Big bugs 0 for 2 in Canada

Flu bug follows Y2K's lead and fizzles

By: Kathe Lieber

  In the waning months of 1999. the media raised the spectre of two impending "bugs": Y2K and influenza. Dire headlines predicted a flu season of pandemic proportions, poised to hit while we were all still reeling from the effects of the turnover to the year 2000. Well, we know the Y2K warnings were wildly overblown. What about the flu?
  While complete statistics have yet to be compiled for the 1999-2000 flu season, it seems clear there was no pandemic. In fact, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US say it was no worse than the five previous winters.
 

Historically, major flu epidemics hit about every 25 years, so we are overdue for a big one

  Dr. Lorne Wiesenfeld agrees. He works as an ER physician at the Royal Victoria Hospital, part of the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, and at a small geriatric hospital. This year's flu season didn't break any records, he confirms. So why did it seem so bad?
  "On top of chronic overcrowding [in the ER] and an overburdened health-care system, the flu just adds insult to injury," Dr. Weisenfeld says. "The flu becomes part and parcel of a winter epidemic of infectious diseases, including bronchitis and pneumonia."
  The flu strikes an estimated 10 to 20 percent of Canadians each year. About 500-1,500 of them die from the disease's complications. The vast majority get back on their feet within a week or two, but the very young, the elderly, and those with chronic conditions or compromised immune systems can be more seriously affected.
  Dr. Weisenfeld urges people in these high risk groups to get vaccinated. "Diligent primary prevention really works," he says. "For the old and the weak, and those who work with them, [flu] shots are pretty effective. If you do get infected, it's usually less severe."
 

If this was you this winter, you didn't have quite as much company as you may have been led to believe

  "In fact, at the geriatric hospital, there was minimal influenza," Weisenfeld added, "because the staff was diligent in making sure patients were vaccinated."
  For those who didn't get vaccinated and were unfortunate enough to get the flu, there was something new this season: two pharmaceutical companies introduced drugs to relieve the disease's symptoms. Glaxo Wellcome and Roche launched Relenza and Tamiflu, respectively last fall, amid great fanfare and an estimated advertising budget of $50 million US. The new medications belong to a class of drugs called neurominidase inhibitors, which neutralise proteins on the viral surface to prevent their replication. The drugs cost about $50 each for a five-day therapeutic course and must be taken within 48 hours of the flu's onset. The jury is still out on their effectiveness (see Straight Goods article Jury still out on flu pill).
  Untreated, the flu - once thought to be caused by the influence of the stars and planets - is highly contagious. Young children can be infectious for up to a week, while adults usually spread the disease for three to five days after the onset of their symptoms.
  There have been three pandemics of the influenza virus in the twentieth century: 1918-1919, 1957-1958, and 1968-1969. The "Spanish" flu, at the end of World War I, took a devastating toll, killing 20 million people worldwide. That particular flu strain was so deadly it struck down mainly young, healthy people.
  Historically, major flu epidemics hit about every 25 years, so we are overdue for a big one.
  But we should get some warning before the next big one hits. The World Health Organisation set up a global influenza surveillance and monitoring system in 1948. More than 100 laboratories in 82 countries, including Health Canada's Laboratory Centre for Disease Control, have since signed onto the system.
  Flu season generally rages in Canada from October to May.

Montreal-based writer Kathe Lieber managed to avoid the flu this past winter. Next fall, she plans to get vaccinated just in case.

Get More/Do More
Stay two steps ahead with Health Canada's FluWatch report.

Get the low-down on flu symptoms.

Find out more about the new flu drug Relenza.

Find out more about the new flu drug Tamiflu.

For the straight goods on prescription drug advertising, see Public ads for prescription drugs outrage women's and consumer groups by Pat Daley.

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