THE EVE OF DESTRUCTION

I have long been interested in epidemiology and tend to follow disease epidemics as they unfold. For other Stephen King readers out there, the new flu epidemic affecting Mexico and the southwestern US will be eerily reminiscent of “Captain Trips” from The Stand.

So, a unique strain of swine flu that combines genetic material from pigs, birds and humans has killed dozens and sickened thousands in Mexico causing the government to close schools, museums and other public buildings.

"We are very, very concerned," World Health Organization spokesman Thomas Abraham said. "We have what appears to be a novel virus and it has spread from human to human ... It's all hands on deck at the moment."
It might already be too late to contain the outbreak, a prominent U.S. pandemic flu expert said late Friday.
"Given how quickly flu can spread around the globe, if these are the first signs of a pandemic, then there are probably cases incubating around the world already", said Dr. Michael Osterholm at the University of Minnesota.

So far eight people in the US have also caught this flu but no one here has died. The disturbing aspect of this flu is that those who have died have been young people and adults. One of the problems with the flu is that each year a new strain travels the globe causing worldwide pandemics. Whether these outbreaks are large and devastating or less significant usually depends on what type of flu people have been exposed to in the past.

The more virulent strains seem to be swine flus. As a young woman of 21, I nearly died from a strain of swine flu that originated in Asia. I had been quite healthy prior to my illness but ended up out of work for four months. I had a year old baby at the time and my mother and mother-in-law (neither of whom got the flu) took turns caring for him.

CDC officials described the virus as having a unique combination of gene segments not seen before in people or pigs. The bug contains human virus, avian virus from North America and pig viruses from North America, Europe and Asia. It may be completely new, or it may have been around for a while and was only detected now through improved testing and surveillance, CDC officials said.

The most devastating flu epidemic in modern times was the pandemic of 1918-1919. In the two years that this flu ravaged the earth, a fifth of the world's population was infected and it was most deadly for people ages 20 to 40. This was unusual for influenza which is usually a killer of the elderly and young children. It has long been suspected that this “Spanish flu” was a strain of swine flu.

The news story can be found HERE. And if anyone is interested, you can visit your local library for the books “The Hot Zone” and “The Coming Plague.”

While many focus their fears on things like missles and terrorists, what if the real threat to is not even visible to the naked eye?