Creationists traditionally have a schizophrenic attitude towards viruses. On the one hand, they blame them all on the biblical myth of 'The Fall', so betraying the fact that creationism is not a science like they claim it to be, but fundamentalist Christianity.
On the other hand, as we saw in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, they declared it to be their god's divine punishment for whatever their hobbyhorse was at the time - abortion, same-sex marriage, New Yorkers electing a Democrat, etc., etc., as though their god would inflict a punishment on the whole world for the actions of politicians in America or the way Americans in New York voted. Creationism is nothing if not parochial and ignorant!
What information do you have on Crimea-Congo Heamorrhagic Fever and the virus that causes it? Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) is a severe viral disease caused by the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV). Here's some information about it:But then, under Michael J Behe's misguidance, they declare that any complex organism must have been intelligently designed (and there is only one intelligent designer - the bible says so!) because complexity can't evolve because... er... thermodynamics and... um... irreducible complexity.
CCHF is considered a serious public health threat due to its high case fatality rate (up to 40%) and its potential for nosocomial transmission during outbreaks. Early detection, isolation of cases, and implementation of appropriate infection control measures are crucial for preventing its spread.
- Virus: Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus belongs to the genus Orthonairovirus within the family Nairoviridae. It is an enveloped, single-stranded RNA virus with a negative sense genome.
- Transmission: The virus is primarily transmitted to humans through the bite of infected ticks (primarily of the Hyalomma genus). It can also be transmitted through direct contact with blood, secretions, organs, or other bodily fluids of infected animals or humans. Nosocomial infections can also occur through contact with contaminated medical equipment or through contact with the blood or body fluids of infected patients.
- Geographical Distribution: CCHFV is found in many countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. It is endemic in some regions, particularly in Africa, and outbreaks can occur sporadically.
- Clinical Presentation: The incubation period for CCHFV is usually 1 to 3 days, but can range from 1 to 9 days. The disease presents with sudden onset of fever, muscle aches, headache, and other non-specific symptoms. Severe cases can progress to hemorrhagic manifestations such as petechiae, ecchymosis, and bleeding from mucous membranes. Liver involvement is common and can lead to jaundice.
- Diagnosis: Laboratory diagnosis of CCHF can be made by detecting viral RNA using molecular techniques such as reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Serological tests such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) can also be used to detect antibodies against the virus.
- Treatment: There is no specific antiviral treatment for CCHF. Supportive care, including fluid management, pain relief, and treatment of complications, is the mainstay of therapy. Ribavirin has been used in some cases, but its effectiveness is uncertain.
- Prevention: Preventive measures include avoiding contact with ticks, wearing protective clothing when in tick-infested areas, and using insect repellents containing DEET. Additionally, measures to prevent nosocomial transmission, such as strict infection control practices in healthcare settings, are important.
But let's go with the 'one true designer of complexity':
Scientists have recently identified how the virus that causes Crimea-Congo Heamorrhagic Fever (CCHFV) gains access to the cell in order to make us sick and 40% of those who catch it, die. If this were the work of an omniscient, intelligent designer, it would be an example of sheer malevolent, obsessive brilliance, because anything designed by such a designer would be deliberately designed to do exactly what it does; nothing more and nothing less.
CCHFV is transmitted most commonly in Europe by the tick, Hyalomma marginata, which can be spread by migratory birds.
Hyalomma marginata, normal vector for CCHFV in Europe
Why would any omnibenevolent designer do such a devious and sadistic thing?
The research was carried out by scientists at Sweden's Karolinska Insitutet in collaboration with the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Germany, the National Institutes of Health, USA, and the company JLP Health. The team have published their findings, open access, in Nature Microbiology and explained it in a Karolinska Insitutet news release:
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, in collaboration with JLP Health and others, have identified how the tick-borne Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus enters our cells. The results are published in Nature Microbiology and are an important step in the development of drugs against the deadly disease.Technical detail and background to the research is given in the abstract and introduction to the paper in Nature Microbiology:
Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus (CCHF virus) is spread through tick bites and can cause haemorrhagic fever.
The disease is serious and has a mortality rate of up to 40 per cent depending on the health status of the person infected.
Common symptoms include fever, muscle pain, abdominal pain, joint pain, vomiting and haemorrhaging that can cause organ failure.
