(For educational purposes) More Hospitalized As Mysterious Killer Virus Spreads In Southern Russia

MOSCOW, Jul 20, 1999 -- (Agence France

Presse) A mysterious virus which has killed eight

people over the last two weeks in southern Russia

was apparently spreading with doctors reporting

Monday the hospitalization of 32 new victims in the

Volga region.

One of the patients, a 14-year-old girl, came from

Oblivskaya, a town in the southern Rostov-on-Don

region which is at the center of the outbreak, a

hospital spokesman told the ITAR-TASS news

agency.

Many of Oblivskaya 11,000 inhabitants have fled

their homes, raising the risk of communicating the

disease -- which causes fever, internal bleeding and,

in some fatal cases, cerebral hemorrhaging -- to

nearby population centers.

More than 100 people have been taken to hospitals since the weekend.

Eighty-one were brought to a Rostov-on-Don hospital Sunday after

contracting the illness, but 11 of those were discharged Monday.

So far, six people have died in the Rostov-on-Don region and two in the

neighboring Stravropol region.

Children are especially vulnerable to the virus: around one third of

Oblivskaya's 100 victims were children, and three of the fatalities were aged

under 18.

Russian doctors and specialists were still trying to identify the virus.

Russia's chief medical officer Gennady Onishchenko said over the weekend

that local authorities had no plans to impose quarantine restrictions and he

Astrakhan area, Uzbekistan and Ukraine.

The illness can be spread by blood-sucking insects such as mosquitoes and

ticks, doctors said. ((c) 1999 Agence France Presse)

Considering the stand and state of Russia's Y2K programmes, can we but expect possible releases of bio-illogical agents within the laboratories and arsenals of this island of Dr. Moreau. ?Unintentional consequences? Food for

thought!!

snip---From Peach Bottom Nuclear failure

(I don't call accidentally shutting down a Nuke plant a success)

The Y2K bugs were exposed by the test. That's the reason for testing.

From this viewpoint, the test was a success. Think about it. The

consequences would be worse if the bugs remained and the test did

not expose them. (I CAN NOT BELIEVE THIS, IS THIS THE BEST WE CAN DO!!!!IS THIS

THE BEST HOPE WE HAVE??? AND WHAT ABOUT THE FACILITIES IN ALL OF EUROPE AND

ASIA. THEY'RE NOT EVEN CAPABLE OF THIS TYPE OF COMPREHENSIVE TESTING)

snip-It Depends On What The Meaning Of Local Is

This week I was complaining to my wife Libby that I didn't know what

local meant in public statements such as, "expect Y2K effects to be

localized." The next day she called 1-888-USA-4Y2K and asked for the

"official" U.S. government definition of localized within the electric utility.

Gee, I would guess that most people would assume that localized

would mean one neighborhood, not a whole state. --end snip

-- Michael (mikeymac@uswest.net), July 21, 1999

Answers

Excuse me please-- Should read "OT many of the 11,000 inhabitants flee", my humble appoligies for this typo. Delete if necessary.

-- Michael (mikeymac@uswest.net), July 21, 1999.

Can you say Ebola Oblivskaya?

-- a (a@a.a), July 21, 1999.

While were on OT viral dangers, check this event that happenned recently in Canada.

http://www.cbcnews.cbc.ca/cgi- bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/1999/07/13/winnipeglab990713

High-tech Canadian lab spills waste water

WebPosted Tue Jul 13 15:44:54 1999 WINNIPEG - A published report says an accidental release of waste water from a laboratory in Winnipeg has the federal government scrambling to review its safety procedures.

The lab which opened just over a month ago is designed to hold the world's most deadly microbes. The Globe and Mail says the leak occurred two weeks ago when more than 2,000 litres of effluent from the lab's waste-water system was accidentally released into the city's sewer system.

The lab was supposed to have been stocked with vials of Ebola and Lassa viruses. But officials say that won't be happening for at least a month, because of the spill.

Federal officials say the release poses no threat to human health.

The lab, named the Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health cost Health Canada $172 million to build.

When it opened last month the government said the lab -- one of only 15 like it in the world -- would provide the highest possible level of safety.

-- jjbeck (jjbeck@aol.com), July 21, 1999.

That Russian virus sounds an awful lot like some stuff I read that they found "in the wild", and cultivated for weapons. In one story, they were cultivating this stuff, but it wasn't that reliable. When their head "scientist" accidentally injected himself with the stuff, they used the strain which mutated in his body, rather than the original strain. The mutated strain was reportedly more stable.

My Y2K concern? War, including the infamous "weapons of mass destruction". Everything else is comparitively trivial.

-- Anonymous99 (Anonymous99@Anonymous99.xxx), July 21, 1999.

Based on the medical literature: A disease causing the same symptoms is endemic to the region. It was reported before the Soviet Union existed. It was tenatively identified by the symptoms. Wait for the final diagnoses.

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), July 21, 1999.

From today's front page of the Messenger Inquirer in Owensboro Kentucky.....4 treated for "flesh-eating" bacteria.

Two of the four adults treated for the disease have required a partial leg amputation to control the fast spreading bacteria. The infection is called necrotizing fasciitis.

Ohio County is a very small county in Western Kentucky. The doctors can not determine where these people caught this infection. None of the people know one another.

www.messenger-inquirer.com

(Wish I could cut and paste)

-- Linda A. (adahi@muhlon.com), July 21, 1999.

There is a hemorrhagic fever endemic to that part of the world, believe its Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever, transmited by insect bites, could be that. An increase in vurulence could be a bad thing.

-- kozak (kozak@formerusaf.guv), July 22, 1999.