This could have huge implications for almost any viral-borne disease (including avian flu):

Aethlon Medical, a small San Diego biotech company, is developing a portable de-vice that removes viruses from blood. Known as the Hemopurifier, it filters not only smallpox but numerous other viruses, including Marburg and Ebola.

The Hemopurifier resembles a shrunken dialysis cartridge, the rolling-pin-size de-vice that purifies the blood of patients whose kidneys have failed. Both use a filter to remove toxins from blood. But unlike traditional dialysis, the Hemo-purifier also includes plant-derived antibodies, such as cyanovirin, that bind to a variety of viruses and eliminates them from the bloodstream. The plant solution can be modified to weed out even genetically engineered germs.

Hardly a breakthrough. It's basically dialysis, with all the associated risks. It's also only effective against viruses in the bloodstream, not in the lungs or inside cells. Antivirals are much easier to administer to large numbers of individuals in a short time.

This company has been being overhyped for months now.

Antivirals may be easier to use, but only if one exists that is effective against the specific pathogen of interest. There aren't many effective anti-virals around except vaccines. Their windows of effectiveness against their respective target diseases are quite narrow once the disease process has advanced far enough to be reliably diagnosed. You can't beat something with nothing.

It is true that some viruses enter cells and lie dormant there for periods of up to decades before activating. This Hemopurifier thingy is probably next to useless against many such. But these aren't the viruses we need to worry about in a war/terrorism context anyway.

The viruses useful as bio-war agents are those that cause quick, acute illness by invading the cells of the host, hijacking the cellular genetic machinery, cranking out beaucoup new virus particles then bursting the cell walls to release them to continue the process. Death is by an exponetially expanding host-cell destruction mechanism that blitzes through the natural immune system by sheer speed and mass. Against these types of viruses, the Hemopurifier looks a lot more useful. Crudely, it lops off the exponential expansion at the ankles and buys time for the body's natural immune system to gear up suitably against the irreducible remnant serum virus load - which it will if the whole organism doesn't die first. The Hemopurifier, then, appears to be exactly what is needed against smallpox and the various hemmoraghic fevers (Marburg, Ebola, etc.).

If this thing can really do what is claimed, I think the hype is entirely appropriate.

If it does what's advertised, please don't tell
Eric Pianka, he'll be very depressed.

Nah, this machine isn't a threat to Mr. Pianka. If I undertstand his argument correctly, he's claiming that we'll see widespread highly lethal diseases (and of course, that somehow this is a good thing). In such a scenario, you would probably need tens of millions of these machines in order to make a noticeable difference.

What's really a "threat" are the biodetectors that could sense new viruses as they emerge. Frankly, I think we're close to being able to detect viruses in real time as they enter into the human population. Even something like the flu would have a harder time spreading once something like that gets implemented.

Wait a minute--could this cure (or at least mitigate) the common cold? That'd be a big leap.

I dunno, I think I would rather tough out a cold then let someone do an arterial stick on me.