#hendra virus

[maddyjones2]

Dogs and horses have a lyme disease vaccine because the antivaxers didn't get that vaccine withdrawn. They went hard on an australian horse vaccine for hendra but haven't won that fight.

[dilfsisko]

‘Oh there are no rabies in Australia I’ll take the bat’ FALSE. While it might not be rabies proper Australia has its OWN lyssavirus, Australian Bat Lyssavirus.

[artemis-pendragon]

Okay so I have this weird thing where I fully support the wearing of masks and community care and everything on a moral level but there’s this part of me that’s like, afraid of it? Like, in this hypothetical world where everyone did the right thing and masked all the time, would it then become taboo to see someone’s face? It’s not masking itself I hate but I do hate the idea of never smiling at someone again. I know this sounds stupid but its an existential dread I have. Also, if big gatherings and dining out is bad, how will we have fun? I love comeradery and the energy of other people and I don’t want to not have that in the future. Do you think there will ever be a permanent covid cure and even a permanent cold cure so we don’t have to do it anymore and everyone’s still safe? What about effective transparent masks? Will we ever see those? If there were transparent masks I probably wouldn’t be so scared…

This is a totally rational and normal fear in my opinion!! We're social creatures that heavily rely on body language for communication despite advanced linguistic ability, and the thought of not having access to half of a person's face while interacting is intimidating and sad for sure!

Masking, for me, is now something I do when in close-quarter spaces, large enclosed inside public spaces, especially with little to no ventilation, and when attending large and crowded outdoor events like concerts! When outside in smaller groups, dining out at restaurants or other smaller public places, I'm comfortable removing my mask to eat and see others' faces during conversation. This is partially because viral load (how much virus you are exposed to when initially infected) can have an effect on how sick you get. If you are only exposed briefly to a small amount of virus, it will take longer to spread and give your immune system longer to gear up and deal with it.

Outdoors, unless in a super crowded area, I'm comfortable going mask-less but just keep a mask with me in case someone vulnerable needs the extra protection or I unexpectedly need to enter a higher-risk area. I don't keep up the standard I did when COVID was an untreatable virus with no vaccine, because it has become more domesticated (lol can't think of a better term but I hope you know what I mean) and less overtly dangerous than the original wild strain. This is a very common phenomenon in spillover viral events; the original strain of COVID didn't mean to get into humans, and killed us when it actually would make more evolutionary sense for the virus to keep us alive both as a current spreader and future repeat host. Therefore, future strains that survived were more likely to be less deadly. That's part of why SARS was so easily suppressed compared to COVID! it was too deadly, and didn't spread from asymptomatic or pre-symtomatic people like COVID.

ANYWAY, all that is to say that COVID is still a major threat, but it has acclimatized to us more and likely will remain a common human disease for the forseeable future. We will continue our eternal arms race against viruses, coming up with better treatments until something new emerges. After all, there are likely descendant strains of the mega-deadly 1918 influenza still in circulation today, but they've lost their original zoonotic fangs and gotten used to living in and with us rather than wiping us out.

Which brings me to emergent zoonotic viruses. Another important reason for wearing masks is that, in the 100% likelihood of another viral spillover event (humans continue to displace animals we previously had very little contact with, bringing with them new viruses like Ebola, Marburg, SARS, COVID, MERS, Nipah, bird flu, and Hendra) that turns into an epidemic or pandemic in our global world, if everyone already has masks on-hand and are used to masking up, we'll already be one step ahead in the next viral arms race.

I love the idea of clear face masks, by the way!! I've also always loved the idea of cyberpunk-style digital masks that display expressions or play by play transcriptions of a speaker's words, which would double as an accessibility aid for HOH and Deaf people, as well as people with audio processing issues (like yours truly lol).

