The medical world received some bad news in early October
2004. An announcement was made by Chiron Corporation, the company contracted
to produce a majority of America’s flu vaccines for this season, failed to come
through. Its license had been suspended, and there weren’t going to be any
vaccines.
Since that announcement, the American people have been
paying close attention to any recent developments of the influenza virus (more
commonly known as the “flu”). The limited supply of flu vaccines that are
available have been reserved for the sick, elderly, and high risk candidates.
The young and healthy are encouraged to wait out the season, and tough out the
flu without the vaccine.
There’s good news. Catching the flu these days isn’t
exactly the same as catching the bubonic plague in the 14th
century. Between 1347 and 1350, the Bubonic Plague—or “Black Death”—killed one
out of every three people living in Europe. Other epidemics hit various parts
of Europe in the 1300s, 1400s, and 1500s. As recently as the 1855, the plague
spread through China and India, killing over ten million people.
That’s not going to happen with your standard flu. The
majority of people who are infected with influenza this year (that could be
as many as 30 million people in the United States alone) will recover in a
week or two. The only groups whose health is seriously at risk are the elderly
(over sixty-five years old), very young children, and those with chronic
illness.
That’s not to say that catching the flu is like taking a
walk in the park. It can be excruciatingly painful even for someone who is
young and healthy. In 1918-1919, a severe case of influenza known as the
“Spanish Flu” turned into an epidemic. Some estimates claim that the flu of
that year took more lives than World War I (possibly more than 40 million
people worldwide).
Fortunately, increased awareness, new medications, and
better health conditions—especially in industrialized nations like the United States—should help to keep the flu season from getting out of control. However, the
influenza virus mutates very easily, and it’s nearly impossible to ever predict
how severe the flu for the upcoming season will be.
If you need to hear some good news, this might help. If you
come down with the usual symptoms—fever, headache, tiredness, sore throat, and
body aches—you can rest assured that you don’t have the bubonic plague. While
these were all symptoms of the illness, Black Death has been virtually wiped
out in recent generations. If anything, you might have a cold, or a mild case
of the flu (both of which pale in comparison to Black Death).
If the bubonic plague has been wiped out, why can’t doctors
conquer the flu? They might someday, but it’s a little more difficult. Black
Death was spread by fleas and rats, and it thrived in dirty and unsanitary
locations. As wealth increased over the years, living conditions naturally
improved. As a result, it became harder for an epidemic of the bubonic plague
to spread. It wasn’t a miraculous medical invention that conquered Black
Death—it was the development of a high standard of living.
The flu is a little more tricky. Influenza is caused by an
ever-changing virus. Because the virus is constantly mutating, doctors and
scientists have to continually create new vaccines to combat it. If the exact
same virus appeared year after year, it would be easy to virtually eliminate
the flu.