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Doctor's Log--Influenza

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Doctor's Log--Influenza

DATE : Wed, 14 Dec 2005 00:42:00 GMT
Entered in Database : 2005-12-14 00:42:00
length : 7392914
Link to the Show / Show Notes

Influenza or the âFlu.â

...Fine one moment, next moment, rapid development of sore throat, headache and fever, and before long (actually, in almost record time), a feeling of the throat and chest being on fire, along with difficulty breathing, and body aches: Influenza has struckâthat quickly. Actually, the virus which causes Influenza âwormedâ its way past many barriersânormal body defense mechanismsâby treachery and stealth, homing in on susceptible tissue (the respiratory track), while its presence was not yet felt. Having gained control of the âfactoriesâ of the tissues, the virus makes large numbers of copies of itself; when these copies suddenly burst out of the tissues and into the body, the complaints described above startâand become worse, very quickly.

The patient was brought into the clinic from work. From work? Yes; because, it was just a normal work day for him, with no inkling that anything was wrong or would be wrong. Suddenly, at work, he had taken ill, and now, he felt like he was going to die because his throat hurt really bad, his chest hurt, it hurt to breathe, and he had a fever; his head hurt, and by this time, all his body was aching. And, all of that happened so suddenly. It was the first influenza case of the season.
âYou have the flu.â
âBut Doc, I do not have any intestinal problems like nausea or vomiting or diarrheaâthat sort of thing.â
âPrecisely. The flu or influenza does not go there.â
This patient had come in within the window of opportunity for the anti-(Influenza)-viral medication to be considered effective. He had not received the vaccine earlier.
âBut, will the pill workââ his eyes questioned: âdonât I need to be put in the hospital?â
In many circumstances, the doctor is moved to use antibiotics at this phase, although these would be useless. Save them for the second phase. By the second phase, the patient reports that having battled the flu and gotten back to almost normal (took 1 week or so), he now has new problems with congestion and runny nose, cough and headache, and maybe, even feverââis the flu coming back?â No. What is actually going on is that, the body, having won over the virus by destroying it along with the infected respiratory tissue, now is faced with two problems: healingâgetting rid of dead tissue, replacing the damaged tissue;âand maintaining the original (normal) function of the now destroyed tissues while waiting for fresh tissue to come on line to take over. It is this delay in plugging this gap in function which allows the âsecond roundâ of complaints for the post-influenza patient. Now, he or she may be susceptible to bacteria infection, which responds better to antibiotics than the influenza virus does to the antiviral medications.

The reality of the flu, though, is the capacity to make millions of people all sick at the same time. Looking at history, when, in the past, this has happened, many people perished. For the most part, there was not informed treatment; and even when we became informed, it was not easy to fashion the treatment. If millions of people can get sick at the same time with the same bug, it offers a chance for prevention using vaccines. We have done it with other diseases. Here again, the wily influenza bug appears to have read the book: it âchanges its colorsâ so fast that recognition, needed for vaccines to work, is lost. The best we can do now is to make an informed and educated guess as to what âcolorâ it is going to wear next season so that we can use the vaccine ahead of the season to prepare the bodyâs ambush againstthat color-flu virus. If the virus actually is a different color, it will not be challenged by the bodyâs ambush team. Scientists are trying harder to target other than the âcolorâ of the virus.

The reality of the flu is also the reality of fear. In general, of course, fear is the âdis-easeâ in disease. Predictions of a huge influenza pandemic (world-wide affliction) and warnings that the world may not be ready for a deadly incarnation of such flu which could kill a lot of people have probably aroused more fear in us than given us information to prepare us or motivation for protective actionâthe latter being the intended goal. This year we saw how doomsday-type predications of natural disasters actually came trueâmore or less. Through it all, we survived. There were serious casualties, butâit could have been worse: we survived. Hopefully, we learned, too.

Did we learn--enough? If we can send space crafts to land on Mars and also orbit it, you would think that we could take care of ourselves on Earth? Yes, here on our Earth, we are too busy with other things to notice that the same bold and courageous thinking that put us on Mars, is, when it comes to Health and Medical Science and Technology, being stifled for fear of offending certain âsensitivities.â Experience and facts have shown that such âprotectedâ sensitivities have never prevented our feared calamities, never took away our vulnerabilities, nor even lessened our suffering when victimized and afflicted.

In summary: the flu attacks quick and furious (this makes it easier to recognizeâpromptlyâthan other respiratory ailments): âwatch out for the wake following initial improvement. Fear of influenza pandemic is in the air, but we shall survive. Turn fear into action: ask the question: what is directly and indirectly hampering Health and Medical Science and Technology?
In the meantime, take Public Health Influenza-related offerings seriously.

Oguchi Nkwocha, MD
oguchi@mbay.net
Doctors Log 121305

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