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Wash your hands - evolution in action

934 views 9 replies 6 participants last post by  rgray 
#1 ·
Common Cold Mutates, Becomes Stronger
By Amy Burkholder,
CNN
Posted: 2007-12-20 11:41:49

(Dec. 19) - A high school varsity athlete, a sturdy guy with a health history blissfully free of blips, 18-year-old Joseph Spencer had little reason to think anything was seriously wrong when he got sick last April.

The vomiting, chills, fever -- "It must be the flu," he thought.

Within hours, Spencer's fever was 104 degrees. Within days, he was in the intensive care unit at Providence Portland Medical Center in Oregon with full-blown pneumonia. Spencer's doctor was afraid this sturdy teenage boy was going to die.

"His lungs had filled up with water, it was hard to get oxygen into him," explains Dr. David Gilbert, an infectious disease expert and Spencer's physician at Providence. "Things got so bad, I thought we were at risk of losing him."

But as perplexing as what would make a hardy young man so sick -- so quickly -- was his diagnosis: adenovirus, the virus that usually causes nothing worse than a nasty cold.

"In the past, we considered adenovirus a 98-pound weakling," says Dr. Dean Erdman, leader of the respiratory diagnostic program at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. "But adenovirus is causing severe disease and, in some cases, death in normal, healthy people."

At least 1,035 people in Oregon and a handful of other states have been infected by adenovirus so far this year. One of the largest outbreaks was at an Air Force base in Texas. Watch Dr. Sanjay Gupta explain the killer cold virus »

But by far the deadliest outbreak is in Oregon, where seven patients have died.

"Fortunately, Joe survived," says Gilbert. "Twenty percent of our patients did not survive this severe infection."


The bug causing the serious disease is called "adenovirus 14," one of the 51-odd strains of adenovirus that typically cause anything from colds to conjunctivitis and gastroenteritis. While adenovirus isn't a new bug on the block -- it was first identified in 1955 -- researchers believe it has mutated into a more virulent form, first identified in 2005.

"We were very surprised when we ran into this much more aggressive form of adenovirus, which took otherwise healthy people and put them into our intensive care unit with life-threatening pneumonia," says Gilbert.

It is important for doctors to think of adenovirus when confronted with an ill patient -- recognizing early symptoms before they become life-threatening. Infectious disease experts say shortness of breath, cough and fever are all symptoms you should not ignore.

But how big a threat is adenovirus 14 really?

Adenoviruses are ubiquitous, scrappy bugs -- they exist on everything from pens to countertops to inside our noses. They are spread through contact with a surface, or through the air we breathe. Most people won't suffer life-threatening illness if exposed to adenovirus 14, and that strain of the virus is still pretty rare, but since few people have antibodies to it, there's opportunity for a new virus to spread rapidly throughout the population.

"Adenoviruses kill people," says Gilbert, adding that when these infectious viruses do spread, they spread fast.

"We are asking physicians is to be alert, not to panic -- but be alert," says the CDC's Erdman, who stresses that influenza remains a much larger public health concern, killing and causing far more serious illness annually than adenovirus.

Experts stress that one of the most important things for doctors to recognize is whether a patient has an acute respiratory illness. It could be adenovirus, something they may not connect to severely ill patients.

As far as treatments for adenovirus 14, there aren't any -- doctors focus on managing symptoms -- but researchers are trying to determine if any antiviral drugs could be effective.

The CDC stresses that while a flu shot is a good idea and you should get one, it won't protect you against adenovirus 14. But common sense will: keeping household surfaces clean with a good virus-buster like bleach, avoiding and covering up coughs and sneezes, and of course, hand washing.

Spencer is taking life a little slower these days. He still has gaps in his memory, probably due to oxygen loss. He's made lifestyle changes, including popping vitamins as religiously as he now washes his hands: He keeps bottles of hand sanitizer in his car and on his nightstand.

Most of all, he wants people to know that adenovirus is out there, and what it can do.

"I never thought this would happen to me. You'd think it only happens to unhealthy people," he says, pausing to find the words to finish his sentence. "I always thought of myself as a healthy guy until this happened.

"People need to be aware there's a killer out there."
Common Cold Mutates, Becomes Stronger - AOL News
 
#2 ·
While I favour handwashing, there are researchers who say that an overly clean environment has turned us into a race of weaklings who have lost our resistance to infection. The theory is that exposure to run-of-the-mill infectious agents boosts our immune systems.
 