Lastly, the biggest reason we haven't cured the common cold is because the common cold is actually a wide range of different viruses! Rhinoviruses, adenoviruses, and coronaviruses (the classification, not specifically COVID, which is one of many) are responsible for "cold symptoms", and getting rid of all of them isn't something we can or should do! Allowing our immune systems the chance to stay active and healthy by fighting less severe viruses (unless they are severely compromised, such as in the case of HIV AIDS--another zoonotic disease from the 20th century!) allows them to stay strong and flexible in recognizing more dangerous strains. For example, someone who has been vaccinated for Mpox (2-10% fatality rate without treatment) has some immunity to Smallpox (up to 30% fatality rate without treatmeant), even though they aren't the same virus! In fact, the first vaccine was made by exposing people intentionally to Cowpox, which makes cows sick but not humans. They figured out that people on dairy farms were having waaaay fewer severe cases of Smallpox, and exposure to a less severe but related virus was the reason! We need less potent viruses to practice and keep our immune systems active and flexible when the next Big One comes along.

I know this turned into a fucking PhD dissertation and I'm sorry for not being more concise in my wording but virology is endlessly fascinating and I love talking about public health and epidemiology, especially concerning zoonotic and emerging viruses. It's fascinating as well as scary, and the more prepared we are, the better!

TLDR; not everyone needs to mask all the time, but there are increasing risks caused by expanding population and crowding, as well as global crowding, global warming, and habitat destruction, that more diseases will jump into humans. COVID isn't the first, and won't be the last. Keeping that thang (your mask) on your person and on your face, especially in really big crowded or indoor public spaces, is a great habit to stay in! We can keep our social desire to see faces intact, and occasionally sacrifice seeing a stranger's smile to keep another stranger alive.

Hope this wasn't annoyingly and frustratingly long Anon, and maybe some of you fucking nerds out there will enjoy reading this!

Love you all, and hope you stay healthy and safe! ❤️

[nimbusnomade]

Queensland Health has been directed to launch an investigation into the incident, which is described as an unacceptable lapse in safety measures. Authorities in Queensland, Australia, have confirmed a “major historical breach of biosecurity protocols” after hundreds of virus samples went missing from a public health laboratory. Queensland Health has been directed to launch an investigation into the incident, which is described as an unacceptable lapse in safety measures. According to an official statement by the Queensland government on Monday, 323 vials containing dangerous viruses, including Hendra virus, Lyssavirus and Hantavirus, went missing from the Queensland Public Health Virology Laboratory in August 2023.

[mightyflamethrower]

Authored by Martin Hoyt via RealClearHealth,

It did not have to be this way. The COVID-19 pandemic cost American citizens their lives, their livelihoods, education, mental health, reputations and, ultimately, civil and religious freedoms. “The U.S. accounts for less than 5% of the world’s population, but more than 25% of total COVID-19 cases reported across the globe, and it currently ranks among the top 10 countries in COVID-19-related deaths per capita,” wrote the authors of  2023 commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association. And for all that, we have government to thank.  

For years leading up to the pandemic, the nation had spent billions on preparation and planning for a biohazard attack or event. Whatever we learned was quickly discarded or undone by a lack of accountability, transparency, and humility. Decades of planning and untold man hours of research and training were rendered ineffective by a corrupt culture of greed, self-importance, scientific misconduct, and outright fraud. Because, while the government worked to prevent the worst, it was also helping to create chaos and contagion by funding and facilitating gain of function (GOF) research. 

GOF research refers to laboratory efforts to make viruses deadlier or to increase their transmissibility. The potential for disaster is obvious. Almost five years prior to the pandemic Dr. Marc Lipsitch and Dr. Alison Galvani noted that GOF pathogenic research posed “a risk of accidental and deliberate release that, if it led to extensive spread of the new agent, could cost many lives … Furthermore, the likelihood of risk is multiplied as the number of laboratories conducting such research increases around the globe.” 

But according to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s emails and other NIAID communications obtained via FOIA – those that weren’t deleted by the now-infamous “FOIA lady” – the Wuhan lab was working on Covid research with the U.S. as early as 2015. And the worst happened. Dr. Richard H. Ebright of Rutgers University told a Senate committee hearing on June 18, 2024, that “… lapses in U.S. oversight of gain-of-function research and enhanced potential pandemic pathogen research likely contributed to the origin of COVID-19 …” 

While Ebright said GOF has no medical utility, he emphasized that there are “major incentives to researchers worldwide, in China, and in the U.S. The researchers undertake this research because it is easy, they get the money, and they can get the papers [in science journals].” 

