Have you ever collapsed with the flu, despite being vaccinated, despite the fact that the season of weakened immunity is over, the sun is outside the window, and fresh salad is already boring? Congratulations, we have traveled to “gain health” in warm regions – the results of many years of research testify.
Influenza is no longer exclusively a winter illness, have you noticed? And you are not alarmed by the fact that many of us get sick several times a year?
It’s a shame to spend short winter days in bed, when you could take a last minute trip to Thailand or some other wonderful warm country. To Asia, where there are so many fruits oozing with vitamins, healthy seafood and healing ultraviolet radiation through and through. Their rainy season is from May to October, when you and I are having a great rest within our mainland, and these distant countries seem to be created in order to pamper us in the cold, despite the part of the globe that we got as a place of permanent residence. “Get healthier,” some call it.
Epidemiological researchers have determined that the annual flu epidemics in the temperate zone are exclusively of Asian origin. At the same time, the variety of viruses is due to the many eastern and southeastern regions, which are covered by alternating rainy seasons, and the rapid spread of the disease is due to massive contacts of people from different parts of the world.
When conditions are favorable for influenza in the temperate zone, each epidemic is first transferred to Europe, Oceania and North America due to the intensive flow of travelers to these destinations.
For decades, hundreds of laboratories around the world have been sending samples of influenza viruses each year to the World Health Organization, which coordinates the global surveillance program for the disease. The program conducts virus testing to determine how the virus changes and predict which virus strains will cause the next epidemic. Knowing this, it will be possible to adapt the vaccine accordingly. The WHO Influenza Program now has a huge database of information about where and when a particular virus emerged. As noted by New Scientist, researchers from Cambridge University alone from 2002 to 2007 collected and analyzed 13 thousand samples of influenza virus from around the world.
The results of this study, led by Colin Russel and published in a recent issue of the scientific journal Science, show that new viruses are emerging in East and Southeast Asia 6-9 months before they appear elsewhere. … In order to get to Latin America, new strains need another 6 to 9 months. As the Cambridge scientists have established, outbreaks of influenza in Asia occur after a decrease in temperatures due to the rainy season, which occurs in different parts of the region at different times. This is due to the complex geography and the same complex movement of air currents. According to one of the authors of the publication, Derek Smith, “There is always a flu epidemic somewhere in East and Southeast Asia.” When conditions favorable for influenza are created in the temperate zone, each epidemic is first transferred to Europe, Oceania and North America (most likely due to the intense flow of travelers to these destinations), and new strains reach Latin America last. According to the researchers, the study of influenza viruses of the temperate zone is not very informative for understanding their long-term evolution; observation of East Asian strains will be of great use for predicting the variability of the pathogen and, accordingly, creating new vaccines. It is they who, coming from the east, are pushing out last year’s options, which cannot withstand competition, because most of their victims managed to acquire immunity. Thus, if new strains are tracked on the spot, it is possible to have time to make a new vaccine before the changed virus spreads around the world.
It’s a shame that you may not go further than your own summer cottage, but get sick with all types of flu brought by restless travelers-neighbors. In addition to the flu, they got the sea, fruits, and freshly caught octopuses for dinner. Sometimes life seems unfair.
Marina Astvatsaturyan, Lyalya Bulkina