Influenza epidemic: why does it occur and what to do?

According to medical statistics, more than 15% of people on Earth have fallen ill with flu in the last two or three years. Flu epidemics occur periodically. Moreover, the mortality rate due to them is quite high: for example, in 1997, a flu epidemic took half of those infected. Six people out of eighteen infected with the flu virus died. Why do flu epidemics occur at all and what can you do to avoid being in their epicenter?

Why does a person get the flu?

To understand how flu gets into our bodies, we need to delve a little deeper into microbiology at the cellular level. The general pattern of flu is clear: someone sneezed or coughed, or shook your hand, the virus from the patient got into your body, and you got sick too. But why does the flu virus have such health consequences that a person can become bedridden, lose their ability to work, and even die?

The flu virus is a complex biochemical substance consisting of a chain of nucleic acids and a protective shell. It carries a certain genetic code. The flu virus cannot exist on its own – it must be introduced into a living organism, attaching to its cells. When the virus enters a cell, it completely changes its vital functions, forcing it to produce more and more new viruses.

The cell dies from this backbreaking work, and the new viruses it produces attack other cells, multiply and reproduce throughout the body. That is why, if antiviral drugs are not taken in time, a person gets even sicker. In addition, dead cells become ballast for the body and poison it, constantly decomposing.

The path of the flu virus through the body

The first to suffer from flu viruses is the epithelium - the cells lining the nose, mouth and further along the respiratory tract. The flu virus penetrates them first, and through the respiratory system it spreads throughout the body. At first, their rapid attack is asymptomatic. The person does not feel anything, but the virus imperceptibly spreads throughout the body, poisoning it.

The harmful effects of flu viruses last from one day to six. And then, when the body is already completely poisoned by viruses, a person begins to feel a sharp weakness, increased fatigue, aches and pains throughout the body, muscle pain, headache. As a reaction of the body to the invasion of viruses, a high temperature rises - the body tries to destroy the pathogens in this way, but it is very difficult to do. This now takes time - from a week to two or three.

First of all, flu viruses do not affect the respiratory system, as we all think because of the sore throat and cough, but the brain and nervous system. Then the lungs, kidneys, liver and blood vessels suffer. This poisoning by the waste products of flu viruses, which is called intoxication, lasts from a week to two. At this time, a person is clearly sick with the flu (that is, the disease can be identified by the symptoms that appear ).

The duration of this disease depends on how strong the person's immune system is. And how quickly the body copes with the flu depends on whether the person has had this type of flu before. If the immune system recognizes the infection, it copes with it much faster than with an undetected flu virus.

Peculiarities of a flu pandemic

Despite the fact that modern science has made great strides in the fight against influenza viruses, the WHO (World Health Organization) does not rule out a new influenza epidemic in 2013. And although fewer people die from influenza with each pandemic, the medical community is concerned about the attack of this disease and calls for all possible preventive measures against it.

The most serious flu pandemics occurred in 1918, as well as in 1957 and 1968. And each of them was explained by poor unsanitary conditions, inadequate nutrition, insufficient vitamin supply, but most importantly - viral mutations against which a vaccine had not yet been invented.

With the invention of new drugs against influenza and mass vaccination, the pandemic period of influenza has now been significantly reduced - from one and a half years during the "Spanish flu" in 1918 to six months during the period of 1968, when people suffered from the so-called "Hong Kong flu" in the United States. In 1977, when the "Russian flu" arose, the pandemic was no longer as long as it had been 70 years earlier.

Doctors also tend to associate the reduction in mortality during flu epidemics and the reduction in the duration of these epidemics with the widespread use of antibiotics, which can affect bacterial forms of flu.

Features of the flu epidemic

To understand how seriously you need to protect yourself from the flu, it is worth knowing the characteristics of flu epidemics and pandemics that can spread to entire countries.

• The suddenness of the reach of large groups of people
• Serious condition
• Spreading not only to cities, but to entire countries
• High mortality rate
• Lack of a vaccine of the required quality
• Unrecognized nature of the virus
• Duration from six months to two years

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Why do flu epidemics occur?

Most often, flu epidemics occur when unidentified viruses attack - that's one, and when there is poor flu prevention - that's two. In ancient times, when no vaccination existed, the flu virus affected human groups at an incredible speed - entire cities fell ill and died out.

Today, scientists have already established that flu epidemics occur on average every 30 years. Today, they do not pose such a deadly threat as in ancient times, because people have learned to treat flu. And yet, they knock many people off track, who completely lose their ability to work during the flu and risk getting serious complications. But why do flu epidemics still occur, despite all the precautions and many medications? It all turns out to be in the characteristics of viruses.

Why can't flu epidemics be prevented?

Viruses, as scientists have proven, are dangerous precisely because they are capable of changing their structure, and therefore their properties. They mutate, and therefore, when they enter the body, it is unable to recognize the flu virus, which has even slightly changed its DNA. This feature of the virus is called antigenic drift, as a result of which the substances that make up the virus's shell slightly change their structure.

And while the body finds ways to fight new antigens, a person will already have time to get sick and transmit their disease to another. This is how mass epidemics arise, which are difficult to prevent. After all, a vaccine was invented against one virus, but a person was already infected with another. In addition, mutating, the flu virus acquires even more powerful properties than before. For example, flu progresses more quickly and severely than before. This phenomenon is called antigen shift.

True, one can be glad that when the structure of the virus changes, humans still retain partial immunity to it. Therefore, modern flu epidemics are characterized by a lower mortality rate than they were several centuries ago. For example, one of the most terrible flu epidemics was the so-called Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, which killed up to 50 million people. A pandemic is the same epidemic, only much more extensive.

Methods of combating the flu epidemic

1. Vaccination (mass)
2. Strengthening immunity through hardening and taking multivitamins, a healthy lifestyle, and sports
3. Fighting bad habits that weaken the body's immune system
4. Personal hygiene
5. Seek medical attention promptly (at the first symptoms of flu)

Prevention of influenza using the following chemicals: rimantadine, amantadine, zanamivir, oseltamivir. So far, these chemicals are not included in the state program to combat influenza epidemics, although this possibility has been discussed many times. Medical officials and financiers see the high cost of these medications as an obstacle.

Vaccination against influenza is especially effective in early autumn. Doctors say that it will help people get sick less often during the peak of epidemics – from late autumn until spring (November-March), since the effect of the vaccine lasts up to six months. It is not worth getting vaccinated earlier – its effect on the body is not year-round and gradually decreases.

So, the 2013 flu epidemic in the modern world can occur, despite all the achievements of civilization. But the probability of its occurrence largely depends on us - on timely visits to the doctor and how much we care about our own body.