Not surprisingly, China was selected because it was quicker and cheaper to conduct research without U.S. government entanglements or oversight. Dr. Steven Quay also testified on June 18 and said the Wuhan Institute of Virology is a “level-2 lab,” as opposed to highly secure level-4 labs elsewhere. Moreover, Dr. Fauci et al were able to fund this research because the law was silent. Ebright again:  

… in this category of research, which is the most significant in terms of consequences and potentially existential risk there is almost no regulation with force of law. No regulation with force of law for biosafety or any pathogen other than the smallpox virus and no regulation with force of law for bio risk management for any pathogen.

But the U.S. and the world, may have temporarily escaped imminent catastrophe. Consider, according to Dr. Quay, what Wuhan obtained from Canada’s National Microbiology Lab in 2019: “two vials each of 15 strains of virus: seven varieties of Ebola virus, the Hendra virus, and two strains of Nipah virus, Malaysia and Bangladesh.” These virus samples, according to Dr. Steven Quay, are “the top three most deadly human pathogens on the planet.” The samples were obtained under murky circumstances (“described as a possible policy breach”) from a level-4 lab and surreptitiously flown on a commercial flight to Beijing where they were subsequently placed in a level-2 lab overseen by a country with a long history of a disregard for proper safety protocols.

Gain of function research probably created COVID-19, but our legislative and executive branches created the conditions for the disaster. Congress failed to pass laws governing specific GOF research, both Congress and the executive branch failed to effectively manage the federal health and science bureaucracy, and various agencies failed to monitor the behavior and performance of grantees and vendors engaged in GOF research. When catastrophe struck, self-interest and political survival of those responsible overrode the best interests of our citizenry. 

Who in the government benefited? How and to what extent did they benefit? Did any GOF research contribute to the U.S. global or response? Is GOF research being rerouted to our defense and security agencies to avoid scrutiny? NIAID continues to stall, obfuscate, and otherwise restrict transparency to its current and past activities. We know there was a concerted effort by senior leaders like Anthony Fauci to hide or delete emails but many other records still likely exist that remain uncovered.

This must change. Any research activity or sponsorship of scientific endeavors that are capable of mass extinction, such as GOF, must be subjected to a higher level of accountability and scrutiny by our elected leaders and the American public. Accountability, transparency, and public debate after an international crisis like Covid-19 can’t undo the global catastrophic harm that was done. It can, however, reduce the ability of our public health bureaucracy to contribute to the next disaster or looming crisis.

Borrowed from:

(https://stuff-that-irks-me.tumblr.com/)

[andronetalks]

Hundreds of Vials of Deadly Viruses Missing After Lab Breach

Newsweek By Jess Thomson Published Dec 09, 2024 at 8:29 AM ESTUpdated Dec 11, 2024 at 12:39 PM EST Hundreds of vials containing live viruses have gone missing from a laboratory in Australia, sparking an investigation. Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls announced today that 323 samples of live viruses—including Hendra virus, Lyssavirus and Hantavirus—went missing in 2021 in a “serious breach…

[rameshindustryarc]

𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐁𝐢𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐬: 𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞-IndustryARC™

The global biomarkers market size was estimated at USD 81.04 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.36% from 2024 to 2030.

📚 𝐑𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐒𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞

#Genomic #biomarkers are Deoxyribonucleic acid (#DNA) and Ribonucleic acid (#RNA) characteristics used as disease characterization, an indicator of #diagnosis, and therapy selection. These biomarkers reflect #biological and pathogenic processes and response to therapeutic or other intervention.

The use of biomarkers in infectious disease diagnosis is anticipated to become increasingly common in the upcoming years. For instance, as per Frontiers in #Microbiology in 2020 , potential #MicroRNA-based biomarkers have been identified for the diagnosis of infections such as influenza infections, rhinoviruses, HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, Ebola, and Hendra virus. These are aimed at facilitating early onset of infectious diseases. Biomarkers are also under study for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2.

