Armageddon virus will kill us?
Baku, October 18 (AZERTAC). A leading British virologist, Professor John Oxford at Queen Mary Hospital, University of London, claims that we should prepare ourselves for the outbreak of the most dangerous disease: the Armageddon virus which is to hit the world within the next five years.
Recently, a 38-year-old man from Glasgow, who had been to his brother’s wedding in Afghanistan, became the UK’s first confirmed victim of the virus.
Some experts believe that virologists overreact as the unlucky guest died of the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever which is curable, says Dr. Alexander Platonov the head of the Laboratory of Meningococcal Infection, Russia’s Central Institute of Epidemiology.
"This fever was discovered by Russian scientists and is well-researched. Annually, we have some 100 infected in Russia, while in Turkey, where we love to go on holidays, they number more than 1,000. If the treatment is proper, every 50th patient dies of the infection, not 30% as the Internet claims. In Turkey every 20th patient dies. So it’s not new great pandemics."
But the media also mention a new virus similar to the atypical pneumonia which killed hundreds in 2003. It was discovered by the UK Health Protection agency which confirmed two victims who came from the Middle East. This made the media speak about a new respiratory infection which hasn’t been named yet. Maybe it’s a mutation of some existing virus or can leap from animals to humans. No evidence was found that it’s contagious. John Oxford based his prediction on historical patterns in his interview with the Voice of Russia.
"Well, it’s not escaped anyone’s notice that my date 2018 would be the anniversary, 100th anniversary of the Great Spanish Flu outbreak in 1918. And yes, that’s a spillover virus, it came from birds as we think. We’ve had several since - 1958, 1968 and in 2009 - but none of them have been so devastating as the 1918. So, I think myself that there have been small gaps in the past between these great pandemics of influenza, and the last was in 2009. We are still reassessing that and that’s why I’m settled on 2018 for a time that we should prepare ourselves, the whole world should. However, Alexander Platonov urges people not to panic."
"This new virus may come from bats. We watched some 50 people who contacted with the infected and they are ok. This is a typical story, we discover new viruses every day. The London professor says that we will all die but it’s seems improbable that humanity which had survived dozens of epidemics without even proper medical care would die out in the next 5 years."
These words give some hope, but the world sometimes tends to be stricken by lethal epidemics.
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