1/15 What's the difference between a stomach flu and e. coli.?
\_ e. coli refers to any of many bacteria that range from beneficial
to lethal, and the stomach flu is a virus-based disease that
has nothing to do with e. coli.
\_ E. coli doesn't kill you. Flu can.
\_ E. coli can kill you. It just usually is harmless. As for
"stomach flu", what is that, exactly? Lots of different
things, according to this site:
http://campus.umr.edu/studenthealth/flu_stom.html
\_ EC doesnt kill anyone who isn't already immune deficient.
Carrots can kill you too but it just usually is harmless.
Flu has killed millions of people. EC hasn't.
\_ Wrong. Ever heard of enterohemorhagic E.Coli? It will
sure ruin ANYONE's day! The truth is there are many
forms of e.coli and most don't harm you, in fact, live
in your normal flora in your body. (and they were
referring to the stomach flu, not influenza. the
stomach flu doesn't kill many people at all, and is
usually limited to children). -med student
\_ but the symptoms are so similar!
\_ flu's are caused by viri. they look like zelda rupees attached
\_ The plural of virus is viruses.
\_ The plural of doofus is doofuses.
to graplling hooks. e. coli. is a bacteria. it looks like a
blob of squigles and is way bigger. For details, ask the soda
biogeeks.
\_ Bacteria can be killed by anti-biotics, if it does not
contain mutations to make it particularly resistant.
Viruses at this stage are only killed by your immune
system, which is why vaccination is so important (to
expose your immune system so that it is much better
and faster at dealing with a particular virus).
Flu is a really neat virus, in that it has multiple
methods of mutation. It's an RNA virus, which means
that there are frequent replication mutations, much more
so that a DNA virus. It is
split into several separate RNA strands, which means
that if you're infected with more than one strain at the
same time, in the packaging of the virus particle strands
from the two strains can be mixed and matched, making a
third, new strain that the immune system can't deal with.
It's also seen in many different species, and can jump
species fairly easily. These all add up to a killer virus.
Several deadly asian strains have been known to jump from
chicken hosts to humans. Huge, not-too healthy poultry
industry, good breeding ground for a virus.
The epidemic of 1918 (which killed more
than all the casualties of WWI) is thought to have jumped
from pigs somewhere in Kentucky (or someplace like that),
travelled across the Atlantic with American soldiers, and
recombined with a European strain.
Just for another interesting sidenote, an examination of
a mass grave in Alaska from that epidemic implies that
the killer Spanish Flu may have differed from other less
virulent strains by only one peptide in one protein. So
either it was so virulent it wiped itself out, and another
epidemic is just waiting to happen, or it was so virulent
it killed almost everyone on the planet incapable of
fighting it off.
Vaccines for influenza also take a long time to prepare...
multiple months... so since it mutates so readily fall
vaccines are mostly just guesswork about which strains
the world over are more likely to spread.
\- BTW, "The Coming Plague" by L. Garrett is really quite
a good book. Have not yet read Betrayal of Trust, but
that looks good too. --psb
\_ nice explanation of influenza, but they asked about the
stomach flu. they are both viruses, but very different.
and yes, e.coli is a bacteria making everything said
apply (though interesting to note that different anti-
biotics work better or worse on different bacteria due
to their envelopes and methods of replication). -med stud
\_ Well, fuck me in the ass with a cactus. You write all that
just now for the motd?
\_ it's interesting, let's keep up the good work
\_ OK. Say when and wherre. |