Have elders enough exposure to H1N1 flu strains to avoid infection?
A letter…by Rhode Island Hospital infectious diseases specialist Leonard Mermel, DO, identifies characteristics of the outbreak of H1N1 in 1977 and speculates its impact on this pandemic.
Mermel notes that in the late 1970s, an influenza H1N1 reappeared in humans. It had a pandemic-like spread that began in younger aged individuals. This strain, known as the “Russian flu” H1N1, was similar to H1N1 strains that circulated internationally between 1946 and 1957…
In the United States, the first outbreak of the Russian flu occurred in a Wyoming high school. The attack rate there was over 70 percent, however, it affected students only; no faculty were reported to have the illness. High attack rates were seen in schools as well as military bases throughout the United States, similar to the outbreak in Russia. There were few reports of the H1N1 strain in individuals older than age 26, and again, the mortality rate was low.
Mermel hypothesizes that the H1N1 strain circulating now may have enough similarity to the previously circulating H1N1 strains or the H1N1 used in past vaccines so that it may lead to protection of older individuals. He concludes by noting that the weeks ahead should help us to determine if this will be the case.
I can only hope he’s right. The strains of H1N1 circulating in the late 1940′s into the 1950′s was difficult enough to survive. You may not have been at serious risk of dying – at least us young ‘uns – but, you felt like you were.
As a kid, I survived the H1N1 strains in 1947, 1951 and 1953. Painful, severe vomiting, diarrhoea. spiking high fevers – you name it – if it was misery, you suffered through it. Surviving the earlier varieties didn’t forestall the later infections.
Some of these, like the present (A)H1N1 rolled through population centers in the spring, subsided, then roared back with a vengeance in the autumn. Early days with vaccination trials proved unsuccessful from strain to strain back then. Interesting enough, the illness also focused on young people more so than did traditional influenza.
As an old geezer, I’m not certain my body could survive a week or so with those symptoms, again.
So far – just as an anecdote – this may be a useful assumption.
I’m off to get my regular flu shot, this morning. And the swine flu shot in a week or two. But, as near as I can tell, the swine flu H1N1 caught up with me, last week.
I had it at least 3 times when I was a kid and never wish to go through that again. As the symptoms grew in intensity, last week – I admit I was pretty negative and nervous. But, before they reached what I would have considered a dangerous intensity – they started to subside.
And I never spiked a serious temperature.
As a kid – with the critter infecting me – I hit 102°F and even 104°F one time.
eideard
September 29, 2009 at 6:50 am