As Flu Season Approaches, Fears Arise
By Christina Orlovsky, senior staff writer
Last year’s fearsome flu season and the resulting vaccine shortage left many wondering what lay ahead for 2005. As the year winds down, influenza is again making headlines. This year, however, the worries are of global proportions, as health agencies warn of the possibilities of a flu pandemic.
News outlets report daily on the status of the flu vaccine and the progression of a new virus, H5N1, the bird-flu virus, which is being discovered in poultry around the world, from Asia to the European Union. Although the virus is currently unable to spread from human to human, more than 60 people in Asia have died from H5N1. Government officials have warned that our nation is unprepared to handle an outbreak if this avian flu mutates into a human virus.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) a pandemic is defined by three conditions: a new influenza virus emerges; it infects humans, causing serious illness; and it spreads easily and sustainably among humans. Three such pandemics have occurred in the 20th century, the last time being in 1968, leading many in the medical field to fear that the world is due for another.
“The flu virus has the ability to genetically change a little bit from year to year, which is why we have to make a new vaccine every year,” explained William Schaffner, M.D., professor and chairman of the department of preventive medicine and professor of medicine in the division of infectious disease at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, in Nashville, Tennessee. “Every once in a while, a brand new virus appears that is capable of going from person to person. We call this a big shift, but it’s been 37 years since the last time, which makes all flu experts a little worried that the clock is ticking.”
The flu vaccine may not be your only defense against illness this flu season. Your best bet may be boosting your own health from within.
“Vaccines have been notoriously ineffective in preventing the flu,” said Randall Neustaedter, doctor of oriental medicine and author of Flu: Alternative Treatments and Prevention.
Rather, Neustaedter relies on homeopathic preventive and treatment preparations to battle the flu virus instead of the vaccine or antiviral medications.
“When normal flu epidemics occur, homeopathic medications work better than antiviral drugs in terms of the days that the flu persists and the relief of symptoms,” he added.
Medications aside, Neustaedter believes that the best defense against influenza is maintaining a high-functioning immune system through healthy diet, exercise and nutritional supplements, such as vitamins A, C and D, and zinc, which, he explained, have antiviral properties.
“There are also more sophisticated things like colostrums, which have active agents that stimulate the immune system,” he added. “Plus, mushrooms like shitake come in powders and capsules that are powerful immune boosters.”
Neustaedter asserted that the numbers of people practicing complementary and alternative medicine have been increasing incrementally throughout the past decade. He added that nurses can play a significant role in increasing interest in health and wellness among their patients, particularly during flu season.
“It is very appropriate for nurses to talk to patients about maintaining a healthy diet and taking supplements that are preventive,” he said. “They’re safe and they have no side effects—it’s hard to find reasonable people who would object.”
While Schaffner explained that this first reason is more about timing than it is about science, he added that there are two other concerns with scientific basis. First, all three pandemics in recent history originated with a bird-flu virus.
“The third reason is that although there are little bird flu outbreaks that occur from time to time, this one is different,” he said. “It is so persistent and has the capacity to spread over a wide geographic area. With this extensive spread, people are thinking it increases the chances of making it capable of being spread from human to human. It’s a statistical phenomenon.”
On Oct. 27, United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt issued a warning to the nation about the flu’s potential for disaster.
“If the past is prologue, we are overdue for the next pandemic,” he said. “A wary world watches the H5N1 virus being carried by wild birds to the nations of the earth. Scientists warn there is a reasoned concern that given the way viruses change over time, these viruses could evolve and develop the capacity to spread from person to person—and that could set off the conditions for a pandemic.”
He added that conditions in the world are different since the last deadly pandemic, causing greater worry: People are more migratory in their travel than ever before.
“Consequently, we have to assume that if there is an outbreak of a potential pandemic influenza anywhere, there is danger everywhere,” Leavitt added. “No nation can afford to ignore this threat.”
For this reason, Leavitt explained, Pres. George W. Bush last month launched the International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza, with a purpose of creating “an international network of surveillance and preparedness that will be able to recognize and respond quickly to disease outbreaks.”
Despite the warnings, many medical experts, including Schaffner, a member of the board of directors and executive committee of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, feel that the pandemic predictions may be more hype than reality.
“It’s important to emphasize that at this time, the bird flu is a bird problem,” Schaffner said, adding that the only people who have gotten sick are those in Asia who have had close contact with poultry in the market or barnyard.
“Even among birds, the flu has not been in the United States, Canada or Mexico—it has not been in the whole Western Hemisphere. So, when I’m asked if the average person should worry about it, I say, frankly, no. I’m worried, so they don’t have to,” he added. “If there’s something to worry about, the WHO and the CDC and everyone’s state department will give us the information instantaneously for what we should do. At that point, you can pay attention.”
Schaffner added that while the avian flu should not yet be a major concern in the United States, there is indeed something for us to worry about.
“What we should be doing is worrying about the old-fashioned flu that will definitely be here this winter,” he said. “Each year, on average, influenza kills 36,000 people in the U.S. and puts an average 200,000 people in the hospital. Let’s prevent this winter’s flu.”
To do so, Schaffner is a proponent of the flu vaccine for all, available both as a shot and as a nasal spray for those between age 5 and 50, both of which, he said, will be in adequate supply.
“Now is the time for people to protect themselves and their family,” he added.
Schaffner added a special message for health care workers: It is both a professional and ethical obligation to get vaccinated against the flu virus—for several reasons.
“As health care professionals, we don’t want to bring flu to our patients—we don’t want to make our patients sick with flu we bring in from the outside,” he explained. “Second, when flu hits the community, we need to be on the job providing health care. We don’t want to be at home in bed being a patient.
“The third thing is that we all have family, friends and loved ones,” he added. “We don’t want to bring the flu from work home to them.”
For nurses, Schaffner also wanted to dispel the commonly held myth that the flu vaccine actually causes the flu.
“The most common reason nurses give for not being vaccinated is that they are concerned they can get the flu from the vaccine. This is incorrect, false, nonsense—please get it out of your mind,” he said. “We need nurses not only to get vaccinated, but also to be flu vaccine ambassadors for their patients.”
Resources:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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