The strange summer of flu
"If you've seen one influenza season, you've seen one influenza season," Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, has told me more than once. It's an attempt at some medical humor, I guess, but there may be plenty of truth in his quip.
Researchers and public health officials have been trying to pin down this H1N1 virus since it hit the U.S. in April. They don't know if it will stay mild (it has sickened an estimated 1 million in the U.S. but killed 170 at last count). They thought it would go away over the summer since flu usually does, but in many places, more people keep coming down with it. The official number of new confirmed cases in Maryland, for example, has risen every week since the first case was confirmed here in May (and, officials say, those numbers are likely much higher since most people who get sick don't visit the doctor and most people who go to the doctor aren't getting tested for flu). Experts predict the virus could come back worse for flu season this fall and winter, like the Spanish Influenza of 1918 did. That remains to be seen, of course. ...
The truth is, since this is a new strain of the flu, health officials haven't a clue how it will behave. They want us to be wary of the swine flu, but not afraid. They want us to be comforted by the fact that the symptoms are mild, but concerned enough to avoid catching it if at all possible. They want us not to cry out that a vaccine is needed unless they are able to mass-produce one in time for the coming flu season. Then they will want us to line up and get immunized.
Said Dr. David Blythe, the state's epidemiologist: "It's hard to know what to expect when you have a new flu virus."
Photo courtesy of CDC
