Pandemic Phase 6. The world is scared but well prepared. It has affected our personal life, our social life, our religious life, our academic life. Fortunately, it hasn't dipped its hands into our sex life. Not yet anyway.
It is a new pathogen. Every time the medical community starts to recognize its face, it undergoes plastic surgery and assumes a new identity. It is an enemy that keeps changing. One moment it is a tank, the next moment it is an F16 fighter plane. And then the next, it becomes an Apache helicopter. You can run out of ammo just trying to hit it. At least the TRANSFORMERS transform to only one vehicle per robot. This one shapeshifts to any form it desires depending on the environment it is in. Why print a WANTED poster of a criminal who keeps changing his face?
Viruses are notorious for mutating on their whim. This is the very reason the AIDS virus is still very much around. The moment researchers find an antiviral for it, the virus has mutated. But the difference between the two is that with AIDS, all you have to do is "stay away". With A (H1N1), you don't know who to stay away from.
So, what really is a virus? The word "virus" comes from the Latin word meaning poison. It is considered the smallest living organism by some scientists although others argue that since it cannot exist by itself without a host and does not have a cell wall the title belongs to small bacteria. (This is the reason antibiotics don't work against viral infections. Because antibiotics attack the bacterial cell wall.) It consists of long strands of DNA or RNA and a protein coat. Influenza A (H1N1) is a variant named from the type of Hemagglutinin and Neuraminidase protein present on its coat. It enters a host animal or plant cell, takes out its DNA or RNA, and uses the host's polymerase to replicate it. Much like Ridley Scott's ALIENS using humans to perpetuate its species.
So why does it cause illness in the host? The virus itself does not cause symptoms, much like communist rebels taking a nap in the mountains. The problem starts once the host's immune response kicks into action. Much like an army battalion on a search and destroy mission. You can just imagine what will happen once the two groups meet. The host will dispatch its white blood cells along with its enzymes designed to create swelling supposedly targeted at making life harder for the virus. Unfortunately, this very same swelling will make life even harder for the host by causing tightening and congestion of the lung passageways (hence the cough and difficulty breathing), intestines (hence vomiting and diarrhea) and other body tissues that were perfectly fine before the mother of all battles begins. So the search and destroy mission meant to bring peace to the countryside ultimately kills hundreds of lives. The enzymes may be specific for the virus, but the white blood cells can kill everything in its path. Including the host cells. Much like in a war where bullets and grenades don't choose between rebels, soldiers and civilians. Which takes us now to the issue of mutation. The enzymes meant to target the virus can no longer recognize it because the virus has changed its face. So what do you have? A dead host and a happy virus hell bent on going out to multiply.
And now, we have an unfamiliar virus in our midst which has caused a lot of panic in the four corners of the globe (pardon the incongruence). We don't know what it will do next. It has affected almost all aspects of our life. And if it does indeed affect our sex life, we'll probably have a more rapid turnover of research breakthroughs. Much like Viagra.
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