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the US, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention recommends the flu vaccine for everybody over six months outdated. 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 pictures to individuals who work with livestock.
The purpose isn’t solely to guard these staff from seasonal flu, however to guard us all from a doubtlessly 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 doable.
First, it’s price noting that flu viruses expertise delicate adjustments of their genetic make-up on a regular basis. This permits the virus to evolve quickly, and it’s why flu vaccines must be up to date yearly, relying on which type of the virus is almost definitely to be circulating.
Extra dramatic genetic adjustments 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 completely different viruses find yourself in the identical cell, they’ll swap segments with one another.
These swapping occasions can create all-new viruses. It’s unattainable to foretell precisely what’s going to end result, however there’s all the time an opportunity that the brand new virus shall 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 decide up fowl flu from cows. These individuals may change into unwitting incubators for lethal new flu strains and find yourself passing them on to the individuals round them. “That’s precisely how we predict pandemics begin,” says Thomas Peacock, a virologist on the Pirbright Institute in Woking, UK.