The flu season is upon us, and with it comes the threat of a new bird flu.
I booked her flu vaccine the next morning. The next day, I made sure to book her flu vaccination. The CDC has urged dairy farm workers in particular to get vaccinated this year due to the spread of “bird flu”, H5N1, among cattle.
At the end of July, the organization announced a $10 million plan to deliver free flu shots to people who work with livestock.
The goal is not only to protect those workers from seasonal flu, but to protect us all from a potentially more devastating consequence: the emergence of a new form of flu that could trigger another pandemic. That hasn’t happened yet, but unfortunately, it’s looking increasingly possible.First, it’s worth noting that flu viruses experience subtle changes in their genetic makeup all the time.
This allows the virus to evolve rapidly, and it is why flu vaccines need to be updated every year, depending on which form of the virus is most likely to be circulating.
More dramatic genetic changes can take place when multiple flu viruses infect a single animal. The genome of the flu virus is composed of eight segments. When two different viruses end up in the same cell, they can swap segments with each other.These swapping events can create all-new viruses.
It’s impossible to predict exactly what will result, but there’s always a chance that the new virus will be easily spread or cause more serious disease than either of its predecessors.
The fear is that farm workers who get seasonal flu could also pick up bird flu from cows. These people may unwittingly become incubators of deadly new flu strains, and pass them to others. Thomas Peacock is a virologist from the Pirbright Institute, in Woking, UK. He says that this is how pandemics begin.
