Point me in the right direction

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Permalink Reply by PRIME_Ω_PREDATOR on November 19, 2009 at 4:25am

Center for Disease Control. (CDC)

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Permalink Reply by Nerowulf on November 19, 2009 at 5:30am

yup contact the CDC they know everything... mostly

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Permalink Reply by Dario on November 19, 2009 at 7:47am

Influenza mutates constantly, which is why it is hold hard to control.

It constantly changes its DNA when in contact with so many people and animals, and thus every year a new vaccine is created to try to catch up to it (and almost always fails).

I don't think viruses generally fuse with one another, but they can evolve and change enough to cause catastrophic effects. However, I think influenza could exchange genetic material enough to take aspects of another virus, I don't know how much. I could be totally wrong on this though, anyone who is studying medicine clearly feel free to correct me.

Ebola, for instance, could potentially become airborne one day - and should that happen, we're in trouble.

Rabies has already become airborne, several strains of it exist. The human version of Mad Cow could potentially mutate, but you know, it's a hard call.

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Permalink Reply by Charlie Rotten on November 19, 2009 at 11:50am

Airborne Rabies???!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?
wtf
way to make my biggest fear a reality.

I know about how the flu mutates but i was wondering if it could mutate with another disease
for example

The Rabies Flu

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Permalink Reply by Dario on November 19, 2009 at 12:10pm

I would assume now, yes:
http://gulfnews.com/opinions/columnists/what-if-viruses-combine-1.5...
At least to a certain extent. It would depend on how virulent the virus(es) is/are, I suppose.

As for the airborne rabies:
I kid you not.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/05/090504-rabies-evolu...

See? Your fears are totally founded in reality.

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