West Nile Virus
canada goose clearance sale This is the story of a little Aussie battler who cracked the mystery of deadly virus spreading across America. Dr Roy Hall, once an unknown scientist working on an unremarkable virus called Kunjin, was thrust into the limelight when unexpectedly hit America canada goose outlet location and people started to die. Roy came to the rescue canada goose outlet store near me identifying the virus, using his science to track it’s alarming progress across the States, and finally developing a vaccine. Several unusual cases of encephalitis swelling of the brain started to pop up in the city’s hospitals. canada goose clearance sale
cheap canada goose uk Sufferer 1: I got a rash first and then I got sick cheap canada goose uk
Sufferer 2: They didn’t think I was gonna live
Professor Ian Lipkin: So people have difficulty in concentration, they have headaches, fever, difficulty with paralysis, difficulty breathing.
The patients were originally diagnosed with St Louis Encephalitis but the symptoms didn’t quite add up.
Professor Ian Lipkin: What was different about them was that many of the individuals presented with profound weakness requiring hospitalisation, so it was very unusual canada goose clothing uk encephalitis.
Canada Goose online Narration: As summer wore on things became even more confusing. Birds started dying in high numbers, and St Louis Encephalitis doesn’t kill birds. Microbiologist Professor Ian Lipkin was called upon to provide a genetic sequence of the virus. Canada Goose online
canada goose store Professor Ian Lipkin: When we first sequenced the virus we found it was not St Louis Encephalitis, but rather a virus that looked very similar to kunjin virus canada goose store
Narration: Kunjin is a harmless mosquito borne virus found all the way over canada goose outlet store quebec in Australia. So could kunjin really have made its way over to America, canada goose outlet store uk and could it have turned deadly? Searching for answers the Americans put an internet request out around the world for help. Amazingly, on the other side of the world, in Australia, microbiologist Dr Roy Hall picked up their request. As it turned out he’d canada goose parka uk spent the last 15 years studying Kunjin virus.
Dr Roy Hall: I think you’d have to say it’s being in the right place at the right time.
Narration: What he’d just discovered was that Kunjin was genetically very closely related to a deadly African disease called.
Dr Roy Hall: We had just done all the research to find the relationship between Kunjin and West Nile and define that very carefully. Kunjin virus was about to be classified as a part of West Nile yet none of the data really had been put on the major database.
canada goose coats Narration: When Roy saw the request for help on the website he immediately offered to supply his antibody tests to the USA. These tests were vital, they proved the mystery virus was indeed, which came as a bit of a surprise. canada goose coats
uk canada goose Professor John Mackenzie: Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought West Nile would get to America. uk canada goose
Professor Ian Lipkin: Everybody was surprised, but in retrospect we shouldn’t have been because the world is a very small place.
Narration: originated in Africa, and has been known to occur in Europe, so how did it get into America?
Dr Roy Hall: The exact mechanism of entry is a mystery. It’s possible that it came in via infected birds that were imported. It is also possible that it came canada goose outlet vancouver via mosquitoes that were infected and harboured in someone’s luggage or freight.
cheap Canada Goose Narration: But as a mosquito borne disease, it was hoped that when winter hit, that’d be the last America would see of West Nile virus. Unfortunately they couldn’t be more wrong. By 2000 West Nile was spreading into neighbouring states, and with it spread people’s fear of the mosquito. cheap Canada Goose
Professor Ian Lipkin: When the mosquito borne outbreak was first discovered there was a panic. Extensive insecticide spraying got underway and mosquito repellent was flying off the shelf.
Narration: They had to find a way to canada goose outlet london uk track the spread of the disease. And again Roy thought he might have the answer.
Dr Roy Hall: Birds are a very important part of the virus lifecycle. Birds are required to pass the virus onto mosquitoes, which then pass the virus onto more birds and that’s the way the virus is transmitted and spread to different parts of the countryside.
Narration: Roy developed a test for use on dead birds that could quickly detect the presence of.
Dr Roy Hall: This test is now being used by a number of labs in the US. They test on a regular basis serum from wild birds and domestic birds that they take and they can then test to see if these birds contain the antibody to West Nile.
Narration: This tracking system showed https://www.goosesea.com the disease really exploded. This is how the epidemic progressed between 1999 and 2001. Where you see the pink areas here, these are the States where there’s activity in 1999. The following year we see in green And then in 2001 we see this area in canada goose outlet blue where the virus canada goose outlet website legit spread particularly further south into Florida.
canada goose uk shop And by 2002 West Nile had spread right across America into almost every state. canada goose uk shop
To date over 200 people have died, and now the race is on to produce a vaccine. Roy and his colleague Alex Khromykh are among the front runners with a vaccine based on Kunjin virus.
Canada Goose sale Dr Roy Hall: Based on our studies on the immune response to kunjin virus in mice, that’s enabled us to develop a vaccine that’s effective against kunjin virus and now we find it’s also effective against West Nile Canada Goose sale.