Nurse's Notes

by Kate Reeves

Dec 05 - Jan 06 View

FLU AND YOU**

 

We have all been reading recently about the potential for an Avian flu pandemic which would rival the great flu pandemic of 1918. Governments of the world are scrambling to come up with some sort of containment scenarios, pharmaceutical companies are frantically working on potential vaccines and the media is blasting us with all sorts of scary predictions. “Epidemics” are localized, “pandemics” are world-wide.

In a “normal” flu season, the prevailing flu virus contains parts of previous flu viruses, so that most of us carry some immunity. Our bodies have seen it before and know how to respond. Viruses mutate constantly but there is enough similarity that they are kept in check. Even so, some 36,000 Americans die every year from the consequences of this infection, which is why certain folks who are at high-risk for complications from influenza are encouraged to get vaccinated each year against the current strain.

However every once in a while something new comes along from the animal world, which is a vast reservoir of Type A viruses that cause the most serious diseases in humans. About 40 years ago researchers discovered that some new and dangerous Type A flu viruses come from the wild birds of the world, where they mostly don’t even make the birds sick. Normally these viruses have to mix it up with human influenza viruses in order to affect us.

In 1918 something different happened. Studies of that 1918 flu pandemic virus are showing that it was not previously circulated as a human virus. Instead this “Spanish flu” was a pure animal virus that passed directly to people, who of course had no immunity to any part of it. Fully half of everyone on Earth got sick and 50 million died, more than three times the number killed in WWI.

Unfortunately this “new” Avian flu we are hearing about carries many of the same characteristics of the 1918 flu—it appears to be a new virus never before seen in humans. That’s the bad news. The good news is that, so far, even though it has “jumped” directly to some humans with devastating consequences, sustained transmission from human to human has not happened. We can only pray that it won’t, or that our scientists will find a way to protect us and prevent another pandemic. One of the new drugs, Tamiflu, seems to be quite effective against the new virus, and governments are stockpiling that medicine “just in case”. And a new vaccine may be released soon.

Meanwhile the important thing for each of us is to get our yearly flu shot. If you missed the flu shot clinic at St. Margaret’s, please see your doctor about getting immunized.

**I am indebted to Dr. Frederick L. Ruben, Director of Scientific and Medical Affairs for Sanofi-Aventis, for his input and factual support concerning this article. Sanofi-Aventis produces about 80% of the world’s vaccines. Fred just happens to be my son-in-law.

 

 

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