Super-Virulent new TB made in lab

[Brian G Turner]

Sad to see that science is continuing to create super-virulent viruses, especially ni an age where they have become so especially feared:

excerpt:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3301159.stm

A virulent form of tuberculosis was created in the laboratory by experts trying to alter its genetic structure.


The mutant form of the bug multiplied more quickly, and was more lethal than its natural counterpart.

Researchers from the University of California at Berkeley, US, had actually been trying to disable genes and make the bacterium less deadly.

"This is one of the very few hyper-virulent organisms ever created," said scientist Dr Lisa Morici.

Tuberculosis is one of the world's biggest killers, and scientists are probing its genetic structure in a bid to find weaknesses that might be exploited by new treatments. The Berkeley study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, concentrated on a particular collection of genes thought to give TB some of its virulence - its ability to infect.

 

[littlemissattitude]

Great. Wonderful. Just what we need. More, and more deadly, diseases. Isn't it bad enough that Mom Nature makes them? Do we really have to as well? Even accidentally, which seems to be what they're claiming.

 

[Allyn]

it was bound to happen. I'll leave my opinions out of this one.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Allyn, feel free to express your opinion.

Rants are good, and disagreement is fine. I know there are good motives for exploring the virulence of viruses, but the whole subject just makes me shudder.

 

[Allyn]

fine, you win.

Over the past years Humans have worked hard at wiping out diseases and extending the life expectancy. A lot of things that used to be deadly are either completely gone or are treated so they only kill one in every 10 000 (random number).

Right now, while there are other diseases, the 2 big ones are cancer and HIV/AIDS. In 10, 20 years from now we could have treatments and vaccines to keep us safe from these, and with DNA work they could likely have ways to give you a new organ that won't be regected.

Disease is a very natural thing. Death is very natural. We live this life and then die, there's no changing that. If we remove things like Cancer, AIDS, and basically any other major disease, what is there, beyond old age, that could kill us?

Mother nature can take a lot of abuse. Look at what we're doing now environmentally. However, as our population grows and our life expectancy lengthens someday, maybe not in our lifetime or even in the next 3 centuries, it'll come back and bite us in the butt.

It could take a form of a disease. All it could take is one person catching it to infect an intire city. A deady, air-borne, fast mutating disease could kill off a good chunk of the worlds population, and while SARS was/is a glorified media frenzy, it sort of foreshadowed it a bit.

Am I scaring you? I'm not meaning to. That is why I said it was bound to happen, because chances are if/when a disease like that emerges, it will be from a stupid error in a lab somewhere.

 

[Brian G Turner]

chances are if/when a disease like that emerges, it will be from a stupid error in a lab somewhere.

Too right, as well. That's a big part fo the problem. New Scientist reported recently that the US government was becoming heavy handed with biologists over security breaches. The trouble is, these same biologists have though nothing of carrying deadly infectious agents in their luggage while jetting from lab to lab. Quite astonishing, really.