In with the flu

Unless I just missed 2 consecutive cases of dengue fever it’s flu season again.  In case you’re wondering, this is the time of year we try to convince ourselves that injecting globules of live attenuated virus into the deltoid is going to be a good thing. By the way, if you know someone with the flu you could evade the clinic mayhem by inoculating a small drop of nasal gloop into an open wound – that works for me!

Actually this primitive form of immunization has been used in North Africa for over 6,000 years, long before Edward Jenner, and was promoted as far as China to prevent smallpox, another virus.

The earliest form of immunization was performed in Ancient Egypt. Smallpox virus was inoculated through the nose similar to the most recent nasal spray forms of influenza virus:

The word ‘immune’ being coined by Razi from the Arabic word ‘yuamin‘ making ‘to render safe’. Europe bravely resisted this medical advance for centuries believing it to be the work of African magic to treat a patient with the disease itself. So the fear factor has always been there, and yet immunization has always worked.
This year the immunization menu is as follows:

• A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus

• A/Hong Kong/4801/2014 (H3N2)-like virus

• B/Brisbane/60/2008-like virus (B/Victoria lineage)

It is provided free of charge and available at a clinic near you. I’m getting mine next week, from a friend.