Bird Flu
I am not one who is easily scared by the media. After all, I AM the media, and I know that some stories are exagerrated for sensationalism. But this constant barrage of bird-flu stories is starting to get to me.
Last year it was sharks. Anybody who swims in the Gulf of Mexico is going to be eaten alive by some monster great white. I grew up on the Gulf of Mexico; the only thing that ever bit me was a jellyfish. So I looked at the attention as just another slow news day.
But the flu... it's just the flu, right? An annoying cold that only kills old people with weakened immune systems and poor children with ignorant parents. How many times in your life have you had the flu? So what's the big freaking deal? How does it actually kill someone? Then I read an article in National Geographic this weekend, and suddenly, I am SCARED. Not for my own life so much, but I have an infant daughter in a ethnically diverse daycare, and it only takes one traveling person to bring this flu to Houston and it will spread like wildfire.
The big deal is that, with a new strain of flu, the body has no immunity to this particular strain. The flu that you get every year is basically a mutation of the prior year, so your body recognizes parts of it, adapts, and you blow green snot while your immune system figures out how to kill it. Few days of missed work, lots of hot tea, toast, and warm blankies. But when a brand-new flu strain arrives, there is nothing for your immune system to recognize; it basically sends a barrage of white blood cells to your lungs, which acts like "trucks of dynamite," until your lungs fill with fluid, you suffocate slowly and die. There is no cure, and it usually happenes within a week that you contract the virus.
Until scientists can isolate the virus and develop a vaccine, it will continue to spread. The big deal is this; will we have enough vaccine if or when this creepy crap starts to spread? A few years ago, I'd just shrug and say, "Well, I'll just play the odds. If God wants me, he'll take me." But now, I have a baby to think of. If I had to watch my daughter suffer this way, I would be ready to go with her. The thought makes my heart stop.
She goes for her nine month checkup tomorrow. She will be getting a flu shot, and this year, I will, too.
Last year it was sharks. Anybody who swims in the Gulf of Mexico is going to be eaten alive by some monster great white. I grew up on the Gulf of Mexico; the only thing that ever bit me was a jellyfish. So I looked at the attention as just another slow news day.
But the flu... it's just the flu, right? An annoying cold that only kills old people with weakened immune systems and poor children with ignorant parents. How many times in your life have you had the flu? So what's the big freaking deal? How does it actually kill someone? Then I read an article in National Geographic this weekend, and suddenly, I am SCARED. Not for my own life so much, but I have an infant daughter in a ethnically diverse daycare, and it only takes one traveling person to bring this flu to Houston and it will spread like wildfire.
The big deal is that, with a new strain of flu, the body has no immunity to this particular strain. The flu that you get every year is basically a mutation of the prior year, so your body recognizes parts of it, adapts, and you blow green snot while your immune system figures out how to kill it. Few days of missed work, lots of hot tea, toast, and warm blankies. But when a brand-new flu strain arrives, there is nothing for your immune system to recognize; it basically sends a barrage of white blood cells to your lungs, which acts like "trucks of dynamite," until your lungs fill with fluid, you suffocate slowly and die. There is no cure, and it usually happenes within a week that you contract the virus.
Until scientists can isolate the virus and develop a vaccine, it will continue to spread. The big deal is this; will we have enough vaccine if or when this creepy crap starts to spread? A few years ago, I'd just shrug and say, "Well, I'll just play the odds. If God wants me, he'll take me." But now, I have a baby to think of. If I had to watch my daughter suffer this way, I would be ready to go with her. The thought makes my heart stop.
She goes for her nine month checkup tomorrow. She will be getting a flu shot, and this year, I will, too.
posted by Kristie at 9:51 AM
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