Influenza I

So my college friend Cathy asks me today,

"Should I get vaccinated for influenza?"

Although I am not an clinician, judging from the medical literature, my answer is YES.

Reasons for my recommendation:
Your chance of getting influenza is not that low (5-20%)
Vaccination is the only proven way to reduce your risk of influenza (by 50-90%)
There's always a chance that a severe form of influenza could emerge, to which the vaccine could offer partial immunity
Your insurance will probably cover the cost, so why not

Okay, so which kind should we get?

There are two kinds:
1) Injection - this kind contains an inactivated form of the virus, probably less chance of side effects, but it's still a shot; so if you're the type that cringes at the sight of a needle, consider the next option
2) Nasal spray - this kind contains an attenuated form of a live virus and has the potential to cause mild symptoms of influenza; kinda sucks given that you're trying prevent influenza

There isn't enough evidence to say that one is more effective than the other.  Neither are full proof, but both have been proven to reduce you chance of influenza.

Now, the more interesting question is why does influenza occur in the winter or the spring.  If anybody tells you that they know the answer; don't believe it because scientists have not formed a consensus on this yet.  The competing hypotheses are:

1) social behavior changes in the winter (more crowding)
2) people's immunity change with changing exposure to sunlight (vitamin D hypothesis)
3) the weather affects the viral survival

I used to be a fan of the second hypothesis, but I'm now leaning towards the third.  There is increasing evidence showing that increases absolute humidity (which is inversely proportional to temperature) reduces viral survival.  Therefore in the temperate regions, as humidity drops in the winter virus survives longer and can be transmitted from person to person.   In the tropical region influenza peaks after rainfall, and that's probably because rain takes all the moisture out of the air. 

Just speculating here, so don't quote me on any of this stuff.  But we'll see what future studies show.

Okay, I'm running out of battery on my computer, so I'm gonna go. 

Blog #3.  Good work, Christie.

Why I want to blog...

The reasons for creating this blog are many:
1) Organize my eclectic thoughts
2) Share them with others and invite comments and critiques
3) Publish my writing without the dread of peer review and rejections
4) Show and tell through pictures and images
5) Post links to noteworthy articles and video clips (that is, noteworthy in my opinion)
6) Share knowledge in the fields of public health and epidemiology

Eclectic topics of interest:
1) Public Health / Epidemiology (and related topics)
2) Religion, with special attention to Christian thought
3) Current events in Asia, with special attention to those related to Korea and China
4) Birdwatching
5) Race and ethnicity
6) Women in academia

Of course I may altogether abandon the aforementioned grandiose plan and just moan and groan about life.  But hey, what's a blog without some gripe...

I may also mix in some thoughts in Korean, well because I'm Korean.

Okay that was my second blog.  Good work, Christie.  (pat pat)

Testing

I just created a new blog.  Hope this works...
Preview looks good...
Cool, I think it's working.