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.
