Alkalizing the body's pH is the key to staying in great health!
Posted on 09/21/2005 2:27:51 PM PDT by neverdem
Rome, Sept. 21 - Just as governments around the world are stockpiling millions of doses of flu vaccine and antiviral drugs in anticipation of a potential influenza pandemic, two new research papers published today have found that such treatments are far less effective than previously thought.
"The studies published today reinforce the shortcomings of our efforts to control influenza," wrote Dr. Guan Yi, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong, in an editorial that accompanied the papers. The two studies were published early online by the British medical journal, the Lancet, because of their implications for the upcoming flu season.
In one paper, international researchers analyzed all the data from patient studies on the flu vaccine performed worldwide in the past 37 years and discovered that vaccines showed at best a "modest" ability to prevent influenza or its complications in elderly people.
"The runaway 100 percent effectiveness that's touted by proponents was nowhere to be seen," said Tom Jefferson, a Rome-based researcher with the Cochrane Vaccine Fields project, an international consortium of scientists who perform systematic reviews of research data.
"There is a wild overestimation of the impact of these vaccines in the community," Dr. Jefferson said. "In the case of a pandemic, we are unsure from the data whether these vaccines would work on the elderly."
In the second paper, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control found that influenza viruses, particularly those from the dreaded bird flu strain, had developed high rates of resistance to older and cheaper antiviral drugs - rates that have escalated rapidly since 2003, particularly in Asia.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Do the letters in the name influenza A H5N1 stand for Hemagglutinin gene and protein as well Neuraminidase gene and protein?
AFAIK, the numbers stand for envelope gene product, I don't know if the corresponding genes have the same names,
what a load of $^$&$^
I have a weak immune system. When everybody around me with STRONG immune systems get the flu (no shot for them), but I stay flu-free after getting a shot (I catch a cold after even the slightst sniffle), that is not luck.
Flu shots work. Damn well.
What a pathetic study.
Watch in the next few days... some negative new diatribe against ("Against, Against, Against... ", Z. Miller) Bush appear in the LSM, and it will surely link to this article for support.
Thank you!
The husband was sick as a dog for weeks.
Individual experiences make good anecdotes, but poor statistics.
So, to improve our statistical base in this discussion, I will report that for the last ten years I have had a flu shot each year, and have not had the flu in that time. Before then, I got the flu about every fourth year, with one very severe case in 1975, which had aftereffects lasting about five months. A real, strong case of the flu can be a disaster. Some cases are fatal.
The shots are cheap. I would take them even if they were only 20% effective.
Mars Orbiter Spots Changes on Red Planet
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I get the flu shot whenever I can...
but I think COFFEE, hots and lots, is the greater deterrent.
Doug, the development of preventive vaccines and antimicrobial therapies is among the greatest achievements of modern medicine.
Unfortunately, the tremendous evolutionary potential of microbes empowers them with adeptness at developing resistance to even the most potent therapies and complicating attempts to create effective vaccines.
In some cases, the antimicrobial drug target on the microbe mutates in such a way that binding of the antiviral or antibiotic no longer inhibits the virus or bacteria.
For example, one of the major obstacles to the development of an effective vaccine against HIV is the very rapid antigenic change that the viral surface proteins undergo regularly.
In fact, their mutation rate is so high that almost every retroviral particle is genetically different from every other particle by at least one nucleotide substitution.
ORIGINAL ANTIGENC SIN
The term is a nod to both science and theology. An antigen is biologists' term for an invading organism, such as the influenza virus. Original sin is a theological concept that accounts for human flaws.
Original antigenic sin describes an apparent failing in the human immune system: it may recognize a certain strain of a disease, such as this year's strain of flu virus, but then tries to combat an entirely different strain by "remembering" how it fought the first strain it encountered.
As a result, if you skip a flu shot one year, you may be more likely to get the flu during that year, compared to your chances of illness if you had never gotten a flu shot in previous years.
The immune system's memory actually inhibits the system from learning something new about the flu next year.
NEW STRATAGIES
Priming the immune system with a cocktail of related peptides based on the epitope seems to expand a more broadly reactive and durable T helper cell response than does immunization with a single peptide.
This vaccine strategy may circumvent original antigenic sin. (We hope)
BOTTOM LINE
The flu shot protects you quite a bit against the flu this year, and your increased susceptibility next year from original antigenic sin is much smaller than the increased protection this year.
Same here. The last injection I received was in the early 70's. In a couple days I became very ill... and ended up with double pneumonia. I've never taken another one....and have only had a couple light cases of flu since then. My understanding is that the strain you're getting via injection this year... is last year's strain anyway.
I never had a flu shot and don't anticipate ever getting one. My wife says I will die from the flu one day. I seem to get it about once every 5-7 years and when I do...whoa! I feel like I am mentally fighting off death, it's a real battle...but then I imagine that most people that get it feel that lousy.
I have NEVER, EVER seen or heard a claim of 100% effectiveness, not to mention "runaway 100% effectiveness", whatever that is.
The fact is, if a flu vaccine protects 70% of people who get it, and all people over 65 get it, tens of thousands of lives are saved in a typical flu season.
That's reason enough to promote it.
ROTFLMAO! Could you please tabulate the number of people who DON'T die of something? The flu vaccine didn't protect anyone last year. We vaccinated for the wrong types.
Complications Respiratory complication include: acute bronchitis (about 20% cases with increased risk in the elderly and those with chronic disease), secondary bacterial pneumonia (especially Staph. aureus), primary viral pneumonia, exacerbations of asthma and COPD, empyema, pulmonary aspergillosis, sinusitis.
Watch out for complications. Starting to feel better after a presumed case of flu, I started to cough up blood tinged sputum in addition to chills and feeling awful again. I believe I may have had staph pnuemonia which responded to Zithromax or Biaxin 5 years ago.
Will somebody mention that the flu vaccine is only for about 3 flu viruses du juor? There are so many viruses that can develop that a 'newcomer' can knock you flat.
The last time I had a flu shot was when I marched the gauntlet at Parris Island. People in white coats lined up with needles on both sides; left arm, right arm, march two steps; left arm, right arm, march two steps. Etc. - - I felt like a friggin' voodoo doll by the time it was over. Got sick as a dog that night and I am positive it was the flu shot because I felt like I had the flu.
Haven't had a flu shot in 25 years and I haven't had the flu, either.
Actually...I think last year's flu vaccine was for about 14 strains of flu. None were found in the US. I believe three strains of flu hit the US last year and NO ONE was vaccinated for it.
I'd bet you're right. I remember the flu vaccine 'shortage' last year - which was all Bush's fault, of course - and how younger family members were desperate to get the over 65 relatives receive that shot. And the shot was unnecessary, but that's beside the point.
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