Does the Geology of Seleniun Bioavailability Contribute to the Emergence of Viral Infectious Diseases

Publications during Spring 2008 (Jones et al., Rambaut et al., and Russel et al.) describe the distribution and occurrence of emergence global infectious diseases, particularly influenzas. These maps correlate roughly with earlier maps depicting distribution of bioavailable selenium and diseases such as HIV and Ebola, Avian and Hong Kong influenzas, and SARS (Oldfield 2002, Harthill 2003). Independent of this work, Beck et al. (1995-2007) find that benign viruses can mutate to virulence in host organisms with low Se status. Broome et al. (2004) report that subjects with low Se status (<1 µMol Se/L blood serum) have decreased immune response to poliovirus vaccination. However, they find, supplementation with Se of these low Se status populations enhanced the immune response of individuals. Initial data suggest that geology low in bioavailable Se thus causing low dietary Se might contribute to the emergence of various viral infectious diseases.