- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Want
to avoid the flu? Go wash your hands right now.
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- Influenza is one of the most easily transmitted diseases,
caused by a range of related viruses. It relies on human habits -- most
notably the tendency to rub a runny nose.
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- The virus can live on a plastic or metal surface for
hours or even days. When a patient touches a drippy nose and then pushes
a button or uses a telephone, the virus sits there, ready to be picked
up by the next unwary person.
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- Simply touch the nose, mouth or even the eye, and you,
too, can have the flu.
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- The virus also can be passed when a patient coughs or
sneezes a fine spray of saliva and mucus into the air and an unfortunate
passer-by breathes it in.
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- Influenza causes respiratory symptoms -- a cough, sneezing,
headache, muscle aches and fever. Unlike a cold, which creeps up on a patient,
influenza begins suddenly.
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- Although people often refer to "stomach flu,"
influenza does not cause gastrointestinal symptoms.
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- It can, however, cause pneumonia, and patients weakened
by flu can then become infected by a range of bacterial diseases. This
is why flu kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people around the world each
year -- 36,000 in the United States alone.
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- Every year a slightly different mix of influenza viruses
circulate, and health experts try their best to predict the upcoming mix.
They then work to formulate a vaccine that will protect against the most
common strains.
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- The vaccine uses dead virus and cannot cause the flu.
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- POSSIBLE VACCINE SHORTAGES
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- The vaccine must be made fresh each year and takes months
to produce. Currently, only two companies make flu vaccines -- Chiron and
Aventis SA . Both said last week they had shipped out all their supplies,
and with increased demand there could be shortages in some places.
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- A third vaccine, FluMist, made by MedImmune, uses a mix
of live but weakened viruses to protect against flu and is taken nasally.
But it is only recommended for young, healthy adults.
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- Four drugs can be used to treat influenza -- the older
antivirals amantadine and rimantadine, and the newer zanamivir, sold by
GlaxoSmithKline under the brand name Relenza, and oseltamivir, sold by
Roche Holding AB under the name Tamiflu.
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- While the current outbreak of flu in the United States
is making headlines, experts say there is no suggestion it is anything
like the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 that killed between 40 million and
50 million worldwide.
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- Nor does it look to be as bad as the "Asian flu"
and "Hong Kong flu" pandemics of 1956-1957 and 1967-1968 that
killed a combined 4.5 million people.
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- This year the strain is called Fujian flu, an influenza
A virus, and it is slightly different from the influenza A seen last year.
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- That means the current vaccine does not directly target
the most dangerous strain circulating, although the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention said it should at least reduce the severity of the
disease in most people.
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- The CDC says this year so far pneumonia and flu have
killed 6.5 percent of patients, which is below the level considered an
epidemic.
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