Will a ‘Regular’ Flu Shot Protect One Against Bird Flu?

Will a ‘Regular’ Flu Shot Protect One Against Bird Flu?

There’s no reason to think that human flu vaccine can offer protection against bird flu; the two viruses are too different. However, it makes sense to give flu shots to poultry workers and other people at heightened risk for bird flu, to lessen the likelihood of “reassortment”, as explained below.

The most serious risk to us all is that the H5N1 virus will acquire the ability for human-to-human transmission. There are two ways this could theoretically happen:
The first by reassortment, in which genetic material is exchanged between human and avian viruses during co-infection of a human with both viruses; someone with ‘regular’ human flu gets infected with bird flu, and the viruses ‘mix’ their genes in the person’s body. The resultant virus is then as infective to another human as ‘regular’ human flu. To prevent this happening it’s advisable for poultry workers in affected areas get ‘regular’ flu shots. Reassortment could produce a fully transmissible pandemic virus, resulting in a sudden surge of cases with explosive spread.
The second mechanism is a more gradual process of adaptive genetic mutation in the H5N1 virus, so that it binds to human cells increasingly during subsequent infections of humans. Known as adaptive mutation, probably first seen as small clusters of human cases with some evidence of human-to-human transmission, would probably give more time to take defensive action.
Just because the human flu vaccine won’t protect you against bird flu, there’s no reason to forgo your annual flu shot – due about now. Human flu regularly kills thousands of people each year, so that a shot (or the nasal spray, FluMist®) containing the annually selected strains is strongly recommended for the elderly, the young, the ill, and all health workers.

Comments

[Dan F.]

I was wondering if anyone out there agrees/disagrees with the suggestion of preparing for and fighting the Avain Flu naturally using Vitamin C and other supplements. You can visit these 3 sites:

http://www.cqs.com/influenza.htm

http://health.benabraham.com/html/effective_bird_flu_remedy.html

http://www.orthomed.com/

Would love to receive some feedback and opinions.