Judging by the sheer volume of news reporting, the worldwide story of the week has to be the emergence of the new H1N1 strain of influenza.
While health officials attempt to monitor the extent of the outbreak, governments struggle to prepare for a potential pandemic without causing unnecessary panic. Average citizens, exposed to a constant barrage of warnings and potential implications, see the relatively small numbers of infections — and even fewer deaths — and have begun to wonder if the threat hasn’t been exaggerated.
Unquestionably, the appearance of a new strain such as H1N1 — for which we have no effective vacine and unknown immunity — is reasonable cause for concern. Health officials and governments are correct to take swift, scientifically-informed action sooner rather than later, simply because the worst case scenario is possible even though its likelihood is as yet unknown.
While we work to learn more about H1N1, the virus also has a say in where this outbreak leads. On their own, viruses can mutate into more or less virulent forms, and do so all the time. At the risk of mixing metaphors, the difficulty we face is that we are trying to catch up to a moving target whose real danger we do not know.
Even if the dominant form of the current virus were to be identified today and remain stable, it would be late summer or early fall until the first courses of vaccine would be ready for distribution. Thus, the best we can do as citizens is to be patient, keep ourselves informed and take reasonable, precautionary measures such as those recommended by the U.S. Center for Disease Control:
- Wash your hands often with soap and water for 15 – 20 seconds.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth
- Stay away from people who are sick
- If you are sick, stay home and call your doctor for information about what to do next.
While we take these simple steps, we can also take advantage of this opportunity to learn more about the nature of viruses. This week, Friday Night at the Movies looks at the work of acclaimed virus hunter, Nathan Wolfe.
Recognizing that viruses jump from animals to humans much more frequently than previously supposed, Wolfe and his Global Viral Forecasting Initiative are working to discover deadly viruses closer to the source — before they’ve spread and threaten to become pandemics.
