I used to be reminded of that reality when my littlest woke me for an early-morning cuddle, sneezed into my face, and wiped her nostril on my pajamas. I booked her flu vaccine the following morning.
Within the US, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention recommends the flu vaccine for everybody over six months previous. This yr, following the unfold of the “fowl flu” H5N1 in cattle, the CDC is very urging dairy farm staff to get vaccinated. On the finish of July, the group introduced a $10 million plan to ship free flu photographs to individuals who work with livestock.
The purpose is just not solely to guard these staff from seasonal flu, however to guard us all from a probably extra devastating consequence: the emergence of a brand new type of flu that might set off one other pandemic. That hasn’t occurred but, however sadly, it’s wanting more and more potential.
First, it’s price noting that flu viruses expertise refined modifications of their genetic make-up on a regular basis. This permits the virus to evolve quickly, and it’s why flu vaccines should be up to date yearly, relying on which type of the virus is probably to be circulating.
Extra dramatic genetic modifications can happen when a number of flu viruses infect a single animal. The genome of a flu virus is made up of eight segments. When two totally different viruses find yourself in the identical cell, they will swap segments with one another.
These swapping occasions can create all-new viruses. It’s unimaginable to foretell precisely what is going to end result, however there’s all the time an opportunity that the brand new virus will probably be simply unfold or trigger extra critical illness than both of its predecessors.
The concern is that farm staff who get seasonal flu may additionally choose up fowl flu from cows. These folks may grow to be unwitting incubators for lethal new flu strains and find yourself passing them on to the folks round them. “That’s precisely how we predict pandemics begin,” says Thomas Peacock, a virologist on the Pirbright Institute in Woking, UK.