Avain Flu images
The Swedish newspaper, Dagens Nyhete, has just released electron microscopic images of the H5N1 strain of the avian virus. I present them here without commentary (unless someone wants to step up and translate Swedish for me), here is the slide show
No real reason to post this other than sometimes science images are simply cool.
Update This Breitbart article on the Swedish Newpaper article says that the viral particles are the “string of blue balls attacking and destroying healthy pink cells.” but looking at the photos (without the benefit of a translation) it seems to me that the viral particles are the greenish-yellow clusters attacking the pinkish healthy cells with the bluish invaginations being the newly lysed cells.
Update II Thanks to everyone who pointed out that I linked to the wrong article. This is what you get when you get all excited about an article in a foreign language you do not understand at all.
looks like strep throat to me
The linked article is about air pollution in large cities.
The captions are: Sotpartiklarna (gulfärgade) har tagit sig in genom luftvägarna och ansamlas i lungblåsorna – alveolerna – (violetta). “The pollution particles (yellowish) have entered the respiratory system and collect in the alveolas (violet)”
En vit blodkropp från kroppens immunförsvar (färgad i blått) försöker attackera sotpartiklarna och äta upp dem. “A lymphocyte (coloured blue) tries to attack the pollution particle to eat it.”
Det är bara de allra minsta partiklarna i luftens föroreningar som lyckas ta sig så långt ned i lungorna “Only the smallest particles in the air pollution manage to get this deep into the lungs.
As the previous poster mentioned, I think it’s the wrong link. The real photos are at:
http://www.dagensnyheter.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=597&a=483764
Indeed. The pictures in the post, as well as the link, are concerned exclusively with air pollutants. Stew has the right link, and I could translate the commentary but don’t have time.
Here the virus (blue) is seen during various stages of its life cycle:
http://www.dagensnyheter.se/content/1/c6/48/44/89/Fagelvirus.swf
The correct link is the one Stew posted. Quick and rough translation of the Swedish commentary in the Flash graphics, the link posted Armasus above:
Title: viruses attack: here a cell is killed by the bird flu.
1) Viruses (blue) attacking a healthy cell.
2) When the viruses have managed to enter the cell, they occupy the whole cell machinery. The cell is forced to produce new viruses. They emanate from the surface of the host cell and begin their hunt for new healthy cells to kidnap.
3) A single cell can be forced to produce thousands of new viruses.
4) After a couple of days the host cell dies – exhausted by the virus production.
And then a couple of slides without text.
Sorry all, Like I said I don’t speak Swedish, so I will correct.
Note on translation: This is a just a quick and rough translation from Swedish. Dont blame the DN author for errors I made. Original can be found at http://www.dagensnyheter.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=597&a=483764
———————-
Here the avian flu kills a cell
The photographer Lennart Nilsson has tried more than a half year to obtain the virus H5N1 who causes the deadly avian flu. But it has been very difficult.The american laboratory which Karolinska Instutet usually cooperates with have not been willing to release any samples of the dangerous virus. Finally Lennart Nilsson managed to get a test from World Healt Organistation, WHO. The virus strain comes from Hongkong. This particular virus has infected and killed not only tens of thousands of birds, but also two humans: one father and his daughter. They died two years ago
Pernilla Petersson, who is a bimomedical analyst have incubated the virus in the swedish center for disease control (Translators note: Smittskyddsinstitutet in swedish). After that she has killed of the virus and given the samples to Lennart Nilsson. He has struggled many days at his electron microscope – deep down in a cellar of Karolinska Institutet.
Dagens Nyheter (Translators note: “Daily News”, the leading swedish newspaper) can now as the first newspaper show his pictures. They show how the virus enters a cell and “kidnap” the whole system.
Virus can neither be classed as living entities, nor as dead things; they exist somewher in the border zone. They can reproduce on their own, only by free riding on other organisms.
It is done by the flu virus by smuggling in its genetic code into the cell. Then the cell starts to produce lots of new virus. Finally the virus has taken over the whole cell. They pop out in all directions and goes hunting for new fresh cells to take over. Behind them they leave the host cell, knocked out and dead.
The particular virus h5N1 thrives the best in cells who are in the bowels of birds. As an emergency they can make do with the cells that are in the respiratory tract of humans
The big fear now is that such a virus will mutate – change – so that it will thrive even better in human respiratory cells. Mutations happen all the time. For every new virus particle the genome must be copied. But the copying is quite sloppy. It often goes wrong. The new virus will differ a litle from its “mom”.
Most often the change is for the worse. It worsens posibilities of the new virus to survive and reproduce. Sometimes the change is totally neutral and does neither improve or worsen the chances.
But sometimes the mutation is a bulls eye hit. From the perspective of the virus. From a human perspective such a change may mean a catastrophe.
All the disease control expertise in the world now fear that H5N1 will change so that it easily can jump between humans and take over the respiratory cells of humans. Then we have a pandemic. Then millions of people may die – if not society does all to stop the disease with medicine, vaccine, and isolation.
Because of this the president of USA, George W Bush, asked the congress for many billions of dollars in special grants, whereof 9 billions for a new vaccine to protect humans against h5n1
Therefore the Socialstyrelsen (Translators note: swedish agency regulating health sector) on Tuesday reccomended the government that Sweden should start its own production of vaccine.
Therefore the World Health Agency, WHO, will start a big international crisis meeting in Genève on Monday.
Text: Karin Bojs Poto: Lennart Nilsson
The divine Olivia Judson on the avian flu