Craig,

Marcia has come up (from a bio-friend) with information that pretty well shows the SARS virus was manmade by the Chinese, and apparently it just got loose from them.  This, together with the BW stuff and terrorists already in country here in the U.S., means we will almost certainly get some BW strikes or pandemics; just a matter of when. 

Best wishes,

Tom

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Sent: Saturday, April 12, 2003 10:15 PM

Waaaaaaal, lookee down here at this here journal citation at where the Chinese government just happens to have a major respiratory research facility--the province where the first outbreak was. I pulled up multiple other articles as well showing a significant number of publications from labs using various mutations of coronovirus, including experiments diddling around with capsid genes that confer species-specifity with one paper blandly reporting a mutation they made that permitted bovine CV to infect all other mammals, and also RSV...most articles from China and Germany.

This virus was an escaped lab freak. I would guess RSV capsid and toxin genes inserted in coronovirus, gives it an incubation period of up to 14 days that appears to off about 40% of over-50 adults but does not infect children hardly at all----exact opposite of most respiratory viruses. The reported mortality rate is highly skewed to over-40 crowd. I still think if it was deliberately created to kill, it was with getting rid of useless elderly in mind. See below for snippets of abstracts.
R


[Primary respiratory syncytial virus infection in mice]

[Article in Chinese]

Zou Y, Huang H, Xu J.

Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Disease, Guangzhou 510120, China.

OBJECTIVE: To establish a mice-model of primary respiratory syncytial virus infection. METHODS: Twelve Balb/c mice (8-12 w) were divided into two groups with three different titers of RSV infection in the experimental group. Mice were anaesthetized with pentobabitone(30 mg/kg) and infected by nasal drip of 0.1 ml of RSV which was harvested from HEP-2 cell culture. Three mice in the control group received sham infection with HEP-2 cell media. Five days later, lungs were removed in aseptic condition. Right lung was weighted and homogenized with MEM(1:10 ratio), then centrifuged at 4 degrees C, 2,000 r/min for 20 minutes. Supernatants were collected for virus isolation and plaque forming assay. Left lung was collected for histopathological and electromicroscopic examination. RESULTS: (1) RSV grew with a characteristic syncytial formation in HEP-2 cells, leading to the fusion of cells with round, elliptic, map or tree like shape. (2) Virus was isolated and detected in the lung tissue in experiment group. (3) There was a positive correlation between RSV titer added and that replicated in the lung. (4) After the eclipse phase, viral replication in the lung reached maximum within 4 and 6 days. The most apparent pathological change was found between day 5 and 8. Mononuclear cell infiltration was presented in the perivascular, peribronchial and in the alveoli spacers. (5) Huge viral replication with its fuzzy coat was detected inside the cytoplasm of the type II alveolar lining cell at high magnification. CONCLUSION: An animal model of RSV infection Balb/c mice was successfully established by nasal inoculation with respiratory syncytial virus.
10. [Relationship between human parvovirus B19 infection and spontaneous abortion]

[Article in Chinese]

Wang R, Chen X, Han M.

Wuhan General Hospital of Guangzhou Command.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether there is a relationship between parvovirus B19 infection and spontaneous abortion. METHODS: 105 embryo tissues from spontaneous abortions of unknown cause during 1994-1995 were studied using nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for parvovirus B19 DNA. As controls 40 fetal tissues were also examined. Among which, 20 were collected from induced abortions, and the others were stillbirths. The positive specimens underwent further study for TORCH infections. RESULTS: 26 (24.5%) were B19 DNA positive in the case group and 2 (5.0%) in the control group. The difference was significant (P < 0.05). Among 26 positive specimens, 5 had cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection as well as 2 had both CMV and herpes simplex virus (RSV) infections. CONCLUSIONS: Parvovirus B19 infection may be an important pathogen for spontaneous abortion, and it is suggested to investigate parvovirus B19 infection among pregnant women in China.