Zosimo T. Literatus, R.M.T.
Breakthroughs

JOHN McGahern, Irish writer and author of Amongst Women (1990), wrote: “While it is fiction, it is also a revelation of truths, or facts.” The same can be said of the swine flu virus as we knew it.

Dr. Harrison Wein of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) reported that the virus is now called “novel H1N1,” or fully “novel influenza A (H1N1) virus.”

In many studies funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and national Institute of General Medical Sciences, both under NIH, scientists were able to trace the descendants of novel H1N1 “not only of swine viruses but also of the H1N1 virus that caused the 1918 pandemic, which killed 40-50 million people worldwide,” wrote Wein.

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Dr. Anthony Fauci says: “The legacy of that pandemic lives on in many ways, including the fact that the descendents of the 1918 virus have continued to circulate for nine decades.”

A genetic mapping of the virus performed in France, and published in Le Monde on April 29, shows that its eight genetic components came from swine and avian viruses as well as strains infecting humans in 1993, called H3N2 strain.

Most swine and avian genetic materials came from North America, and two swine components came from Europe and Asia. By this picture alone it can be understood which countries would be very vulnerable.

Researches established that unlike the seasonal H1N1 flu viruses, the novel H1N1 viruses replicate to higher levels in lung tissue and were also more deadly.

They can be found in intestinal canals, explaining reports of gastrointestinal discomforts, and even pain. They also mutate rapidly, so they can potentially improve their binding ability. Its transmission however is not as efficient as that of a seasonal H1N1.

Apparently, novel H1N1 viruses may have already circulated in the country without us knowing it. That explains why certain cases of H1N1 flu have not been associated with any contact with people with flu virus.

We may have detected them only because we are testing people having the symptoms or may have died because of it. One thing to be thankful for in our country is that the strains of novel H1N1 turned out to be much milder than abroad.

It might be divine grace that made this possible, as John Milton wrote in his magnum opus Paradise Lost (first published in 1667): “And grace that won who saw to wish her stay.” (E-mail: zim_breakthroughs@yahoo.com; blog: http://breakthroughs.today.blogspot.com)