H1N1 creeping in closer

[DrakeMaiden]

FarmerChick -- I think boosting immunity should help you fight it if you get it, but it won't help you not catch it.

BBH -- WHAT? What is this about a girl only vaccine? That sounds suspicious to me.

 

[FarmerChick]

makes sense

 

[DrakeMaiden]

FarmerChick -- OK, I'm kinda crazy, but I wash my hands after touching money and I wash my hands after shopping, etc., etc.

Other things I have heard are to:
1. Not touch your face with your hands when you are in public places
2. If you keep your house humid, that apparently stops viruses from replicating. (That was on this forum in another thread).

 

[me&thegals]

BBH -- WHAT? What is this about a girl only vaccine? That sounds suspicious to me.

This is Gardasil--it's for HPV, the virus that causes cervical cancer, thus only for girls.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

OK, thanks, Me&thegals, I thought she was referring to swine flu vaccination. I understand now.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

I don't think you necessarily pick up germs *just* from touching germy things. You generally get infected by touching something germy and *then* picking your nose or digging in your eye or rubbing a broken area of skin.

That is true, but it is really easy to also brush your nose if it is itchy or rub your lip or something, without thinking.

I agree . . . exercise boosts your immunity.

 

[patandchickens]

No, your immune system also determines whether you catch it, not just how well your body fights it once you've got it.

People come into contact with all sorts of bacteria and viruses "trying" to infect you, all the time every day, but the great majority of it your body deals with before the bacteria or virus even multiply to the point where you have any clue they were there.

That's why people with compromised immune systems are so much more prone to infections, colds, flu, whatever.

I think the girls-only vaccine being referred to is the HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine against some forms of cervical cancer.

From what I have read, going to the original literature on the studies assessing its safety (although mind you I have not looked at anything new that's come out in the past year or so), I would not let a daughter of mine near it with a forty foot pole, its safety is pretty completely un-assessed. The initial study that established its 'safety' for its initial big roll-out followed recipients for IIRC a grand total of six weeks after vaccine administration, that's *it*. Now it may be that more has been published since then -- it really doesn't affect me, I am 44 and have only sons, so I have not kept up -- but to me that means that basically everyone recieving it for the next five years or so will be guinea pigs. Which would be ok in some circumstances but not for this, IMO.

Pat

 

[big brown horse]

I couldn't remember what it was called! Sorry for the confusion!

 

[DrakeMaiden]

People come into contact with all sorts of bacteria and viruses "trying" to infect you, all the time every day, but the great majority of it your body deals with before the bacteria or virus even multiply to the point where you have any clue they were there.


Pat

But technically, Pat, by the time your immune system goes to work on it, you have already "picked it up" which was my point. Whether or not you feel sick while your body fights it off is another matter.

ETA: Because once your immune system goes to work on it, you have antibodies, right, which means you techincally were exposed to it, yes? So at what point do you say you have "caught it?"

 

[patandchickens]

But technically, Pat, by the time your immune system goes to work on it, you have already "picked it up" which was my point. Whether or not you feel sick while your body fights it off is another matter.

Sorry, but a more typical scenario is that you come into contact with just one or a few bacteria or virus particles. If your body is really "on the ball", they will get squashed *right then and there*, before they actually DO anything in your body.

There is also a large continuum between that and getting sick, and in many cases the disease only does just a little bit of replication in your body before your immune system dispatches it.

I don't think those situations can sensibly be discribed as 'you had the disease but fought it off'.

Or if they CAN be described that way, then we all get all sorts of diseases all the time, and I myself sitting here probably have dozens of of 'em going on in my body right now

That sort of nomenclature just doesn't make a lot of sense, IMHO, as opposed to reserving saying that you 'got' a disease to cases where it multiplied itself up to some considerable abundance and was at least *on the verge* of having some measurable physiological effect. Though you could probably say (in the scenarios described above) that 'you were *exposed to* the disease but your body prevented it from really taking hold'.

I dunno, maybe I'm arguing pointlessly about nothing , but your immune function really comes in MUCH earlier in the process than people often tend to think, meaning that it is certainly relevant to whether you "catch" the disease in any normal meaning of the term, as well as how well you can fight it once you've got it.

Pat