We seniors tend to take influenza a little more seriously than most, if only because we are a demographic group at a higher risk of succumbing to complications. This season has attracted my notice for several reasons, and so I present several factoids that are unrelated yet each interesting in their own right.
There is a general flu season ( usually starting in fall ) but pandemic flu can crop up at any time. The 2009 swine flu first appeared in April.
This years Type A H1N1 flu appeared on September 29, 2013, according to the CDC. It is the same strain as the 2009 flu, and was covered in the flu shots for this year.
Many people, predominantly younger, don’t get flu shots, either because they “don’t believe in them”, or they believe that the shots “make them sick.”
This year the type A virus is a particularly mean son of a bitch, and it seems to be targeting younger adults, although that could be because of this group’s reluctance to get the vaccine.
Several people of our acquaintance have been told that without an early dose of Tamiflu, their symptoms could last as long as six weeks.
At one point my wife, my 43 year old son, and our seven year old granddaughter had this virus, and I was the only one able to run to the pharmacy and store to pick up sick supplies.
This was the first year I have ever worn a filter mask in public and when taking my wife to the doctor. Our doctor is thirty miles away in a smaller bedroom community for Knoxville, TN, and he said they had seen hardly any cases, whereas Knoxville is over run with them.
I am now hearing many of our son’s generation now all determined to get next year’s flu vaccine.
The CDC is currently monitoring an H7N9 Type A avian flu which appeared in China in April, but which so far has not proven to be highly contagious.
Virtually everything you need to know about the flu is at http://www.flu.gov/
3:44 PM PT: Update: The CDC, while having no firm evidence of the efficacy of face masks, still recommends wearing them to doctor's offices or crowded places in case you have it with no symptoms yet. The N95 respirator masks may or may not be any better than the more generic types. Err on the side of caution.
Mon Dec 30, 2013 at 6:49 AM PT: I just googled a vaccine for those allergic to egg based flu shots (my wife, again) called Flublok (from Protein Sciences), a trivalent seasonal influenza vaccine. It is already in use, and will help many people who otherwise could not get vaccinated. I need to do a little more investigating on this one. It uses recombinant DNA technology, which raises some flags for a cynic like me.