Influenza: The Deadlier Strain

New viruses continue to evolve. With many viruses mutating into newer, deadlier strains, the risk of viral infection poses major threats to public health. Everyone should take notice of the dangers posed by mutating viruses.

From recent memory, the H1N1 virus was portrayed as a possible repeat of the 1918-1919 Bird flu that killed millions. Thankfully, the impact of the virus was not so disastrous. Consider the related H5N1 strain.
H5N1, a highly pathogenic strain of the Influenza virus, currently is causing severe disease in chickens and other poultry on several continents. (2) Some people who have come into close, regular contact with infected poultry have contracted H5N1 and become very sick because of it. One of the most alarming facts about the H5N1 virus, currently only transmissible from infected poultry to humans, is that “approximately half of the people known to be infected have died.” (2) This is 50% mortality!

Influenza, in any of its strains, is an incredibly simple form of life: DNA within a protective shell. This allows Influenza and other viruses to evolve rapidly, mutating into new forms over the course of a year or less. Health experts state the risk that if the Influenza H5N1 strain became human transmissible it could rapidly become a world epidemic. This is because: “all influenza viruses have the ability to change… scientists are concerned that H5N1 viruses one day could be able to infect humans more easily and spread easily from one person to another… Because H5N1 viruses have not infected many humans worldwide, there is little or no immune protection against them in the human population and an influenza pandemic (worldwide outbreak of disease) could begin if sustained H5N1 virus transmission occurred.”(3)

If you are personally concerned about the flu virus, you may want to consider the three basic forms of protection available against viruses: vaccines, antiviral medications, and antiviral health supplements. Examples of each of these include the Flu vaccine, Tamiflu, and Gene-Eden, respectively. The traditional thinking in health care has been that the young and old are the most vulnerable segments of the population for illness. The research above indicates that the obese are a third vulnerable group. It also suggests that they should actively seek protection against viruses.