ahCHOO

[sniff]

[cough]

I seem to have succumbed to an unidentified but fast-moving submicroscopic viral agent.

I'm going to shuffle off to bed to fight with it. I'm hoping to emerge victorious. It's looking grim at this point.

[sniff]

In the meantime, I leave you with some educational material on viruses which you may (or may not) find interesting. Meh. It was interesting to me, anyway. I've always felt it's a good thing to Know Thy Enemy.

From the University of Michigan's web site, we have the Viral Rogues Gallery:

Adenovirus - About ten percent of all common colds. Used in gene therapy experiments.

ADENOVIRUS, causes diarrhea, respiratory infections and conjunctivitis

Astrovirus - Literally "star-shaped." Causes diarrhea.

ASTROVIRUS

Corona virus - Literally "crown-like." Cause of SARS (sudden acute respiratory syndrome) and some common colds.

Cytomegallo virus – Latin for "Cell" and "Big." A member of the herpes family that makes host cells grow big.

Flavivirus - Latin for Yellow. A family of single-stranded RNA viruses transmitted by mosquito and tick bites, causing yellow fever, dengue, West Nile fever.

Hepadna virus - Hepa + DNA, Hepatitis with a DNA genome.

Lentivirus - Latin for "slow." HIV is one of these.

HUMAN PAPILLOMA VIRUS, causes genital warts and some cancers

Parvovirus - Latin for "small." A single-stranded DNA virus, highly contagious in dogs.

Picorna - Literally pico, Latin for "really small" + "RNA." (Pronounced pea-CORE-na.) An entire family of tiny RNA viruses that can cause big problems, including polio; hepatitis A; Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease; and most common colds.

POLIO

Polyoma - infects many cells, makes tumors.

Rhinovirus - a picorna that goes in your nose and gives you a cold (the runny nose part of which is known as rhinorrhoea).

RHINOVIRUS

Rotavirus - Latin for "wheel." Causes diarrhea.

ROTAVIRUS

Just thought you might be interested.