The creators of the OS denied it was infected with viruses adding that, in the world of open-source software, "there were no viruses".

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There are no live viruses in the vaccine.

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And while there are no cases of WAP viruses to date, the potential threat is significant.

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In many parts of Asia, including Hong Kong, antibiotics are routinely given for colds and influenza, which are caused by viruses for which there is no real antidote.

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It is notoriously difficult to make effective vaccines against H7 viruses and there has been no need to pursue this before as they are mild in birds and there have been very few human cases.

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As is the case for most viruses, because there is no definitive therapy one treats the symptoms: plenty of fluids such as Gatorade that include salts and sugar (to replace losses), antinausea medications and drugs to reduce the fever.

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If an organism can successfully subcontract part of the business of metabolism to another while retaining the rest itself, rather than offloading the whole lot as most viruses do, then there are no rules to stop it happening.

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It may be that they belong to some as-yet-uncharacterised group of viruses (entities classified outside Linnaeus's system, since there is no agreement about whether they are alive or not).

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And while many viruses exploit well-known holes in Microsoft software, Scob aims at vulnerabilities no one had detected before.

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