Before the Centers for Disease Control got around to renaming the 2009 version of the swine flu “H1N1” you had to know that we were in for it.
Any virus that takes its name from a pig is going to have a marketing problem.
That said, swine flu is a serious public health issue that deserves serious discussion instead of scary headlines and media hype.
And, like all matters medical or scientific, the facts evolve as the epidemiologists gather the evidence.
Public health officials in Massachusetts documented a dramatic increase in influenza-like illness across the state this week. 62% of all confirmed cases of H1N1 have been documented among school age children.
A lot of the anxiety surrounding H1N1 is focused on the vaccine. Fewer than a million doses have made it into Massachusetts, and state health officials only expect to get enough for about half of us this season.
On Radio Boston this week we’re going to take a deep breath of clean oxygen, free of floating unseen bits of airborne virus or bacteria, dial down the noise and get to what is known or at least knowable about H1N1.
The doctors are in.
Thanks for listening – Jane.
In H1N1. What does the H stand for and what does the N stand for?
My mother lives in a nursing home. She is 86 and not in the best of health. She is bedridden and has her meals delivered on a tray by an orderly. Should an orderly, who has contracted H1N1, accidentally sneeze in Mum’s food, what are the odds of Mum catching the flu? Thank you.
Roasalie: H1N1 is named for the surface proteins on the virus, hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N), which are common to all influenza A viruses. The numbers refer to the subtypes of each protein.
Clem: H1N1 spread via the respiratory tract so can not be spread via food.
Ironically or coincidently, as I was listening to your program this afternoon, I was bathing my 10 month old daughter, who is confirmed she has h1n1 after the nose swipe test, and then taking my second shower of the day after getting thrown up on a second time. I too thought the h1n1 was another overblown media hype, but when my own kids got it I saw how scary it is and how it rapidly “attacked” their body. My 3 year old son is 90% back to health, but there have been some really, really scary moments with my 10 month old daughter and irrational guilt of what I could have done different to stop this even though close to 75% of my son’s preschool was absent due to this horrible flu.
p.s. We did not get either seasonal or h1n1 shots due to unavailability.