Monday, November 16, 2009
Get a flu shot? Nah, just catch cold.
From the latest New Superstitionist:
And why do colds reliably peak in early fall? Because that's when kids go back to school, sharing new viruses with each other.
The question unasked in the article: By cautioning everyone to wash hands, sneeze into elbows, wear masks, stay home, are we actually making swine flu worse by slowing down the vaccination effect of the cold virus? Are we breaking up natural feedback systems? ¶ 12:49 PM
In France, flu cases rose in early September, then stayed at about 160 per 100,000 people until late October, when numbers started rising again. The delayed rise was puzzling, says Jean-Sebastien Casalegno of the French national flu lab at the University of Lyon.
He reports that the percentage of throat swabs from French respiratory illnesses that tested positive for swine flu fell in September, while at the same time rhinovirus, which causes colds, rose. [Then] in late October rhinovirus fell at the same time as flu rose. [Casalegno] suspects rhinovirus may have blocked the spread of swine flu via a process called viral interference.
This is thought to occur when one virus ... turns on your antiviral defences, and excludes the other viruses.
And why do colds reliably peak in early fall? Because that's when kids go back to school, sharing new viruses with each other.
The question unasked in the article: By cautioning everyone to wash hands, sneeze into elbows, wear masks, stay home, are we actually making swine flu worse by slowing down the vaccination effect of the cold virus? Are we breaking up natural feedback systems? ¶ 12:49 PM
