5/07/2009
INFLUENZA
We commonly call the disease influenza - the flu. The flu has been around as long as I can remember. Every year, in this area, from mid-Winter to Spring is 'Flu season'. It is caused by a virus which is usually spread by coughing, sneezing and spit swapping.
The flu virus travels around the world. It does this constantly. It usually takes about six to nine months to get around. As it travels it mutates . . . it changes. Each year we develop a new flu vaccine. It takes about three months for the flu vaccine to develop in the lab. We base this vaccine on what the flu had mutated into in other parts of the world six months before it gets here. Some years the vaccine is pretty good because the flu had not mutated too much since the vaccine was determined. Other years, the vaccine is not too good because the flu mutated into something quite different.
Swine Flu, Avian Flu, Asian Flu, Spanish Flu, Hong Kong Flu, etc. are all just names for different mutations of the same virus. The flu causes hundreds of thousands of deaths around the world every year. Again, the flu causes hundreds of thousands of deaths around the world every year.
The way that the flu causes death is usually through further complications. Pneumonia is the most common. If you are susceptible to pneumonia (because of old age or inactivity), you are more likely to die from the flu if you get it. Reasonably healthy people with good health care available to them will be over the flu in two weeks.
It is a nasty illness but nothing to go crazy over. Use good sanitary habits . . . and if you are intending to do any spit swapping . . . think twice.
The flu virus travels around the world. It does this constantly. It usually takes about six to nine months to get around. As it travels it mutates . . . it changes. Each year we develop a new flu vaccine. It takes about three months for the flu vaccine to develop in the lab. We base this vaccine on what the flu had mutated into in other parts of the world six months before it gets here. Some years the vaccine is pretty good because the flu had not mutated too much since the vaccine was determined. Other years, the vaccine is not too good because the flu mutated into something quite different.
Swine Flu, Avian Flu, Asian Flu, Spanish Flu, Hong Kong Flu, etc. are all just names for different mutations of the same virus. The flu causes hundreds of thousands of deaths around the world every year. Again, the flu causes hundreds of thousands of deaths around the world every year.
The way that the flu causes death is usually through further complications. Pneumonia is the most common. If you are susceptible to pneumonia (because of old age or inactivity), you are more likely to die from the flu if you get it. Reasonably healthy people with good health care available to them will be over the flu in two weeks.
It is a nasty illness but nothing to go crazy over. Use good sanitary habits . . . and if you are intending to do any spit swapping . . . think twice.
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