Comments on: Influenza virus is infectious for days on banknotes

By: John McVeigh

John McVeigh — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 23:13:58 +0000

Like the blog good info.

By: John McVeigh

John McVeigh — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:13:58 +0000

Like the blog good info.

By: profvrr

profvrr — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:30:46 +0000

Yes, I will make a forum for virology blog, within a week or two,
doing a lot of teaching now.

By: gsgs

gsgs — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:10:35 +0000

there should be differences between the banknotes (and coins)
of different countries. Test the survival on banknotes of some
countries and correlate with the amount of flu,RSV,…

By: gsgs

gsgs — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:02:36 +0000

use banknotes to deliver dead-viruses or vaccine or somehow disabled/attenuated viruses.
or to spread a counter pandemic with a less virulent strain to induce immunity
against the bad virus (H5N1)

create a flu-virus of especially low virulence and spread it by banknotes
when a pandemic threatens. Or even a rhinovirus - there were 2 recent reports
(France,Sweden) that rhino probably/maybe delays flu-waves.

It should be easy to spray/infect/disinfect banknotes automatically in the banks,
supermarkets, with the antiviruses against the currently circulating strains

By: gsgs

gsgs — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:02:05 +0000

it may be different in other countries…
sneezing on hated dollar notes could be considered a good thing
in some groups

By: gsgs

gsgs — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:59:34 +0000

so, will you make a forum, please ?

By: profvrr

profvrr — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:46:57 +0000

I'm referring to the ethics of conducting a government grant-sponsored
clinical trial. There are strict rules for such trials and one
includes not releasing microorganisms into the environment where they
might infect unsuspecting individuals. All participants in clinical
trials in which biologics are administered must give informed consent.
If you deliberately spread an infectious disease to another person
without telling them, you could be liable. There are examples of
people spreading HIV to others and being prosecuted for doing so. In
the case of influenza prosecution would be difficult unless death or
disability resulted.

By: gsgs

gsgs — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:43:50 +0000

so, when I have flu and sneeze (deliberately) on a banknote (or coin ?) and then spend it,
they should punish me ?

By: profvrr

profvrr — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:34:37 +0000

It's not ethical to release viruses on banknotes as you suggest. You
could do that type of experiment only in a confined study with
volunteers, for example put people in a room, give them contaminated
notes, and see if they acquire influenza.

By: gsgs

gsgs — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:28:04 +0000

create viruses with some characteristic synonymous mutations and put them on banknotes,
then see whether they spread, whether these mutations are collected somewhere
is it ethical ?

By: profvrr

profvrr — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:18:10 +0000

Yes, it's a problem with disqus comment system.

By: profvrr

profvrr — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:17:30 +0000

You are suggesting that we examine actual banknotes in circulation for
the presence of virus? I agree it's a good idea. I can't say why it
hasn't been done yet.

By: gsgs

gsgs — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:00:21 +0000

34 comments 0 likes 1 point
but I can see only 5 comments

By: gsgs

gsgs — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:59:28 +0000

it should be possible to actually test, whether flu spreads by banknotes.
Why is there no positive report ?

By: gsgs

gsgs — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:58:20 +0000

ahh, I lost my edited post.
works only when I register _before_ editing

By: dmck

dmck — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:23:41 +0000

Indeed, I specifically said it was worth repeating. I merely posted the source, for those interested – for example, someone looking for the journal reference.

By: profvrr

profvrr — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:03:47 +0000

We don't just write about recently published research here – we often
go back into the literature to explain what has been done before. Just
because it's old, doesn't mean it's no longer interesting. Or worth
repeating.

By: dmck

dmck — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:54:12 +0000

This research is of course worth repeating as it is relevant to the current pandemic. For those who are interested, it was presented at the flu congress in Toronto in 2007, and reported by New Scientist. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12116

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:27:55 +0000

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Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:37:07 +0000

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