Happy Anniversary H1N1

One year ago this week, as we were welcoming students back to WSU and celebrating our local legume at the Lentil Festival in Pullman, H1N1 Influenza made a full frontal assault on the population of Whitman County. Besides sickening thousands of students in the first few weeks of school, then spreading to the community at large, H1N1 Influenza nearly brought local clinics, emergency rooms and the public health department to the breaking point. Health care providers resorted to using a triage system in an attempt to keep H1N1 infected patients away from well patients, and the health department scrambled to find ways to stop the spread of this new flu virus while the prospect of an effective vaccine was still several months away. The fear we had for the safety and well being of ourselves, our friends and our families was extreme and was real.

What a difference a year makes. Our encounter with H1N1 Influenza is now nothing more than a distant, bad memory. And with the exception of pockets of flu in New Zealand and India, the Great Influenza Pandemic of 2009 appears to be over.

Or is it? Plenty of folks were affected by H1N1 flu last year, but many were not. Those who were lucky enough to avoid the flu last Fall constitute a sizable reservoir for another wave of illness. No one knows if the H1N1 flu virus is capable of causing another epidemic surge this year and, frankly, we aren’t really eager to find out.

This Fall, though, we have a safe and reliable way to make sure H1N1 doesn’t come back. It’s called seasonal flu vaccine. That’s right; the same flu vaccine we use every Fall has been reformulated to provide protection against H1N1 Influenza, and it is recommended for everyone six months of age and older.

Actually, seasonal flu vaccine is reformulated nearly every year. It contains three strains of flu virus; two are Influenza A and one is Influenza B. Every Summer, scientists review the data available regarding the most common flu viruses circulating in the Southern Hemisphere and make recommendations regarding the strains to be included in this year’s seasonal flu vaccine. Because last year’s H1N1 flu virus has been the predominant Influenza A strain in circulation around the world, it was naturally selected to be a component for this year’s seasonal flu vaccine.

Studies have shown that both seasonal flu vaccine and the H1N1 flu vaccine developed last year are extraordinarily safe and effective. The seasonal flu vaccine available for use this year, with the H1N1 component included, is made with the same methods and at the same facilities in which seasonal vaccine is made every year. Some vaccine will be available in nasal spray form for use in healthy, non-pregnant individuals age 2 to age 50 while other, preservative-free, vaccine will be made available for pregnant women and young children. It is the same flu vaccine we are used to receiving every year, but this one protects against the pandemic causing H1N1 strain.

Seasonal flu vaccine is currently being shipped to clinics and pharmacies and should be available soon. The public health department will probably begin offering flu vaccine sometime in mid-September. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone over 6 months of age be vaccinated, the groups that are especially urged to get the vaccine are young children, pregnant women, people over age 65, and individuals with chronic medical conditions because they are at greater risk for severe complications from the flu. Keep checking this blog or the website of the Whitman County Health Department for updates on vaccine availability.

We welcome your questions and wish you a Fall and Winter free of worries about Influenza.