Is the World in for a Pandemic of Fatal Swine Flu?

Saturday, April 25

The media are abuzz with accounts of a new flu strain that has killed 70 in Mexico, and sickened at least 8 in the US. Mexican officials are taking extraordinary measures, closing public buildings and canceling mass events. As of this writing, worried scientists from the World Health Organization are convening in emergency session; the CDC has been alerted, and the White House is being briefed; and health officials from Europe to Hong Kong are hastily making contingency plans.

Infectious disease experts have confirmed it's a new variant of the swine flu. Ominously, unlike typical influenza, its victims are not primarily the very old and very young. Of the Mexican fatalities, most were between 25 and 45, and none older than 60 or younger than three. And none have come into contact with swine or poultry, suggesting human-to-human transmission.

This mirrors the killing pattern of the swine flu epidemic of 1918, dubbed the Great Plague of modern times. During that terrible scourge, typical victims were young and relatively healthy. And, by various estimates, it dispatched more than 20 million souls, greater than the toll from the deadly combat of World War One. In the US alone, over one million perished.

The 1918 Flu was said to have originated in the cramped army barracks of the South, where World War I recruits trained in close proximity to pig farms. When the GIs disembarked for Europe in crowded ships, it was the perfect incubator for a super-bug which then quickly propagated across the globe, killing city dwellers, African tribesmen, and Arctic Eskimos with equal abandon.

There's a dread portent of the ability of the new flu's ability to travel at jet-age speeds: A cohort of 75 students at St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens, New York City who have come down with nausea, fever, dizziness, aches and pains. Several had recently traveled to Mexico. A team of investigators from the NYC Dept. of Health has been dispatched.

And dare we speculate on the recent hospitalization of the Iron Man of late night TV, Jay Leno, who has not missed a broadcast since 1992? He is said to have been felled by "a viral illness."

We know the drill: in recent years, we've been panicked by outbreaks of deadly SARS and Bird Flu, prompting concerns over a repeat of 1918, which fortunately never materialized. Hearken back to 1976, during the Ford presidency, when the death of a Marine recruit from swine flu prompted a race to develop a vaccine.

It turned into a debacle. There was no epidemic. Instead, the vaccine produced all kinds of terrible side effects. Forty million Americans got the swine flu shot, at a cost of hundreds of millions of Federal dollars. When three elderly citizens of Pittsburgh died of heart attacks after receiving the swine flu vaccine, the inoculations were suspended in Pennsylvania. Later, hundreds of US vaccine recipients developed muscle weakness, paralysis and debilitating fatigue, later identified as Guillain-Barre Syndrome.

This won't happen this time. With the virus already breaching our borders, there's no time to develop vaccine counter-measures. Even if a shot could be quickly formulated and mass-produced, the swine flu mutates at such a fast rate that a prospective vaccine would soon be obsolete.

Instead, health officials are relying on stockpiles of antiviral drugs. It's not even clear whether this virus is responsive to them; some traditional flu strains are demonstrating resistance to drugs like Tamiflu and Relenza. Virus researchers are just crossing their fingers.

While it would be irresponsible to promote vitamins and supplements as antidotes to the flu, considerable research suggests certain of them may help foster defense or attenuate the severity of viral illnesses.

Chief among them is vitamin D. John Cannell, MD, has pioneered research on the impact of vitamin D on viral diseases. D has been shown to blunt the infectivity of tuberculosis, influenza, and even the common cold.

Additionally, vitamins A, C, and E, and selenium and zinc are essential for optimum immune response.

Also, a substance called AHCC (Active Hexose Correlated Compounds) has been thoroughly investigated for its antiviral, immune-enhancing effects. In research performed at Drexel Medical College in Philadelphia, it was shown to reduce susceptibility to the flu in experimental animals and humans.

Finally, Oleuropein from Olive Leaf has been demonstrated to possess antiviral properties. This, along with potent extracts of oregano, can provide a partial bulwark against viral invasion.

"Lifestyle" considerations count, too: Get moderate exercise (not to exhaustion), sunlight, plenty of sleep and rest, and wash hands frequently. Avoid immuno-suppressive medications whenever possible.

Hopefully, the swine flu will peter out on its own, as do most flu epidemics. Let's pray it does.