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 subsequent 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the US, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention recommends the flu vaccine for everybody over six months outdated.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 “chicken flu” H5N1 in cattle, the CDC is particularly urging dairy farm employees 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 aim isn’t solely to guard these employees 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 trying more and more potential.
First, it’s value 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 have to be up to date yearly, relying on which type of the virus is more than likely 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 totally 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 unimaginable to foretell precisely what is going to outcome, however there’s at all times an opportunity that the brand new virus will probably be simply unfold or trigger extra critical illness than both of its predecessors.
The worry is that farm employees who get seasonal flu might additionally decide up chicken flu from cows. These individuals might turn out to be unwitting incubators for lethal new flu strains and find yourself passing them on to the individuals round them. “That’s precisely how we expect pandemics begin,” says Thomas Peacock, a virologist on the Pirbright Institute in Woking, UK.
