OK! So, now I'm sick!

Monday, October 2 - Last November 3 (3026)  , I got my flu shot with no ill effects. This year (2017) I got a shot on Friday September 29,  with the same four inactivated viral components (2 type A and 2 type B), but was sicker than a dog just two days later. (My symptoms included a sore throat, sore joints, fatigue and a dry cough). Pretty much text book symptoms for someone with influenza.

The real test, however, will be just how long the 'illness' lasts. A bout of real flu typically lasts one to two weeks, with severe symptoms subsiding in two to three days. However, weakness, fatigue, dry cough, and a reduced ability to exercise can linger for three to seven days. Therefore, I figured if I was still sick by Wednesday, I just might have gotten the real thing. Otherwise, it was likely some other 'bug' that was floating around. And then again, the problems could be due to a reaction to the quadrivalent vaccine I'd just recently received. I've since concluded that I have the real deal...

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My anxiety was only increased with this news coming out of Australia:

Down south, a record-breaking 172,247 cases have been confirmed by the Department of Health in 2017: 86,567 in New South Wales; 44,866 in Queensland; 17,326 in South Australia; 13,654 in Victoria; 3656 in Western Australia; 2707 in Tasmania; 2352 in the Australian Capital Territory and 1119 in the Northern Territory.

That’s a 156% increase on the number reported by this time last year, according to Immunization Coalition statistics. And the health service believes the number is even higher, with a delay in reporting thanks to administrative backlogs as officials struggle to handle the spike.

The rates of influenza are highest among people aged 85 years or older, with a secondary peak for children aged 5 to 9 as well as unusually high rates among under-fives.

Update: Day #4 and I think I'm getting a little better - At least I've managed to get out of bed a few times. This 'flu', assuming that's what it is, has been a real SOB. Look up the list of symptoms for influenza and I've had them all over the past few days...

Getting my flu shot!

It was late September, in 2017, when I decided to go and get my flu shot! (Even though it was still early in the flu season). As the chart, (below right) illustrates, high rates of flu really start to get going from December on! But, this year I thought it prudent to get my shot now!  I decided to do this as the CDC was recording increased numbers of people coming down with the swine version of the flu (H1N1). So, I called the Taney County Health Department and scheduled an appointment for Friday, September the 29^th. Hope I don't faint when they stick me with the needle!

The vaccine to be given out this season is as follows:

• an A/Michigan/45/2015 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus (updated)
• an A/Hong Kong/4801/2014 (H3N2)-like virus
• a B/Brisbane/60/2008-like (B/Victoria lineage) virus
  

In my case (old age), I would also be given the slightly more powerful quadrivalent vaccine which also includes the B/Phuket/3073/2013-like (B/Yamagata lineage) virus!

Hey! What about the mercury content you may ask?

OK, here's some facts: Thiomersal*— A preservative that contains mercury — has never been shown to be harmful. The type of mercury linked with nervous system damage is methyl mercury. (Concerns over methyl mercury levels have led to recommendations that pregnant women avoid eating large amounts of certain types of fish, such as swordfish).

In contrast, thiomersal is an ethyl mercury compound.

Still, because the preservative raised controversy, especially over a now dis-proven link to autism, it was taken out of almost all U.S. Single does vaccines starting in 2001.

The injectable form of flu vaccine is available to health care providers in one of two ways — they can get large bottles of it, which contain many doses, or they can small bottles, which contain an individual dose of the vaccine.

There is a tiny amount of thiomersal in the multi-dose bottles. The preservative ensures that no bacteria will grow in the vaccine. The individual-dose bottles, however, contain no thiomerosal. So, anyone concerned about the compound's effects can ask their provider for an individual dose.

*Thiomersal, or thimerosal, is an organomercury compound. This compound is a well established antiseptic and antifungal agent. The pharmaceutical corporation Eli Lilly and Company gave thiomersal the trade name Merthiolate. www.taneyweather.com

See also: Officials brace for potentially bad flu season in the U.S.!

What's in the 2017-18 flu vaccine?

