;) Influenza has definitely been in the news a lot lately because of the "Swine Flu"/"Mexican Flu"/"H1N1 Flu" pandemic. But what is influenza? There are tons of places on the net where you can go for the answer:
Like I wrote, there are many places for information. Sadly, there are many places for misinformation. (I'm not going to link to those.) And there are plenty of people all over the world and all over the internet spewing all sorts of unverifiable facts that will change people's minds about vaccines. Very sad.
Anyway, here are the ten things you need to know about the flu... just the facts:
- The flu virus comes in three types, A, B, or C. The viruses are RNA viruses, this is important because...
- Flu viruses mutate very quickly when their RNA is not transcribed or translated well during replication. Those little errors build up over time. That's why you have to keep taking your flu vaccine each year, because a lot of errors build up over the course of one year.
- Type A flu is most well known for causing pandemics (worldwide epidemics). Type B flu causes local epidemics, and it can cause as much of a severe disease as Type A. Type C flu is not known to cause epidemics at all (that we know of), but it can still cause a flu-like illness.
- There are no viable flu viruses in the flu vaccine. That is, they will not cause disease. Heck, they're not even alive in the flu shot, and they're VERY weak in the nasal flu vaccine.
- FLU VACCINES CANNOT CAUSE THE FLU DISEASE
- Next to the flu vaccine, washing your hands is your best defense against the flu. Why? Because we humans take in a lot of our world through touch. We greet each other with handshakes. We exchange an awful lot of cash between us. We use our hands to hold us steady in crowded subways and rail trains. We use our hands to open doors and push buttons.
- Yeah, there are antiviral medications, but they are only good if administered within a short time after you start having symptoms. Trouble is...
- You start shedding flu virus one full day before your onset of symptoms. So you can get people around you infected long before you think that something is going on. Tricky virus.
- Otherwise healthy adults under the age of 65 are not at risk for complications from the flu. Sure, you'll be out for a few days, feeling miserable, but you should be fine, unless...
- Unless you're one of the groups at risk for dangerous complications from the flu. These people include the very young, the very old, those with diabetes, cancer, HIV/AIDS, on immune-suppressive therapy (like that for allergies or autoimmune disease), transplant recipients (organ or tissue), and people with heart or lung conditions like coronary artery disease, atherosclerosis, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, tuberculosis... The list goes on and on.
Right.
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