Restless nights

Garry got his annual flu shot last week. It was offered under subsidy by his employer. I wish I’d done the same. I’ve been feeling rather off-colour since Monday, suffering various aches, pains and restless nights. This time it’s not gout. However, I doubt that a flu shot would have helped. A survey in 2005 found that only 13% of people tested actually had the flu despite suffering a flu-like illness. It seems that most people actually catch a cold. At last count there were at least 200 cold viruses, each constantly mutating, thus making colds the more common aliment.

It costs the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) at least £115 million every year to vaccine people against the flu. The NHS provides vaccinations free of charge to people aged 65 years and over, as well as certain at-risk groups under 65 years of age. Last year’s uptake by those over 65 reached 74% of the population. This year the NHS ordered more than 15 million vaccine doses.

Those doses may be needed. Currently infections are increasing faster than at the same time last year. It seems that last year’s mild winter helped reduce the nation’s annual flu count. Perhaps Garry really was the sensible one this year?

Another flu outbreak was also in the news this week. On Tuesday an outbreak of bird flu was reported in eastern England at a poultry farm. About 5,000 free-range turkeys, 1,000 ducks and 500 geese on the affected farm were culled. The papers have been full of stories about a potential turkey shortage for this year’s Christmas dinner. It seems that bird flu, much like its human counterpart, has become a seasonal event in the UK.

I have to end this blog post with an interesting piece of trivia. The name, influenza, can be traced back to a time when people believed that epidemics were caused by the stars' influence. Language can be a fascinating window into history.