Aurora Comms Blog

Flu on your doorstep

Posted on 20. Jul, 2009 by neilcrump in Communications, Health

Unless you have been off the planet for the last few months you cannot have failed to notice that swine flu has reached pandemic status and has well and truly arrived on our doorstep. NHS Choices estimates that last week there were 55,000 new cases of swine flu here in the UK and sadly 29 people have died from it.

In my first year of University I wrote an essay on influenza. I spent days reading up on the virus and I was fascinated by its ability to shift and change. The Spanish Flu pandemic that ran from 1918 to 1919, killed an estimated 20 million people, and the culprit was an Influenza A H1N1 virus – the same as Swine Flu.

Influenza is a wily virus and is determined to perpetuate its genes. It is amazing that despite our strides in science and technology, advances in communication and medicines that us humans find ourselves in the same position as past generations. Thankfully we have some better medicines (Relenza and TamiFlu) as well as vaccines for swine flu around the corner, which will hopefully be made available quickly to the more vulnerable in our community.

The name influenza comes from Latin word influentia, meaning, surprise surprise ‘influence’, and that is exactly what the virus has been exerting on the media.

For those of you that follow the Aurora Top 20, swine flu has dominated the chart with the number one position for the last two months and looking into my crystal ball I predict that it could continue domination of the headlines for months to come. Swine flu coverage was four-and-a-half times greater than general cancer issues, which took the number two place in the June chart. In fact, no single healthcare issue has dominated the press and overshadowed other topics to such an extent in 2009.

It is interesting to see how the story has played out in the media shifting, from crazed (and I believe unhelpful) panic across the media, including online (see our cyberpandemic post from May 2009) through to more practical and factual reporting in the past few weeks. It is great that this shift has occurred and that people can get up to speed on what to do.

I got a full-blown bought of flu in my second year of Uni. It was absolutely horrible. Bless my father who came up from my hometown in Sussex, to Bath to scoop me up and take me home for lots of care from the parents. I ended up in bed for nearly two weeks, and there were points when I remember just lying there delirious, feeling like total hell.

The government advice is to get some ‘flu friends’, people that can look out for you if you get the flu – I think that this is really important and we all need to keep an eye on our family, friends and especially elderly neighbours who will be particularly at risk. It’s the folk on our own doorstep we need to look out for.

The best sources for information are:

• For UK help and advice go to NHS Choices
• If you are interested in a global perspective then follow what WHO have to say

Tags: public health