An article in Thursday’s NY Times reports on two studies appearing in Lancet that question the efficacy of the accepted approaches to immunization against the flu.
In one paper, international researchers analyzed all the data from patient studies on the flu vaccine performed worldwide in the last 37 years and discovered that vaccines showed at best a "modest" ability to prevent influenza or its complications in elderly people.
In the second paper, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta found that influenza viruses, particularly those from the dreaded bird flu strain, had developed high rates of resistance to the only class of cheap antiviral drugs available - drugs mainly used to treat flu once patients have caught it.
While deaths from pneumonia were reduced by up to 30% among the elderly, hospitalizations were not affected, bringing into question the wisdom of the usual protocols for inoculating the elderly first as part of a “high risk” approach to inoculations. The article also notes that the high rates of resistance were to older, and cheaper drugs more commonly used in developing countries. Developed countries have been placing “huge” orders for Tamiflu, a drug still under patent and influenza vaccines still under development. For the social marketers reading this, the final bit of advice:
"What you see is that marketing rules the response to influenza, and scientific evidence comes fourth or fifth," Dr. Jefferson said. "Vaccines may have a role, but they appear to have a modest effect. The best strategy to prevent the illness is to wash your hands."
And in a related (?) story also in today's NY Times, the headline is: A New Deadly, Contagious Dog Flu Virus Is Detected in 7 States.
Dr. Cynda Crawford, an immunologist at the University of Florida's College of Veterinary Medicine who is studying the virus, said that it spread most easily where dogs were housed together but that it could also be passed on the street, in dog runs or even by a human transferring it from one dog to another. Kennel workers have carried the virus home with them, she said.
How many dogs die from the virus is unclear, but scientists said the fatality rate is more than 1 percent and could be as high as 10 percent among puppies and older dogs.
She added that because dogs had no natural immunity to the virus, virtually every animal exposed would be infected. About 80 percent of dogs that are infected with the virus will develop symptoms, Dr. Crawford said. She added that the symptoms were often mistaken for "kennel cough."
As if the avian flu wasn't enough to worry about. Note the human vector in dog-to-dog transmission.
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