NationStates Jolt Archive

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3601608.stm
Nearly 1/5 of the surveyed children are resistent to the flu vaccine. This is just great. Even with the absense of a flu vaccine shortage this year, the virus is getting smart. Hopefully, this doesn't mean a new pandemic.

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It seems nature is much more clever than we give it credit for.

I haven't bothered with flu shots in years, so it's not much difference to me. :p

It seems nature is much more clever than we give it credit for.
True. Even a hundred years ago, the flu wasn't even a virus that existed. It popped up somewhere in Europe around WWI, and soldiers spread it everywhere.
I just hope that this year's flu isn't like the infamous pig flu we had back in the seventies. But then, notice how a new disease gains the spotlight every year? First it was Mad Cow, then Foot and Mouth (does that still exist), then Anthrax, then SARS, and now, perhaps, the good ole flu.

Well, the flu vaccine didn't work for me in the Spring; I got the flu so bad I missed three weeks of classes after getting my shot in the Winter.

Well, the flu vaccine didn't work for me in the Spring; I got the flu so bad I missed three weeks of classes after getting my shot in the Winter.
That's weird. I notice that flu cases usually pop up around February or March. A few years, it has gotten so bad that, at the school I go to, a quarter of the kids are sick and at home, and sometimes more than that. My school is at least 900 kids, so about 250 of them sick is quite significant. Fortunatly, it tends to travel in a single wave, not in mutiple attacks.

I just eat healthy food and excercise often. I never get sick. The problem comes with kids that sit on their asses from the time they are in 1st grade.

I just eat healthy food and excercise often. I never get sick. The problem comes with kids that sit on their asses from the time they are in 1st grade.
Still, some viruses are tricky. The epidemic of Athens around 430BC affected mostly healthy people. Did you know that they now think that the epidemic was ebola?

Still, some viruses are tricky. The epidemic of Athens around 430BC affected mostly healthy people. Did you know that they now think that the epidemic was ebola?

lol, lets not blow this out of proportion

its the flu, not ebola

The flu is always unpredictable. Just look at the pandemic in 1918-1919, it killed healthy, active adults very quickly. Many people woke up healthy in the morning but were dead from the flu by bed time. We are due for another big one soon. Just natures' way of thining out the herd.

Eh, I never get flu shots. They don't work, and if I get the flu I can just deal with it.

The flu is always unpredictable. Just look at the pandemic in 1918-1919, it killed healthy, active adults very quickly. Many people woke up healthy in the morning but were dead from the flu by bed time. We are due for another big one soon. Just natures' way of thining out the herd.
Exactly. It has sort of baffled me that AIDS is getting so much attention. As sad as it may be, it is contagious only through a few fluids, and even when left untreated, it takes at least fifteen years to kill someone. Historically, it has not spread fast, nor has it caused as much destruction.
Yet the threat is even larger than 100 years ago of a runaway pandemic. China is a booming center of international commerce, but the air is dirty, the water is contaminated, and the poorer regions of China are filthy. It was the breeding ground for SARS, and will be the breeding ground for future diseases. I could go on how diseases could start, but they can very easily spread with the way humans travel.
Right now, I know that the US is gearing up for the possibility of bioterrorism, mostly by installing microbe sensors in key urban areas. Hopefully, those sniffers will never have to be used in a bioterrorism attack, but it is nearly a given that they will be used to help detect a pandemic. Sensors like that should be installed in urban areas across the world, but by the time it happens, I fear millions may die of some new disease.

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