Seasonal Flu

 Signs of a seasonal flu

Most of us flue is nothing more serious than a few days on the sofa with the latest box – set. But it is also a killer, carrying off thousands of mostly elderly people every year. And among younger people, especially children, it can cause high fever, requiring hospitalization and lead to latter complications such as ear infections. While most healthy people can see it off with a hot drink and a dose of paracetamol, it is not a virus to be trifled with.

There is also its apparently endless capacity for mutation to consider. The swine flu pandemic though less severe than expected, nonetheless claimed more than 1000 lives in the winters of 2010 and among them pregnant women. Now a new lethal strain with a high death rate has emerged in China causing widespread alarm. So far all recorded cases including 65 deaths – have been linked with exposure to poultry and there is no evidence of sustained human – to human transmission, which could trigger a new global pandemic. But the threat is real and the need for vigilance constant. So too is the need for a flu vaccine that provides effective long term protection for all age groups against all strains of the virus still a distant dream.

As things currently stand flue vaccines have to be reformulated every year on the basis of an educated guess by scientists who attempt to match it with the strains of the virus likely to be circulating that season. And because the virus mutates rapidly scientists don’t always get it right. The vaccine made for the winter of 2011-12 was a particularly poor match researchers estimated it shortened the illness by half a day but did not reduce the number of people hospitalized. Even in a good year, the vaccine provides limited protection, perhaps around 60 percent in healthy adults and half that in over 65.

In England plans are under way to extend the annual flue vaccination from over 65 pregnant women and the chronically sick to all school age children who are through to be the main spreaders of the virus. If successful that is likely to reduce the impact of the winder flue still further. That should be a cause for celebration. But the threat from a mutated strain causing a global pandemic will remain.

While the demise of seasonal flue can only be welcome we should not forget the power of this simple virus of wreak havoc on a global scale and we can only urge the vaccine industry to redouble its efforts in the search for a more reliable defence against it.