Vincent Racaniello, a professor of microbiology at Columbia University Medical Center, is blogging about the 2009 H1N1 swine flu. He's answering questions and addressing comments, but he's also posting daily about new developments and basic influenza virology. Fascinating...
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I wonder if you can help? About 6 years ago I had a bout of Shingles (don't know if this is relevant or not). I've always been a little bit of a worrier, but since that time I have had TERRIBLE anxiety, which crosses over into OCD at times. Each time I have an anxious phase, white spots appear on my tonsils and I feel generally a bit run down. My GP says it's probably because I'm run down because of the anxiety, but I am not sure this is correct, as sometimes I wake up feeling anxious, ask my hubby to check my throat and sure enough, the two white spots are back! Is there a virus that fits these mild symptoms that could cause anxiety? I have read about strep throat possibly causing OCD in kids, but nothing much for adults.
I would be very grateful for any info you can give me!
Thanks!
Millie
Is it possible to create a virus by wrapping a strand of RNA in a protein? I understand some biologists assume viruses are in fact not life forms but rather complex self-replicating chemicals (catalysts?). Also, what would happen if you wrapped HUMAN RNA in said protein?
What laboratory tests would be done to ascertain the cause of the infection if it was a completely new virus of cats e.g. cat pneumovirus?
I used to be a nurse, and once when relieving in a small nursery, I mistook a 'clean' bottle for a sterilised one. The bottle (i was assured later) would have been washed in a sink of (hopefully) warm, soapy water. But what worries me is, if there was breastmilk in the water, and that breastmilk had nasty (HIV, hep, HTLV etc) in it, would that be unlikely to survive on a bottle, even if it had drops of water inside? No 'known' infectious babies on ward, but they don't test for HTVL here.
I think you have a better chance of getting responses if you post on the Virologist's blog rather than in the comments here.
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