Not content, it seems, to be shipping millions of poison and
contaminated "goods" and "products" to the West, it turns our that
CHINA -- home of the Great Brown Beijing -- is where almost ALL foms
of FLU begin.

Yes, epidemiologists blame this not surprising finding on CHINA'S
cockroach-dense POPULATION that largely dwells packed together like
sardines in a can.   Very, very unhealthy -- kind of like the
"environment" in the Olympics region.

So be sure to think "CHINA" the next time you're home for a week or
two (if not in hospital) with the flu.

Naturally, Chinese individuals have largely developed immunity to the
diseases they spawn and give to the world, just as rats and other
vermin are little affected by their own contagion.

----------------------------
"Researchers Chart Flu's Global Journey"

"Strains Arise in Asia, Die in S. America"

By David Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 17, 2008; A04

New strains of seasonal influenza virus all arise in East or Southeast
Asia and take a largely predictable route around the world before
dying out for good in South America, the global glue-trap for the
pathogen.

That is the conclusion reported yesterday by a large team of
researchers who analyzed the genetic ancestry of about 13,000 virus
samples collected from six continents over a five-year period to
answer long-standing questions about the flu's life cycle.

The findings help explain the biological mechanisms that underlie two
long-held observations about flu: New strains tend to appear first
somewhere near China, and Australia's flu season is a preview of what
will happen in North America six months later. They also help explain
why one winter's flu is always at least a little bit different from
the previous winter's, even though the virus disappears over the
summer.

The researchers hope the insights may help virologists better predict
what strains of virus to include in annual flu shots, which must be
manufactured anew each year. Although usually accurate, those
predictions occasionally miss, as they did this year when the North
American vaccine provided little protection against the strain causing
most illness.

"If we want to know what will be happening in a year, we really need
to pay attention to what is happening in East and Southeast Asia,"
said Derek J. Smith, a biologist at the University of Cambridge in
England.

Previously, scientists were uncertain how and where influenza virus
evolves between epidemics, which occur in winter in temperate
climates.

One theory was that flu virus survives largely unnoticed each summer,
with the first cases each winter caused by leftover -- and slightly
changed -- strains. Another theory held that the virus dies out
completely in temperate climates each summer but flourishes year-round
in tropical zones, which are the nurseries for new variants. A third
theory was that all new strains come from China, largely because of
its population density.

The researchers analyzed virus samples collected from 2002 to 2007 and
compared the molecular fingerprints of the gene for hemagglutinin, the
protein that gives flu strains their distinct identities.

They found that each year's dominant strain in Europe, the Americas or
other regions was traceable to ancestors first seen in a large region
of East and Southeast Asia (an area bigger than China alone). It was
never directly descended from a strain seen in temperate zones the
previous year. In fact, the evidence strongly suggested that flu virus
goes extinct each summer in temperate climates -- there is none left
to smolder and evolve.

What the researchers now believe happens is that the world is reseeded
each year by new, slightly different variants. "The strains are coming
out [of Asia] fully formed," Colin A. Russell, one of the researchers,
said in a telephone news conference.

The route the new strains then take seems to reflect both proximity to
East Asia and the amount of travel between regions. The first stops
are Australia and the Pacific islands known as Oceania, which the
virus reaches about three months after it arises in Asia. Three to six
months later it crops up in Western Asia, Europe and then North
America. The last stop is South America.

"It is a surprise to everyone that South America is the end of this
seeding hierarchy," Russell said.

But why is East-Southeast Asia always the starting point? The
researchers believe it's because of the unusual concentration of
different climates there. The region has both tropical environments,
where flu flourishes during the rainy season, and temperate zones.
There are places that are relatively close -- Russell cited Bangkok
and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 700 miles apart -- that have totally
different flu seasons.

This effectively allows new strains to be passed around the region
like a baton in a relay race, even though in each climate zone the
virus completely dies out once a year.

The reason new variants don't cause epidemics if they are carried back
to East Asia from elsewhere is because people already have immunity to
them. They're old news. At least that's the theory.

The Science paper complemented one published this week in the
competing journal Nature.

Edward C. Holmes, a biologist at Pennsylvania State University, and
his collaborators studied about 1,300 influenza virus samples gathered
from New York state in the Northern Hemisphere and New Zealand in the
Southern Hemisphere over 12 years. They examined the genetic
fingerprints of all eight gene segments of the flu virus, not just
hemagglutinin.

They found that one region's year-to-year virus strains were not
directly descended from each other but instead appeared to come from a
"reservoir" population somewhere, Holmes said. He added that the
results were "completely compatible" with the Cambridge group's
findings.

The Penn State group also found that new, successful flu variants
weren't just ones that had different hemagglutinin proteins to which
people were not likely to be immune. Many also showed evidence of
having traded genes with other flu viruses, with some of these
"reassorted" strains more successful than those that evolved by small
steps.

Neither of these papers address the origin of flu viruses that cause
severe global pandemics such as the one that killed at least 50
million people in 1918 and 1919. Those arise from the mixing of human
flu viruses and ones carried by birds or pigs -- a much rarer event
than the predictable evolution of human viruses year to year.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/16/AR2008041603484.html