#4 ·
I'll wash my hands prior to eating and when I have been outside and used door knobs and pens to sign Visa slips. I should be dead by now due to all of the lead paint I must have injested due to keeping the pencils of my elementary school days in my mouth.
 
#5 ·
The theory is that exposure to run-of-the-mill infectious agents boosts our immune systems.
That generally applies to kids whose immune systems are not sufficiently challenged nor mature. One reason ECE is advisable as it exposed kids to others and reduces health costs down the line. The kids get away fro overly clinical parents following them around with the Lysol spray :rolleyes:

Ongoing exposure is not applicable of adults with mature immune systems. You get mumps as an adult or measles and it's a whole different ball game than with a kid.

Last time I checked you can't "feel" the difference between "run of the mill" and a much more dangerous virus.
Wash your hands still applies......to adults.
 
#6 ·
I think there's a rational balance between the obsessive cleanliness that leads to children growing up with naive immune systems, and "I ain't afraid of no germs" toughguy approach.

Washing your hands is like wearing a seat-belt when you drive. There's no guarantee it will save you if you get in an accident, but the stats are pretty compelling, and it's a small price to pay for a large reduction in risk.

That being said, as we've discussed here before, it's not a matter of 'if' but 'when' a global pandemic strikes and decimates our population. 5 billion large mammals is far too great a biological resource to go unexploited for long, and you can be sure something will evolve to take advantage of us.

Cheers
 
#7 ·
bryanc: The large mammals are also the only group actively working to defeat the microscopic exploiters. So while I have no doubt that some organism will kick in to test the 5 billion potential hosts, decimation is a possibility but not necessarily the only outcome.

But, while Toronto, for example, patted itself on the back for its handling of the SARS crisis ("it was nobody's fault really")--they were using pages out of a 1912 playbook to try to control it. Though I think we might be able to promote the science that can help us stave off worldwide decimation, I doubt that our governance--on any level--is capable of exploiting the available resources to control a pandemic particularly well.

MacDoc: Yes, I did mean children in particular. Though exposing one's kiddy to the myriad illnesses available in the general public ALWAYS seems to transfer those illnesses to me. Sure I wash my hands, but getting a faceful of accidental sneeze does the trick every time.
 
#8 ·
bryanc: The large mammals are also the only group actively working to defeat the microscopic exploiters.
Yep... and we've been doing pretty well. But we're fighting a loosing battle. Every time we succeed in improving human health/longevity, we increase the selective pressure on microbes to adapt. Inevitably, the microbes will win.

decimation is a possibility but not necessarily the only outcome.
I could see us succeeding in staving off the inevitable for some time, but unless our population is decreased for other reasons (e.g. war, or voluntary birth control), pandemics are inevitable.

Though I think we might be able to promote the science that can help us stave off worldwide decimation, I doubt that our governance--on any level--is capable of exploiting the available resources to control a pandemic particularly well.
I agree. On the other hand, I was using the word 'decimation' precisely, meaning that 1 in 10 die. One of the 'good' things about biological controls on populations is that they don't usually wipe out the species.

Cheers
 
#10 · (Edited)
Washing hands with soap and water to REMOVE germs make sense.

However the widespread use of so-called anti-microbial soaps and lotions and the like is taking us as a species towards disaster. These products say right on them that they kill 99% of 'germs'. To anyone trained in the nuance of evolution this number is extremely important. The evolutionary issue is exactly the same logically as the problem created by abuse of antibiotics. These products kill only 99% of micro-organisms but they spare that 1%. Not only is the 1% spared but also its microbial competition is wiped out so the 1% is given free rein to spread and develop more or less "at will". That 1% is/are the toughest, nastiest, most virulent of the microbes.

This is exactly the same process, evolutionarily speaking, used by doctors and hospitals to create the C-diff (sp?) bug and other highly antibiotic resistant bugs that you can pick up at your friendly local hospital or medical centre.....

The general public is too stupid to realise that they are helping to build the next super-bug right in their own homes every time they kill 99% of germs in their bathrooms and kitchens. People who routinely use these products are in fact SELECTING FOR the toughest, nastiest, most virulent of microbes.
 
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