INTERESTING FACTS   Part two

The flu vaccine is necessary to take

If you click your mouse on the underlined words, you will get more informatikon

Influenza, commonly known as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by an influenza virus.  Symptoms can be mild to severe. The most common symptoms include: high fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pains, headache, coughing, and feeling tired. These symptoms typically begin two days after exposure to the virus and most attacks last less than a week. The cough, however, may last for more than two weeks. In children, there may be diarrhea and vomiting, but these are not common in adults. Diarrhea and vomiting occur more commonly in gastroenteritis, which is an unrelated disease and sometimes inaccurately referred to as "stomach flu" or the "24-hour flu". Complications of influenza may include viral pneumonia, secondary bacterial pneumonia, sinus infections, and worsening of previous health problems such as asthma or heart failure’ If you have these symptoms, they could bring about your death.

There are three of the four types of influenza viruses that affects humans, They are Type A, Type B, and Type C. Type D has not been known to infect humans, but is believed to have the potential to do so. Usually, the virus is spread through the air from coughs or sneezes. This is believed to occur mostly over relatively short distances.  It can also be spread by touching surfaces contaminated by the virus and then touching the mouth or eyes.  A person may be infectious to others both before and during the time they are showing symptoms. The infection may be confirmed by testing the throat, sputum, or nose for the virus. A number of rapid tests are available; however, people may still have the infection even if the results are negative.  A type of polymerase chain reaction that detects the virus's RNA is more accurate.

Frequent hand washing reduces the risk of viral spread. Wearing a surgical mask is also useful however, I wouldn’t wear one if I had been vaccinated against influenza.  

Yearly vaccinations against influenza are recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for those at high risk and by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for those six months of age and older. The vaccine is usually effective against three or four types of influenza. It is usually well-tolerated. A vaccine made for one year may not be useful in the following year, since the virus evolves rapidly in fighting the Antiviral drugs such as the  neuraminidase inhibitor r oseltamivir, among others, that have been used to treat influenza. The benefit of antiviral drugs in those who are otherwise healthy do not appear to be greater than their risks. No benefit has been found in those with other health problems.

Influenza spreads around the world in yearly outbreaks, resulting in about three to five million cases of severe illness and about 250,000 to 500,000 deaths. About 20% of unvaccinated children and 10% of unvaccinated adults are infected each year. In the northern and southern parts of the world, outbreaks occur mainly in the winter, while around the equator, outbreaks may occur at any time of the year. Death occurs mostly in the young, the old, and those with other health problems. Larger outbreaks known as pandemics are less frequent.

^] In the 20th century, three influenza pandemics occurred such as the Spanish influenza in 1918 (40–50 million deaths), Asian influenza in 1957 (two million deaths), and Hong Kong influenza in 1968 (one million deaths). The World Health Organization declared an outbreak of a new type of influenza A/H1N1 to be a pandemic in June 2009. Influenza may also affect other animals, including pigs, horses, and birds.

It has been estimated that over 25 million people in Canada in 1918  had died from that disease. Now here is the scary information which applies to all of us.

If our grandparents and our parents living in Canada or other countries where the 1918 Spanish Flu was killing millions of people and they too were killed by that flu, then none of us would be alive today and that goes for our children and our grandchildren.

I am the precursor of the United Nations bill of rights for young offenders. I brought into Canada, the law that compensates innocent persons who were wrongfully imprisoned. I also brought into Canada the law that when anyone who is arrested and taken to a police station, the police have to give them the phone number of 24 hour duty counsel who will give the person who is in police custody that phone number.  These two laws are beneficial to everyone in Canada. However, had my parents died from influenza in 1918, these things I did would not have come about when they did.  

Think of all the wonderful things that came about prior to our parents births if the parents of scientists and the innovators  were  not born because their parents died of influenza in 1918.  Think of all the wonderful things your young children and their children may do in the future that may benefit millions of people in the future.  Their good deeds may not come about if their parents died from influenza.

Is my message reaching you? If so, then go to your doctor or your pharmacist to get your flu shot. It won’t cost you since flu shots are free.

This suggestion is most important to the elderly because their immune systems aren’t as powerful as they were when they were younger.

The law in the province of Ontario in Canada states that parents must ensure that their children are vaccinated against a certain list of diseases unless they obtain a medical exemption. However, five parents and the non-profit Vaccine Choice Canada to which the five parents belong, allege that the Immunization of School Pupils Act breaches the rights to freedom of conscience and religion and to liberty and security of the person, among other rights in the Charter,

That reason is stupid.  The Canadian Charter of Rights doesn’t give parents the right to refuse to protect their children from dangerous viruses. The government can intercede if a child is in any form of danger. 

Don’t be one of those stupid people who think that the vaccine will kill them. Admittedly, some people have reactions from the vaccine but as far as I know, no one has died from a flu vaccine.