Are People Over 60 Resistant to Swine Flu?
Swine flu is a brand-new disease; but scientists have come quite a way in the one month that the disease has been around, but they do not know everything they need to about it. There is reason to believe today that people in the population over the age of 60 might possibly be less vulnerable to this flu than younger people. People over 60 are expected to have been exposed to viruses from flu outbreaks in earlier times; this is expected to make them immunologically more resistant to this flu.
Tests undertaken by the CDC on hundreds of senior citizens showed that a third of all people over 60 have antibodies in their system that appeared to grant them some protection against the new flu. These are preliminary findings; the laboratory tests obviously did not actually expose those people to the this flu going about now. They were exposed to a lesser virus that is related to the current flu. For the reason that these tests are not the real thing, people over 60 are asked to always exercise the same kind of precautions that everyone else does.
Yet the study does bring to us important information: older people who are known to have been exposed to previous flu outbreaks certainly do have some antibodies that normal people do not have. How useful these anti-bodies will be in a real world flu epidemic, remains to be seen. These tests may help to explain why it is that the current this flu outbreak appears to target only children and young people. Only one in 100 flu cases in the US happens to be in a person who is over 60.
It is conjectured that seniors with immunity might have been around when flu viruses from the 1918 pandemic were still in the air. The 1918 this flu virus has however, had nearly a century to adapt and mutate to new forms. The new virus therefore, is not the same as the old one, and seniors who have antibodies to the old virus have limited if not total protection against the new flu virus.
What might be surprising is that a section of the population that is usually considered the most vulnerable, might be more resistant when the population that is in its prime is severely at risk. Antibodies then, are the reason. A vaccine that introduces antibodies into the body to help prepare against swine flu, does not exist yet, and will not for a few months longer. Vaccines that are used against normal seasonal flu also, offer no protection against this flu. Some people, in a misguided attempt to gain antibodies, organize what they call swine flu parties. A friend with a mild infection of the flu is called to a party that many people attend; the hope is that they can catch this mild flu disease that the friend has, and come out of the illness quickly, with resistance to any serious attack that flu might otherwise bring them. The CDC announces that this is a dangerous idea that can expose people to a terrible infection.
Authorclub is a one stop shop for articles and web content.
http://www.authorclub.info
Tests undertaken by the CDC on hundreds of senior citizens showed that a third of all people over 60 have antibodies in their system that appeared to grant them some protection against the new flu. These are preliminary findings; the laboratory tests obviously did not actually expose those people to the this flu going about now. They were exposed to a lesser virus that is related to the current flu. For the reason that these tests are not the real thing, people over 60 are asked to always exercise the same kind of precautions that everyone else does.
Yet the study does bring to us important information: older people who are known to have been exposed to previous flu outbreaks certainly do have some antibodies that normal people do not have. How useful these anti-bodies will be in a real world flu epidemic, remains to be seen. These tests may help to explain why it is that the current this flu outbreak appears to target only children and young people. Only one in 100 flu cases in the US happens to be in a person who is over 60.
It is conjectured that seniors with immunity might have been around when flu viruses from the 1918 pandemic were still in the air. The 1918 this flu virus has however, had nearly a century to adapt and mutate to new forms. The new virus therefore, is not the same as the old one, and seniors who have antibodies to the old virus have limited if not total protection against the new flu virus.
What might be surprising is that a section of the population that is usually considered the most vulnerable, might be more resistant when the population that is in its prime is severely at risk. Antibodies then, are the reason. A vaccine that introduces antibodies into the body to help prepare against swine flu, does not exist yet, and will not for a few months longer. Vaccines that are used against normal seasonal flu also, offer no protection against this flu. Some people, in a misguided attempt to gain antibodies, organize what they call swine flu parties. A friend with a mild infection of the flu is called to a party that many people attend; the hope is that they can catch this mild flu disease that the friend has, and come out of the illness quickly, with resistance to any serious attack that flu might otherwise bring them. The CDC announces that this is a dangerous idea that can expose people to a terrible infection.
Authorclub is a one stop shop for articles and web content.
http://www.authorclub.info
Tags:
posted by Bradley47 at
5:40 PM
<< Home