing mutants against these drugs.

As for my example I gave AZT a the example since this probably is the MOST KNOWN antiviral drug. It is not an attempt of an analogy of any kind. ;) </font>