The disease has spread to Europe
The virus is present in around 40 countries, including Central Asia, the Middle East and parts of Africa. In recent years, the disease has spread to new geographical areas as a result of climate change, including Spain and France.
The tick species that can spread the disease has also been observed in Germany and Sweden. There are currently no effective treatments for the disease. In a new study, researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and others have found that the virus enters our cells via a protein on the cell surface, the so-called LDL receptors that regulate blood cholesterol levels.
To identify the protein, the researchers used human mini-organs grown in test tubes and an advanced stem cell library from JLP Health. The same platform has previously been used to identify how the Ebola virus enters cells.
The results were also confirmed in tests on mice, which showed that mice lacking the LDL receptor did not get as sick as others.
Researchers want to trick the virus
The discovery is an important step towards developing drugs for Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, according to Ali Mirazimi, adjunct professor at the Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, and one of the researchers behind the study.
This knowledge is essential if the disease were to become more common and spread to new areas. Normally it takes many years to develop a drug, but the COVID-19 pandemic and the development of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine showed that it can be done much faster if everyone decides it is a priority.Once we know which receptor the virus uses, we can produce the receptor in test tubes and administer it as a drug, then we can trick the virus into binding to those receptors instead of to the cells and thus stop the virus from spreading in our bodies.
Adjunct Professor Ali Mirazimi, senior author.
Unit of Clinical Microbiology
Department of Laboratory Medicine
Karolinska Institute and Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden
Ticks are spread by migratory birds
This is an important step in our preparedness for the disease. Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever is a disease we would rather not have. The ticks are spread by migratory birds and have already been found in Sweden. If the disease starts appearing in more places, we may already have a drug that we can take into clinical trials.
Adjunct Professor Ali Mirazimi
AbstractParasites like these dangerous viruses are something creationists tie themselves in knots over, trying to rationalise their childish superstition. They need to believe two diametrically opposite things simultaneously - their god is the only entity capable of designing living things, and something called 'Sin', over which their supposedly omnipotent god has no power, designs parasites - which, according to Christian/Islamic dogma is a blasphemy.
Climate change and population densities accelerated transmission of highly pathogenic viruses to humans, including the Crimean–Congo haemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV). Here we report that the Low Density Lipoprotein Receptor (LDLR) is a critical receptor for CCHFV cell entry, playing a vital role in CCHFV infection in cell culture and blood vessel organoids. The interaction between CCHFV and LDLR is highly specific, with other members of the LDLR protein family failing to bind to or neutralize the virus. Biosensor experiments demonstrate that LDLR specifically binds the surface glycoproteins of CCHFV. Importantly, mice lacking LDLR exhibit a delay in CCHFV-induced disease. Furthermore, we identified the presence of Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) on CCHFV particles. Our findings highlight the essential role of LDLR in CCHFV infection, irrespective of ApoE presence, when the virus is produced in tick cells. This discovery holds profound implications for the development of future therapies against CCHFV.
Main
Crimean–Congo haemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV), the causative agent of Crimean–Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF), is an emerging infectious agent that can lead to severe disease and has a mortality of up to 40% (World Health organization). Currently, there are no preventive or effective therapeutic measures available against CCHFV, which is listed as a key priority in the WHO’s R&D Blueprint list of infectious agents with epidemic or pandemic potential. CCHF is a widespread haemorrhagic fever, which is endemic in certain regions of Africa and Asia, and is also spreading in Europe1. CCHFV is a tick-borne pathogen, transmitted by ticks of the Hyalomma genus, which can also be transmitted between humans via interpersonal contact. Because of global warming, the geographic zones where this tick vector can reside are expanding2,3,4, thereby multiplying the risk of spreading by human transmission. The lack of approved interventions against CCHFV, either prophylactic or therapeutic, combined with its increasing topographical range, constitutes a serious public health threat for many world regions.
Despite intensive research, much of the molecular pathogenesis of CCHFV is still unknown, including the identity of its receptor(s). Previous studies have shown that CCHFV enters cells through clathrin-mediated endocytosis5,6 and uses the endosomal pathway to release viral RNA strands7. In vitro, many different cell types can be infected with CCHFV8,9,10,11,12, suggesting the existence of either a widely distributed receptor or several redundant entry receptors. Of note, while nucleolin13 and DC-SIGN14 have been suggested as important entry factors, these data have not been confirmed and cannot explain cell entry or the broad cell tropism.
