European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 10, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse The tiny terrorists by Brian Sullivan associated press t s the smallest terrorist of them All and half million Laid end to end would barely make a line As Long As its five letter name get acquainted with it each time you catch a cold and you d meet it in a far More dangerous Guise if you were unlucky enough to catch Lassa the virus stands on the Edge of life and Man kind would gladly shove it across for it s responsible for an imposing catalogue of sleuths around the world Are busily tracking this ancient elusive villain and countless millions of Dot Ian Are spent on viral work Basic applied clinical. There in t even an estimate of the damage in misery death and economic loss that viruses cause. They Are deceptively simple in their chemical makeup but they have a bag of deadly and mystify ing tricks and today with Jet travel and constant interchange a new form of viral disease in Africa or Asia will set off alarms in medical watch Points around the Globe. The virus was first suspected As the cause of legion Naire s disease but later found innocent. It again was suspected i the deaths of two workers at the Federal Cente for disease control in Atlanta until Rocky Mountain spotted fever was identified. It is the cause of influenza and the reason the government launched the ill starred Swine flu program for an epidemic that want but could still be. There was an outbreak of a strange Haemorrhage fever in Sudan and an suspected by Many scientists to be involved in human cancers some or ail. Although there Are other respected scientists who disagree. And viruses perhaps 100 or More kinds of them produce the common cold. Vlases have two major qualities that account Tor some of their unusual Effee they can disappear and they can mutate. Sometimes a virus will invade a cell and lie dormant for years or decades a molecular magic act. Thai something happens to awaken it. And illness or death results. These viruses Are called slow viruses and can produce diseases like a fatal brain . The mysterious Case of the Swine the major problem of mutation a viral sleight of hand in which key characteristics of the virus change k there Isa major change in the virus1 Antigens proteins that stimulate our body s defense mechanisms then we will not rect ii we won t produce antibodies against it we have no built in immunity we Are helpless against it. The Swine flu virus represented a major anti Genic shift from other influenza viruses and therefore posed the threat of a pandemic or worldwide epidemic. It could still say they have no idea How much Money is being spent on virus work. Morris Pollard of the univer sity of notre Dame notes that the tumor virus program at the National cancer Institute alone is funded to the Tun of $187 million and his own virus free tumor studies alone employ 60 people. The armed forces have Large viral research programs on such problems As respiratory illnesses. The agriculture department spends a great Deal on Plant virus work and animal viruses. At the cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island in new York. Nobel prize Winner James d. Watson directs research using viruses to probe the Basic nature of cells a possible Road to the Basic understanding of cancer. Universities throughout the world have viral re search laboratories. The most recent outbreak of a menacing viral Dis ease occurred in the Sudan and in Zaire hut autumn when a new form called the ebola virus for a nearby River produced viral african Hemorrhagic fever. It proved extremely contagious killed a High proportion of the patients As Well As medical personnel and nurses sent to the area. The outbreak led to the dispatch of a world health organization team to gather blood and other outbreaks including the usually lethal Lassa fever from Nigeria Are examples of new an striking disease entities that have appeared in the past decade according to Jordi Casals of Yale diseases probably Are new and not just newly Dis says because it s almost impossible to think of a disease like these 20 or 30 years ago that no one would be aware do strange variants of virus crop up in Africa so the virus stands on the Edge of life and Mankind would gladly shove it tuesday May 10, 1977 Doike Moo Ozine per mom Lassa and certainly ebon Man to Man transmission required close Contact crowded conditions and the sort of by glee you find Only in very Primi Tive societies Cauls says. And in the hot climate there s Mote of a possibility of virus development an nutation because the climate makes All life develop although such outbreaks have been largely confined to Remote african areas Casals notes that with Mode travel it s always possible for someone exposed to an exotic virus in Africa to reach London. New York or Tokyo before the illness is selected and the patient can be fact is that the viruses May appear in new York or Washington or. Casals says. Abo in recent years baffling slow viruses with strange properties have been recognized As one close of tvo fatal brain diseases Tarn and create. D. Carleton Gajdusek of the National Institute of neurological and communicative disorders and stroke won a Nobel prize last year for his discovery that a slow virus was the cause of Kuru among a primitive tribe in new word Kuru in the tribal language Means and the brain disease produced uncontrollable tremor that led to death. The tribe was cannibalistic with the virus transmitted by eating infective brain tissue. Gajdusek proved this in animals and Kuru in the fore tribes men declined when they gave up told a recent International virology meeting. The Gustav Stern symposium in new York that Creutz Feldt Jakob is now recognized As a result of slow viruses. Cd is a degenerative disease and often is found in aging patients who have a stroke seem to be recovering Well and then for no apparent reason begin to exhibit a jerking motion and suffer a rapid deterioration. Slow working measles virus is suspected by some scientists As causing 20 years or More after the original infection the destructive nerve disease multiple sclerosis and another More rare nerve disease subacute Skleros ing . Or Saspe. Some believe slow viruses May cause or trigger some forms of cancer. The virus is a molecule of nucleic acid within a coat of protein. Nucleic acids Dan and Una Are the Basic chemicals of life. The Virtu Comet in May varieties Rod like spherical filamentous sperm like or a solid with several plane surfaces All of them ranging from 10 to 300 Mill microns in size. A Micron is 125,000th of an Inch. This Small parasite cannot multiply without the help of living cells. The virus invades the cell itself and forces the cell to manufacture new viruses exact copies of the invader. The target cell usually will burst and die releasing the newly manufactured viruses to attack other , on the other hand Are larger and free living and cause illness and death by the poisons they sometimes. In the Case of the slow viruses the virus will invade a cell and lie dormant Only to reappearing an often lethal form years later. Because the Vino works or hides inside the cell traditional Medicine such As antibiotics Are ineffective. The antibiotics work against bacteria became the bacteria Are moving targets in the blood a body fluid. However a few new drags Are being investigated that May act within the Celli without Kanning them or act to Block the entry of the vim into the cell and because the virus does its work so Well viruses Are getting increasing attention in pest control so called viral viral pesticides have been registered by the environmental Protection Agency for use so far. One is theh Curthis Zea virus to combat the Cotton Boll Weevil. The other is us Tua auck Moth Vina to combat Peak Utt attack Douglas fir Trees. A third the Gypsy Moth virus May soon be s a very important subject says Yale s or. Casals not that there is any evidence of danger but the question has to be Casals says viral pesticides i addition to attacking pests might attack insects that Are beneficial to Man. There has to be monitoring of possible bad effects of viral pesticides necessary controls. You have to be aware of the possible not probable but possible general viral pesticides an not intended to completely replace chemical insecticides says Max d. Sum mers of the botany department at the University of Texas Austin chairman of a group studying the subject for the Epa. The viral pesticides which an still primarily experimental would be used in integrated pro Grams with other pest control measures. Summers Are new things he says their future Success is yet to be the stars and stripes Page 13
