flu (Page 6)

The Swine Flu “epidemic” seems to be over, for now: Unused H1N1 vaccine is being stockpiled in warehouses across the US. Some of it expires in March, although most will be effective through May. What happened (or didn’t happen)?

One major concern was that children are twice as likely as adults to catch swine flu. A study of more than 800 people in the UK found that one in eight people developed the infection after someone else in their house, often a child, got it. This is partly caused by the fact that, despite the fact that more children die from it than adults, many children who have been infected do not display symptoms.
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Viruses are nasty, yet surprisingly simple organisms. What makes flu so potentially dangerous is that it’s not very good at making copies of itself, which leads to mutations, or slight changes in its genetic code. Though most mutations don’t amount to anything, some can lead to new versions of the flu that could spread more easily or make people sicker once infected. These mutated strains can also make your Swine Flu shot less effective. And one county in Iowa contends that many more people are dying from Swine Flu than has been reported. This finding is based on autopsies of Iowans who died but were never diagnosed as having H1N1.
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You may already have some immunity – We may not have immunity from war and politics, but at least researchers have found that previous influenza infections may provide at least some level of immunity to the H1N1 Swine Flu.

As the number of deaths related to the pandemic H1N1 virus, commonly known as Swine Flu, continues to rise, researchers have been scrambling to decipher its inner workings and explain why the incidence is lower than expected in older adults.
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But can your pet infect you? – Most flu viruses start in animals, then pass to people, but people can infect their pets, as was discovered recently by a veterinarian who diagnosed a pet can with Swine Flu. Researcher Carolyn Bridges of the CDC (Center for Disease Control) says, “This is just another illustration of why influenza viruses are so tricky and frustrating and interesting at the same time, is this ability to occasionally jump species. Will this continue to happen in the future?
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