serVice
12-04-2003, 03:00 AM
i've been paying attention to this for a few months now, and some of the facts are pointing to what i had believed for awhile.
This flu season was going to be a very bad if not epidemic proportions. Even though this is the time of year when flu cases begin to rise in number, this year is beginning much earlier and proving to be more fatal than previous years. Already in Colorado, there have been 6 deaths, and while they have only been young children, the triggers for a bad problem are in place.
Months ago i read about cases of the flu going around armed forces bases, and that the cases were predominantly cases of H3N2 and some H1N1. H3N2 has been around since 1967, when it caused a big epidemic and has since been known as the Hong Kong Flu, and although the genetics of the flu change over time, it is still attributed to that original virus. H1N1 went away for a long time, and i'm not sure how it came back after an absence, but the H1N1 originally came from the Flu that devastated the world between 1918- 1919, and in a year and a half killed anywhere between 25- estimates as high as 75 million people, and became known as the Spanish Flu.
Now, while the advances in medicine have grown by leaps and bounds since the 1918 flu or even the 1967 flu, so also has the ability for transcontinental travel. One of the biggest reasons the Spanish Flu got as bad as it did was because during the the years it was prevalent, people were traveling all over the place because of the war going on.
i have also been reading that while the flu vaccine is out there, the batches they have used this year are a bit different than the flu thats going around right now, and thusly aren't exactly working the way they should be.
check out the CDC sight, or the world health organization to look at some of the stuff. And if you really want to see how bad it can really get, take a look at some of the information on the Spanish Flu.
"You guys, do you know where i can find the clitoris?"
"what is that like finding jesus or something?"
This flu season was going to be a very bad if not epidemic proportions. Even though this is the time of year when flu cases begin to rise in number, this year is beginning much earlier and proving to be more fatal than previous years. Already in Colorado, there have been 6 deaths, and while they have only been young children, the triggers for a bad problem are in place.
Months ago i read about cases of the flu going around armed forces bases, and that the cases were predominantly cases of H3N2 and some H1N1. H3N2 has been around since 1967, when it caused a big epidemic and has since been known as the Hong Kong Flu, and although the genetics of the flu change over time, it is still attributed to that original virus. H1N1 went away for a long time, and i'm not sure how it came back after an absence, but the H1N1 originally came from the Flu that devastated the world between 1918- 1919, and in a year and a half killed anywhere between 25- estimates as high as 75 million people, and became known as the Spanish Flu.
Now, while the advances in medicine have grown by leaps and bounds since the 1918 flu or even the 1967 flu, so also has the ability for transcontinental travel. One of the biggest reasons the Spanish Flu got as bad as it did was because during the the years it was prevalent, people were traveling all over the place because of the war going on.
i have also been reading that while the flu vaccine is out there, the batches they have used this year are a bit different than the flu thats going around right now, and thusly aren't exactly working the way they should be.
check out the CDC sight, or the world health organization to look at some of the stuff. And if you really want to see how bad it can really get, take a look at some of the information on the Spanish Flu.
"You guys, do you know where i can find the clitoris?"
"what is that like finding jesus or something?"