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Monday, April 07, 2003Experts say the new human coronavirus, if it causes SARS, probably arose when it managed to incorporate similar but foreign RNA, which, like DNA, can make up the genome or genetic code of microorganisms. Such alien RNA would make it a kind of natural hybrid. Human coronaviruses, said Dr. Mark R. Denison, an expert at Vanderbilt University, are like the mild-mannered next-door neighbor with a proclivity for doing the unexpected. "It's always the quiet ones you worry about," he said. ....Coronaviruses, he added, "are ubiquitous and are relatively promiscuous" in their ability to infect different species. Infection of a single host with two different coronaviruses can easily lead to recombination and the emergence of new forms, he said, and "that's probably what happened here." Guangdong Province in southern China, where the illness is believed to have emerged late last year, has dense concentrations of domestic waterfowl in close proximity to pigs and people. Experts say those are ideal conditions for transferring diseases among different species and for the emergence of a new strain of flu virtually every year. "It's no surprise that other viruses can take advantage of similar mechanisms," said Dr. Block of Stanford. The one constant in life is change, even for viruses. posted by Sydney on 4/07/2003 07:09:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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