[mongowheelie]

Hundreds of Vials of Deadly Viruses Missing After Lab Breach

Source: Newsweek

Hundreds of Vials of Deadly Viruses Missing After Lab Breach

Source: Newsweek

This was 3 years ago and we are just hearing about it now!

[thewelllitweenie]

It's a fun twist of fate that something so keen on contact and ever so cute is also a made reservoir of zoonotic diseases, little friends like this carry hendra virus like it's not big deal.

Look at this baby’s face

[ilearnedthistodaysblog]

#1066 Why don’t bats get sick?

Why don’t bats get sick? Because their immune response doesn’t cause much inflammation, because they have proteins that stop the viruses leaving their cells, and because the viruses have evolved to live with them. Bats do get sick and some viruses are lethal to them. They also carry a lot of viruses that can jump to other animals. It is thought that Covid 19 jumped from bats to humans somewhere in China. There are also other viruses that make it to humans by going from bats via other animals. A Hendra virus made its way to humans by going via horses. Researchers have found over 130 different kinds of viruses living inside bats. Bats live in large colonies on the roofs of caves or in other dark places, and it is very easy for viruses to jump between them. Then the vats pass these viruses on in bodily fluids. So, if bats are hosts to so many viruses, why don’t they get sick? Well, they do. Rabies, for example, can kill bats. A rabies virus can go through a colony of bats and wipe out over half of them. However, the majority of viruses that are dangerous to us have no effect on bats. Why is that? There appear to be three reasons and the first reason is that bats are the only mammals that can fly. There are a few types of squirrels that can glide from tree to tree, and this could be the first step on the evolutionary ladder to flying, but bats are the only mammals that have sustained and controllable flight. They don’t fly in the same way as birds because their wing is a membrane that stretches over the five long fingers they have on their hand, while birds have a long arm and one finger. This wing formation gives them a lot more mobility than birds, but they have evolved to fly and can’t really walk. When they fly, they use a lot of muscle power because they have to flap about ten times a second to keep airborne. This causes their heart rate to go up to 1,000 beats per minute and their body temperature rises to 41℃. This high heart rate and high body temperature protect them against viruses. When we have a viral infection, our body raises our internal temperature, triggering a fever, to make our bodies inhospitable to the virus. This happens every time the bat flies. They have also evolved to keep their immune system from reacting. Because they fly so fast, they have a very high metabolism and that causes damage to their cells. When our cells are damaged, the body initiates an immune response and triggers inflammation in the cells. This is one of the things that make us sick. Bats cannot afford to have inflammation every time they fly, so they have evolved not to. Their immune response doesn’t trigger inflammation as readily as ours does, which means viruses don’t cause a harmful immune response, which means they don’t get sick. The second reason is that their cells produce proteins that stop the viruses from getting away. This protein is called tetherin and we produce it as well. It can stop viruses from entering a cell, it can stop viruses from replicating themselves, and it can stop the virus copy from leaving the cells. Our bodies produce two different types of tetherin proteins, which are able to stop a few different types of virus. Bats produce fifteen different types of tetherin proteins, which means they can stop and control a much larger number of viruses. The third reason, which may be somewhat conjecture, is that viruses have evolved to be less harmful to bats because they can use bats as a host and as a way to move to other species. The single goal of a virus is to reproduce its DNA. That is it. If a virus cannot reproduce, it will die out and disappear. If a virus can reproduce, it will spread and spread. That is evolution. It is counterproductive for a virus to kill its host because it becomes more difficult for that virus to get to a new host. This is true with bats as well. It makes far more sense for a virus to evolve to be able to survive in a bat but not make the bat sick, so that the bat can fly around and spread the virus to other species. And this is what I learned today. Photo by Erick Arce: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-of-bat-feeding-on-flower-15915605/ Sources https://www.burnet.edu.au/knowledge-and-media/news-plus-updates/why-don-t-most-viruses-make-bats-sick https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/02/09/803543244/bats-carry-many-viruses-so-why-dont-they-get-sick https://www.bats.org.uk/about-bats/bats-and-disease/bats-and-viruses https://howthingsfly.si.edu/ask-an-explainer/how-do-bats-fly-differently-birds https://www.batcon.org/bats-vs-birds Read the full article

[zehub]

🧬 Fascinantes chauves-souris: comment tolèrent-elles des virus mortels pour les humains ?