Here we report the identification of the Low Density Lipoprotein Receptor (LDLR) as an important in vitro and in vivo receptor for CCHFV, including patient isolates, patient serum containing virus as well as virus produced on tick cells. We also demonstrate that LDLR specifically binds to Gn-Gc of CCHFV. In addition, we demonstrate that the knockout of Ldlr in mice is able to delay the disease. Finally, we highlight the importance of the cellular proteins located at the surface of the virus in virus entry.
Or, if they decide not to blaspheme and blame the design of parasites on another supernatural designer, they are left to explain why their supposedly omnibenevolent god is so obviously working to increase the suffering in the world when an all-loving god would be seeking to minimise or abolish it altogether.
They tie themselves in these ludicrous knots rather than have us believe that a god-free natural evolutionary process gives a much more logical explanation. The problem is that that explanation doesn't leave them feeling as important as they prefer to believe they are, while still believing in a god who told them vanity is a deadly sin.
But then creationists are not noted for their rational thinking skills.
The Malevolent Designer: Why Nature's God is Not Good
This book presents the reader with multiple examples of why, even if we accept Creationism's putative intelligent designer, any such entity can only be regarded as malevolent, designing ever-more ingenious ways to make life difficult for living things, including humans, for no other reason than the sheer pleasure of doing so. This putative creator has also given other creatures much better things like immune systems, eyesight and ability to regenerate limbs that it could have given to all its creation, including humans, but chose not to. This book will leave creationists with the dilemma of explaining why evolution by natural selection is the only plausible explanation for so many nasty little parasites that doesn't leave their creator looking like an ingenious, sadistic, misanthropic, malevolence finding ever more ways to increase pain and suffering in the world, and not the omnibenevolent, maximally good god that Creationists of all Abrahamic religions believe created everything. As with a previous book by this author, "The Unintelligent Designer: Refuting the Intelligent Design Hoax", this book comprehensively refutes any notion of intelligent design by anything resembling a loving, intelligent and maximally good god. Such evil could not exist in a universe created by such a god. Evil exists, therefore a maximally good, all-knowing, all-loving god does not.
Illustrated by Catherine Webber-Hounslow.
Available in Hardcover, Paperback or ebook for Kindle
Illustrated by Catherine Webber-Hounslow.
The Unintelligent Designer: Refuting The Intelligent Design Hoax
ID is not a problem for science; rather science is a problem for ID. This book shows why. It exposes the fallacy of Intelligent Design by showing that, when examined in detail, biological systems are anything but intelligently designed. They show no signs of a plan and are quite ludicrously complex for whatever can be described as a purpose. The Intelligent Design movement relies on almost total ignorance of biological science and seemingly limitless credulity in its target marks. Its only real appeal appears to be to those who find science too difficult or too much trouble to learn yet want their opinions to be regarded as at least as important as those of scientists and experts in their fields.
Available in Hardcover, Paperback or ebook for Kindle
Creationists and Fundamentalists give Christianity a bad name. Jerry Falwell said that San Francisco has earthquakes because of gay people! For laughing out loud San Francisco has earthquakes because it sits on a fault line, Mr. Ignorant Preacher. Falwell and other creationists have said and done many stupid things. At least they provide us intelligent folks with comedy. These preachers are so stupid it's funny but sometimes they are so stupid they are just plain stupid. Fake prophecies and fake miracles are also part of the stupidity they are guilty of.
ReplyDeletePhony charlatans such as Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn perform phony healing. They yell and push their congregation members and sometimes knock them down to the floor. This supposedly counts as a miracle healing. It's laughably fake. How can anyone be stupid enough to believe them and give these lying crooks money? Kenneth Copeland also speaks in tongues but this is really nonsense gibberish he makes up. No one really gets healed. Genuinely sick and genuinely injured people seldom if ever get healed, and a number of these people are actors and actresses who fake their illnesses and injuries.
So now we have a tick that causes another serious disease similar to Ebola. Is this another result of Adam and Eve's sin? Creationism is stupid and false.