Influenza

cont'd from page 1...

the epidemic of 2003

Why was so much attention given to the flu in the winter of 2003-2004? Even a cursory study of the media reveals an explosion of concern that predates the actual epidemic, which everyone was predicting. The first big media interest in the flu was in November 2003, when five Colorado children died of the disease. That month, one could read something about the flu in most newspapers every day’Äìoften in a front-page lead story, many of which predicted a flu pandemic. An article in the San Francisco Chronicle (November 28, 2003) quoted experts who stated that a flu epidemic similar to the last serious one, in 1968-1969, which killed an estimated 34,000 in the US, was due to hit sometime soon. The article also cautioned about the possibility of a direct transmission of the flu from poultry to humans. The avian flu, which perhaps originated in China, was apparently not seen before 1997, but recent outbreaks have occurred in Hong Kong, Canada, and the Netherlands. The possibility of a serious flu pandemic is fueling concern in medical circles.[1] That will no doubt lead to even more pressure on people to get vaccinated.

On December 6, a headline in the Chronicle read, "Their Vaccine is all Gone, the Two Makers of the Vaccine in the U.S. Say." The paper followed this article with a front-page headline on December 12: "Outbreak Stirs Frenzy in Flu Shots." On December 16, the Chronicle ran a smaller front-page article about new guidelines being implemented by the Catholic Church to help prevent the spread of flu. On December 20, an article on the inside pages told of emergency measures by the CDC to combat the flu.

This is but a small sampling of a single newspaper's flu coverage in the fall of 2003. No wonder so many people rushed to their doctors to get the vaccine, creating huge lines outside many clinics throughout the country.

By December, manufacturers had run out of the vaccine, after mass hysteria had broken out across the country in response to some well-publicized deaths attributed to the disease. The CDC was even thinking of importing more influenza vaccine.[2] However, by January 2004, there was virtual silence about the flu, even though we were still in the milile of flu season. The massive media attention had evaporated, leaving us to wonder what had happened. One thing is sure: all the vaccine had been used. The heightened media coverage had been effective in getting people to purchase the vaccine. Questions remain, however: Was the vaccine effective? Was the flu actually more virulent than in previous years?

So far, the evidence suggests that the vaccine was not very effective, and that the outbreak was no worse than in most other years. While other deaths were attributed to the flu, there is no evidence that any more people died in the 2003-2004 flu season than in previous seasons. Also, when someone dies of a complication of a disease such as the flu, it is as much a reflection of the general weakness of the person's immune system and overall health as it is an indication of the virus's virulence. In aliition, it is often not the flu itself that actually kills a person, but secondary bacterial infections, such as pneumonia, to which some persons are more susceptible.[3]

A 2001 report in the British medical journal The Lancet stated that the flu virus itself may not be the reason that so many die of infectious disease during winter.[4] Another virus, commonly known as RSV, has been found to be more prevalent than the influenza A and B strains.

next...effects and risks of the vaccine

Footnotes

  1. Editorial desk, "The Spread of Avian Influenza," New York Times (30 January 2004). Abstract: Editorial urges immediate infusion of Western expertise and money to prevent spread of avian influenza in Southeast Asia; expresses concern that virus will mutate and become transmittable from human to human rather than just from bird to bird and from bird to human; says most urgent task is to destroy all infected birds, compensating farmers for their losses.
  2. Lawrence K. Altman, "US Considers Importing Influenza Vaccine," New York Times (10 December 2003).
  3. Centers for Disease Control, www.cdc.gov/flu/keyfacts.htm.
  4. Eric Simoes, "Overlap between Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Infection and Influenza," The Lancet 358, no. 9291 (27 October 2001).