Les chauves-souris ont fait la une des médias avec l'émergence du SARS-CoV-2 qui aurait pour origine l'un de leurs coronavirus. Ce n'est pas la première émergence imputable à ces mammifères volants. En effet, lors de l'émergence du premier SARS-CoV en 2002 et d'un coronavirus voisin le MERS-CoV, en 2012, le réservoir a été identifié parmi les chauves-souris. Au-delà des coronavirus, d'autres virus tels que les paramyxovirus Hendra et Nipah ont émergé en Asie touchant respectivement les chevaux et les porcs mais aussi les hommes pour les deux virus.

[average-dragon-enjoyer64]

you know how kids have really irrational fears, like quicksand and the sun burning out?

yeah, 5 year old me was fucking terrified of Hendra virus. I didn’t even have horses.

[labseraph]

Good news! We have ways to live together with fruit bats without the icky zoonotic viral sharing!

We just need to remember to prosper our neighbours and that includes bats and the rest of the ecosystem!

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/11/16/1136850711/an-elegant-way-to-stop-deadly-hendra-virus-spillovers-from-bats-to-horses-to-us

[yetanothersupernova]

Empathy

Design thinking is a reiterative and non-linear process (Stevens, 2023) that allows designers to problem-solve in creative ways. It typically consists of 5 stages; ‘empathise’, ‘define’, ‘ideate’, ‘prototype’, and ‘test’, with each phase targeting a specific area of the problem (Interactive Design Foundation, n.d.). This semester, we utilised the design thinking process to deconstruct and find a solution to a solitary wicked problem. Wicked problems are described as complex social issues, typically without a straightforward solution (Ritchey, 2011). We were given a short list of problems to choose from as a group, and we decided on exploring Hendra Virus.

The first several weeks of semester were primarily targeted towards introducing the class to collaborative learning. 

In Week 1, we participated in a silent exercise that assisted our understanding of the design process. Each student was required to illustrate the individual steps of making toast without the use of words or numbers. Once completed, the class split into two groups to reorder each image in silence. It was a simple task, but effective in introducing us to group contribution and separating design into individual stages. 

The second week consisted of randomised group allocation, which was solely based on our degrees, major/s, and skill sets. After the class was separated into groups, I was introduced to my own group members:

Lillian Mackaway

Robert Hall

Katherine Dowd

Astrid Goodley

After our group was assembled, we filled out a contract for collaboration to document each other’s contact details, as well as have an official document to ensure all members were productive and collaborative throughout the semester. Additionally, we set up Microsoft Teams to successfully communicate outside of class. Unfortunately, Katherine left the course in Week 3, and was ultimately replaced by Sean Pobie in Week 4.

During Week 3, the empathise phase of the design process began. We decided on the Hendra Virus WICKED problem, and made quick work of reframing its context to better understand the issue and who it impacts. Most of our initial efforts during class in Week 2 was put into researching hendra virus (HeV) to gain an understanding of where to progress.

Getting used to the group was particularly a challenge. With development in the early stages, most of us had limited input. Each of us had different learning styles, but we determined that open communication was the best way forward to ensure we’re all consistent with our understanding. 

REFERENCES:

Ritchey, T. (2011). Wicked Problems - Social Messes: Decision Support Modelling with Morphological Analysis. Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Siang, T. (2009). What is Design Thinking? The Interaction Design Foundation; The Interaction Design Foundation. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/design-thinking

Stevens, E. (2023, April 19). The Key Principles and Steps of the Design Thinking Process. Career Foundry. https://careerfoundry.com/en/blog/ux-design/design-thinking-process/#:~:text=The%20Design%20Thinking%20process%20can%20be%20divided%20into%20five%20key,Ideate%2C%20Prototype%2C%20and%20Test.