Flu's "first kiss": Remembered forever | Reduction

Flu's "first kiss": Remembered forever

Compulsory mask, brought in to combat the flu epidemic after the World War, 1918-1919 / Sam Hood by State Library of New South Wales collection
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Excerpt:

A senior citizen is administered a free flu shot at New York-Presyterian Hospital's Allen Pavilion October 10, 2005 in New York City. New research suggests elderly people may already be protected against influenza through earlier exposures to the virus.  / Getty A new global study of a century's worth of flu pandemics gives new meaning to that "first kiss." Influenza's first kiss, that is. "Your first kiss by the influenza virus produces original antigenic sins," the study's lead author, Dr. Thomas Reichert of the Entropy Research Institute in Lincoln, Mass. , tells CBS News. "We remember our first kiss forever." The study, published Dec. 12 in the peer-reviewed BMC Medicine, looks at all five influenza pandemics of the past 100 years. It finds a variable but often large number of elderly individuals were immune to influenza because their bodies had been infected with a similar virus in the past.

Concepts:

Influenza Influenza pandemic Avian influenza Influenza vaccine Pandemic Vaccination Vaccine Influenza A virus

People:

Dr. Thomas Reichert

Overall Sentiment: -0.0322224

Relevance: 0.651163

Sentiment	Quote
-0.0434055	"If your factory risks being down for a year because so many workers are stricken, the immune elderly could be a tremendous resource," says Reichert.
-0.0307228	"If your factory risks being down for a year because so many workers are stricken, the immune elderly could be a tremendous resource," says Reichert. "Any employer who motivated his retirees could bring them in and only a few would get sick."
-0.126329	Reichert adds, "We can now see that mortality rates declined in younger people -- most of whom were not vaccinated -- but not at all in the elderly (an increasing fraction of whom were vaccinated)."
Sentiment Stats:	Number of Quotes: 3 Aggregate Sentiment: -0.2004573 Mean: -0.0668191 Standard Deviation: 1.4142135623731

Dr. Thomas Tallman

Overall Sentiment: -0.107868

Relevance: 0.25936

Sentiment	Quote
-0.409122	"The measure of how much immunity there is extremely unpredictable," said Tallman.
Sentiment Stats:	Number of Quotes: 1 Aggregate Sentiment: -0.409122 Mean: -0.409122 Standard Deviation: 1.4142135623731

Key:

• Aggregate Sentiment is meant to be an indicator of an individual's overall sentiment.
• The Mean is meant to be an indicator of an individual's average comment sentiment.
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Note that quote stats are likely to be meaningless beyond the aggregate score due to the tiny sample size. However, they are always provided just in case you find something useful there.

Additional Info:

HealthCondition: Influenza

Overall Sentiment: -0.114051

Relevance: 0.81971

Disambiguation: DiseaseOrMedicalCondition | CauseOfDeath | InfectiousDisease | RiskFactor | DiseaseReferences:

• Influenza: dbpedia
• Influenza: freebase
• Influenza: opencyc

Tags Details

Site Provided Keywords:

• bmc medicine
• dpst coldflucenter
• elderly
• entropy
• influenza
• thomas reichert
• vaccine

Webpage Provided Title:

Flu's "first kiss": Remembered forever

Provided Desc:

Study found during 2009 influenza pandemic, adults over 62 were immune to disease -- trends also seen in previous pandemics

Source : Source

Data Sources

Full Content: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsHealth/~3/SdXu3mf3U1Y/

Source