Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Testimonios de una pandemia

Mi mamá me mandó la liga de un artículo en la revista Nature sobre el contagio de la influenza porcina, esta interesante, se los recomiendo, pero lo que encontré valioso fue el testimonio de una microbióloga de una Universidad que se vió contagiada por su esposo que vive en el DF, hace una semana, antes de todo este merequetengue mediático, bueno, aquí está, está medio depre:

I am a research fellow at Vanderbilt University. I got sick last week 04/20/09 after a visit of my husband that lives in Mexico city, we are separated since December 2007. I started with all the symptoms described for a normal flu, headache, fever higher that 100, muscle pain, strong coughing, weakness, chills, nasal congestion, chest pain, sneezing and mucus production with yellow and a light green color. I got from the pharmacy the normal medicines used for deal with the cough and cold that do not required prescription. After two days I did not feel better and actually the mucus production was stronger and I could not sleep for two days due the chest congestion, so I decided to go to the doctor on Thursday 04/23/09. The medical report concludes that I had flu with a strong pharyngitis and they prescribed me Tussionex suspension. At that time I continue feeling so weak and for me was definitely a not normal kind of flu, I lost my voice totally and I was feeling a general discomfort not comparable with other kind of flu in my life. The next day appear in the news the swine flu and the death cases in Mexico city but I did not connect the idea about the flu that my husband had before the trip and my illness here. I was following the news and reading about the increase of cases and the estimation of death people and infection, so Saturday I decided to write to Vanderbilt occupational health clinic about my case, the visit of my husband and the probable connection between this and trying to know if my flu has not this kind of swine origin. Sunday was released in the news that US declares health emergency. Yesterday (Monday 04/27/09) finally I got a call from the hospital and they decided to check me. They found fever but did not take sample because my illness was longer than 6 days. After this they send me home with the same prescription, no antibiotics, no antivirals, only the tussionex same dosis. I spend some hours at home, weak, coughing, without voice and with some mucus production and congestion. Then the people from the hospital call me again and they had taken a sample from the nose (deeply sample) and they send me home to rest and wait. Today 04/28/09 I still at home, with some of the symptoms that remain like cough, mucus production, some headache and very weak, I have pain in my arms writing this, so, is strange for me to be at this side, understanding the evolution of the news, knowing about bacteria and virus because I am microbiologist and PhD in biochemistry but looking how the people, the government, the countries and different organizations handle the situation understanding that the only that I can do is wait and keep on the news.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Experiments in the revival of organisms


Un amigo me recomendó estos videos, componen un mini documental que relatan los experimentos realizados en la Unión Soviética por Sergei Bryukhonenko a lo largo de la década de los 30.
El narrador es J.B.S. Haldane, un genetista famoso que nos han mencionado en clase de evolución.
Su veracidad es muy cuestionada por ciertos hechos fisiológicos que no son explicados a fondo, sin embargo los experimentos fueron publicados en revistas médicas y citados en numerosos trabajos de su tiempo. Sean fraude o no, véanlos, al menos es una joyita mokudrama estilo "faces of death".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfIUnIpSbQI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fyjcjWXXPk&feature=related
"que mala eres, hasta hipotéticamente"