Flu Immune 500

In the week of December 20th, 2008, a child in Minnesota became the first pediatric fatality of this year’s flu season. Since then numbers have begun to climb as we go through the late winter months when flu deaths reach their height. As many as 36,000 people die in the U.S. from the flu each year. The figure is several hundred thousand world wide. Why?

Lack of vaccine. Third world countries rarely have flu vaccine nor do they have anti-virals or enough antibiotics to combat secondary infections. Except for the snafu two years ago when there was a shortage, the U.S. and Europe usually have plenty of vaccine.

Growing elderly populations. As medical science advances, more people live into old age with conditions that would have killed them in earlier times. Diabetes, cardiac disease, kidney disease, many cancers etc. can all be treated. But, let a severe viral infection come along which throws the immune system into overdrive, and weakened people die in large numbers. Pneumonia has always been a killer of old people; it’s when epidemiologists pair the number of pneumonia deaths as being secondary to flu infections that we see the correlation.

Ignorance. Most of us grew up in times when having the flu was just a rite of passage each winter. If we survived it all these years, why get a flu shot now? The fact is that the ordinary flu viruses A, B, and C mutate each year and often new strains enter the system. People need to know that the flu can be deadly. Even if a person is reasonably sure he or she will survive a bout, refusing vaccination puts the rest of the population at risk.

Not acting quickly. Not understanding that symptoms such as a high sustained fever, difficulty breathing or increasing fatigue may signal that a bacterial infection is happening may mean the difference in getting treated soon enough or dying. Especially in children where dehydration or pneumonia can kill quickly, parents need to be overly-cautious about seeking treatment. Children under the age of 18 who are given aspirin can develop Reyes Syndrome which in itself can be deadly.

Lack of sanitation. Crowded places like daycare centers, nursing homes, and schools are perfect transmission grounds for the flu virus. In severe flu seasons, scrupulous attention must be given to hand washing, disinfecting of surfaces, and isolation of those infected. In some cases, quarantine and closing of facilities is necessary. In severe flu years, wise nursing homes and hospitals may limit outside visitors to prevent the virus from being brought in.

Lack of care. People with the flu are sick. They need bed rest, fluids, medical evaluation and care. They need to stay home until they are well for two reasons: 1. So they don’t overtax themselves; 2. So they don’t spread the disease. Frail people of any age entering the flu season should take extra precautions and be given extra care if they contract it.

I lost two of my grandparents to pneumonia following flu. My father’s mother died in the 1918 epidemic. My mother’s father was a country doctor. In 1935, he contracted the flu followed by pneumonia. He did indeed go to the hospital but word reached him that a woman in a migrant camp was having a difficult birth so he bribed a nurse to bring him his clothes, went to the camp, stayed with the woman all night, delivered her baby safely, and then went home and died.

In the future we may be able to prevent the flu entirely by targeting receptor cells in the body with antibodies rather than trying to immunize against the virus. Too late for my grandparents, too late for the family of the Minnesota boy who just died, but hopefully not too late for generations to come.