The strains of influenza covered by the vaccine vary from year to year; the composition of each year’s vaccine is based on recommendations from the World Health Organization.

Around the world, more than 100 countries have influenza centers that monitor flu-like illnesses. The centers test samples from patients to determine whether an illness is caused by an influenza virus, and if so, which type.

Those centers report data to a handful of WHO sites around the world, and those sites in turn track which strains are circulating. In February, the centers’ directors and other experts meet to prepare for flu season in the northern hemisphere.

“What’s circulating in the southern hemisphere (mainly H3N2 in late 2017) kind of gives us a determination of what we might expect to see in our season,” Stated Kayla DeBusk, a vaccine accountability specialist with the Spokane Regional Health District. .

Contrary to popular belief, the effectiveness of the vaccine isn’t usually determined by health departments selecting the right flu strains. More often, it depends on whether scientists have a similar virus mapped out well enough to produce vaccines for it.

“We don’t have a good virus match” for some strains, DeBusk said. Typically, a vaccine strain of the flu is about a 40 to 60 percent genetic match to the virus it’s supposed to provide immunity for.
Vaccines are more effective in years when the main types of flu have been seen before and already have effective vaccine strains. Strains for vaccines are grown in hen’s eggs.

Some people believe flu vaccines are rushed or “untested” because they change composition every year, but DeBusk said that’s far from the truth.

“We’ve been doing this method of manufacturing flu vaccines for about 70 years,” she said.
Swine flu, also known as the H1N1 virus, is circulating again this season and has been included in this year’s vaccine, though the variant is slightly different from the one included in last year’s.

All vaccines protect against two types of influenza A, which can be transmitted from animals. Those viruses, including H1N1, make up most cases during the early part of flu season. Influenza B strains, which only affect humans, tend to pick up later in the season.

Quadrivalent vaccines include two types of influenza B, while trivalent vaccines have just one.
This year's trivalent vaccine will contain:

• an A/Michigan/45/2015 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus (updated)
• an A/Hong Kong/4801/2014 (H3N2)-like virus
• a B/Brisbane/60/2008-like (B/Victoria lineage) virus
  

The quadrivalent vaccine will also include B/Phuket/3073/2013-like (B/Yamagata lineage) virus!
www.taneyweather.com

Flu season is right around the corner!

The last eight years have seen relatively mild cases of the flu. Here's a few stats that might be helpful...

1918 Flu pandemic

An influenza pandemic is an epidemic of an influenza virus that spreads on a worldwide scale and infects a large proportion of the world population. In contrast to the regular seasonal epidemics of influenza, these pandemics occur irregularly—there have been about 9 influenza pandemics during the last 300 years. Pandemics can cause high levels of mortality, with the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic being the worst in recorded history; this pandemic was estimated to be responsible for the deaths of approximately 50–100 million people. There have been about three influenza pandemics in each century for the last 300 years, the most recent one being the 2009 flu pandemic.

You should get a flu vaccine before flu begins spreading in your community. It takes about two weeks after vaccination for antibodies to develop in the body that protect against flu, so make plans to get vaccinated early in fall, before flu season begins. CDC recommends that people get a flu vaccine by the end of October, if possible. Getting vaccinated later, however, can still be beneficial and vaccination should continue to be offered throughout the flu season, even into January or later.

This fall of 2017, the composition of U.S. flu vaccines has been reviewed and updated as needed to match currently circulating flu viruses. Flu vaccines protect against the three or four viruses (depending on which type of vaccine you get shot up with) that research suggests might be most common. For 2017-2018, three-component vaccines are recommended to contain:

• an A/Michigan/45/2015 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus (updated)
• an A/Hong Kong/4801/2014 (H3N2)-like virus
• a B/Brisbane/60/2008-like (B/Victoria lineage) virus
  

Quadrivalent (four-component) vaccines, which protect against a second lineage of B viruses, are recommended to be produced using the same viruses recommended for the trivalent vaccines, as well as a B/Phuket/3073/2013-like (B/Yamagata lineage) virus

As of mid September, the incidents of flu in the US remained very low.