To put that number into perspective, consider that up to now scientists have charted only about 3,000 viruses. And among the known viruses found in the sewage samples, only 17 were bugs that cause human disease � things like the common cold virus, diarrhea-causing Norwalk virus and human papilloma virus, or HPV, which causes cervical cancer and genital warts.
That means there are a whole lot of mystery microbes out there. These findings appear in the online journal mBIO, published by the American Society of Microbiology.
"Our knowledge of the viral universe is limited to a tiny fraction of the viruses that exist," the study's authors write. This shouldn't be surprising, they add.
Posts: 7772 | From Northeast, again... | Registered: Oct 2006
| IP: Logged |
BoxerMom
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 25251
posted
We are so scr**ed.
But props to the scientists who collected and tested the sewage!
posted
Ewe!!! I believe it. We've only scratched the surface on identifying disease causing pathogens.
Posts: 418 | From NJ | Registered: Sep 2007
| IP: Logged |
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic