The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #116591 Message #2504316
Posted By: Jeri
30-Nov-08 - 06:02 PM
Thread Name: BS: The Infection From Hell
Subject: RE: BS: The Infection From Hell
The flu shot last year was a bad deal.
Having worked in the program when I was in the Air Force, it's SUPPOSED to work like this:
'Sentinal' clinics test people with flu-like symptoms including a fever of 101°F or higher.
The samples are sent to the CDC who figure out what strains, what antigen shifts and drifts are going around.
They develop the next year's vaccine based on that.
Last year, they got it wrong and we got nailed with a flu virus that we didn't expect. (They maybe should've named it the 'Spanish Inquisition Flu'?)
Even when the predictions work, there are other types of flu out there. Mary, you sound like you got nailed with one of them. Incidentally, the flu shot doesn't work immediately, so you could be incubating the flu and come down with it before the shot gets your antibodies up to effective levels.
I'm lucky so far. I haven't had the flu since I was a kid. It helps not to hang around with people who have multi-colored snot dripping from various orifices. Yeah, and I was up there two weeks ago! Hope you didn't give Gordon the nasal clap crap!