我的英文日记 (2/18/12)

2/18/12

“Contagion” is a very good movie, and it is worth watching. Even though it is a fictional movie, it has a strong scientific backing.

Influenza viruses are nasty disease agents. They can jump from one host to another and shuffle their DNAs with other viral species in the process, creating chimeric deadly viruses.In this movie, a seed is dropped by a bat and is eaten by a pig. Presumably, a chimeric virus is created in the pig by combining pieces of DNAs from an avian flu virus and a swine flu virus. The pig is then slaughtered by a chef, who shakes his hand with a woman. The virus in the pig is passed to the woman and combined with another virus in the woman’s body, creating a new strain - a chimeric strain coming from three sources.

It is interesting that the woman’s husband is naturally immune to the new strain.