The flu epidemic: why it arises and what to do?

According to medical statistics, over the last two to three years, more than 15% of people in the whole world have become ill with the flu. Periodically, there are epidemics of influenza. And the mortality due to their reason is quite high: for example, in 1997 the epidemic of influenza carried half of the sick. Six people died from eighteen viruses infected with the virus. Why do flu epidemics occur at all and what to do to avoid being in their epicenter?

Why does a person get sick with the flu?

To understand how the flu enters our body, we need to go a little deeper into the microbiology at the cellular level. The general scheme of the flu is understandable: someone sneezed or coughed, or shook your hand, the patient's virus got into your body, and you also fell ill. But why does the influenza virus have such health consequences that a person can go to bed, lose his ability to work and is even capable of dying?

The virus, the causative agent of influenza, is a complex biochemical substance that consists of a chain of nucleic acids and a protective shell. He carries a certain genetic code. The flu virus can not exist on its own - it must penetrate into any living organism, attaching itself to its cells. When the virus is in the cell, it completely changes its life, causing it to produce more and more new viruses.

From this unbearable work the cell dies, and the new viruses that it produces attack other cells, multiply and multiply throughout the body. That's why, if you do not take antiviral drugs in time, the person gets sick even more. In addition, dead cells become a ballast for the body and poison it, constantly decomposing.

The pathway of the influenza virus through the body

The first from influenza viruses suffers from epithelium - cells that cover the nose, mouth and on the way - the airways. In them, the influenza virus penetrates the earliest, and through the respiratory system spreads throughout the body. At first, their rapid attack is asymptomatic. A person does not feel anything, but the virus spreads unnoticed throughout the body, poisoning it.

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

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

The duration of this disease depends on how strong the immune system is in a person. And how quickly the body copes with the flu, depends on whether the person was sick with this type of flu before. If the immune system detects an infection, it copes with it much faster than with an unrecognized influenza virus.

Pandemic influenza

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

The most serious influenza pandemics arose in 1918, and also in 1957 and in 1968. And each of them was explained by poor unsanitary conditions, insufficient nutrition, insufficient vitamin supply, but most importantly by viral mutations against which the vaccine was not yet invented.

With the invention of new drugs against influenza and mass vaccination, the pandemic period of influenza has now declined significantly - from one and a half years with "Spaniard" in 1918 and up to six months in 1968, when people got sick with the so-called "Hong Kong flu" in the US. In 1077, when the "Russian flu" arose, the pandemic was not as long as it was 70 years ago.

Reducing mortality in the epidemic of influenza and reducing the duration of these epidemics physicians are also inclined to associate with the massive use of antibiotics that can affect bacterial forms of influenza.

Features of the epidemic of influenza

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

• Suddenness of reaching large groups of people
• Severe condition
• Distribution not only to cities, but also to whole countries
• High mortality
• Absence of 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 attacking unrecognized viruses - this time, and with poor prevention of influenza - this is two. In ancient times, when there was no vaccination, the influenza virus hit human groups at a tremendous rate - entire cities were sick and died out.

Today, scientists have already established that epidemics of influenza occur on average every 30 years. Today they do not carry such a mortal threat, as in ancient times, because people have learned to treat the flu. And yet, many people are knocked out of the rut, who at the time of the incidence of flu completely lose their efficiency and risk serious complications. But why do flu epidemics still occur, despite all the precautions and many medicines? The whole thing, as it turned out, in the characteristics of viruses.

Why can not flu epidemics be prevented?

Viruses, as scientists have shown, are dangerous precisely because they are able to change their structure, and therefore, properties. They mutate, and therefore, when they enter the body, they are unable to recognize the influenza virus, which 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 envelope of the virus change their structure insignificantly.

And, as long as the body finds ways to fight new antigens, a person will already have time to get sick and pass on his disease to another. So there are massive epidemics that are difficult to prevent. After all, the vaccine was invented against one virus, but another person was struck by the man. In addition, mutating, the influenza virus acquires even more powerful properties than before. For example, the flu progresses more quickly and harder than before. This phenomenon is called antigenic cipher.

True, you can be happy that, with the modification of the structure of the virus, a person still has partial immunity to it. Therefore, modern influenza epidemics are not characterized by a high mortality rate, as it was several centuries ago. For example, one of the most terrible epidemics of influenza was in 1918 a pandemic of the so-called Spanish, which killed up to 50 million people. A pandemic is the same epidemic, only much more extensive.

Methods to combat the epidemic of influenza

1. Vaccination (bulk)
2. Increased immunity with the help of tempering and taking multivitamins, the right way of life, sports
3. Combating bad habits that weaken the body's immune system
4. Personal hygiene
5. Timely contact with a doctor (with the first symptoms of influenza)

Prevention of influenza with the help of the following chemicals: remantadine, amantadine, zanamivir, oseltamivir. So far, these chemicals have not been incorporated into the government's program to combat influenza epidemics, although this possibility has been discussed more than once. Obstacles officials from medicine and financiers see the high cost of these medicines.

Vaccination against influenza is especially effective in early autumn. Doctors say that this will help people less sick in the midst of epidemics - from the end of autumn and until the very next spring (November-March), since the vaccine lasts up to six months. Previously, vaccination should not be done - its effect on the body is not all-the-year-round and gradually decreases.

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