Mutating Flu Virus

Last Friday the 20th October, while travelling to work by bus, having already travelled three quarters of the journey, a lady got on board and sat in the seat right behind me. She was sneezing, coughing and spluttering and immediately I could feel the peppery feeling in my nose and during the short walk to my destination I could already feel the throat beginning to become sore. I was surprised about how quickly the symptoms of what may be a cold established itself but I was also aware that I had already had a cold which began with a bout of sneezing on the 22nd of September and which had passed by eight days although I took some days off work to recover.

With this in mind I was hopeful that this would soon pass and it seemed that nothing had become of it. On Monday morning, now yesterday, I awoke with thoughts of writing about the experience in relationship to the unusual symptoms that I had earlier in the year, with the premiss that what I had then was what had found its way to Australia and mutated and which is now about to return.

Also I would like to add that my daughter Clara had sent me a text on Sunday morning to say that she was quite ill at the moment and would be staying home. I decided to call her on the phone to ask what what she had and I could hear her coughing and sneezing, just like the lady on the bus, while trying to explain. Luckily it is half term so she would be able to remain in bed and not miss any lessons.

So Monday morning it seemed that nothing had come of it and felt that I should write but as usual there are so many points that come to mind that it is off putting because of the task of representing it
as it comes to mind because the thought just come flooding in almost abstract and to represent them on the page is more linear, and then it becomes a case of where to start.

By Monday, 23rd October in the evening I began to get mild headache just as I did in January but during the recent cold in September I had normal symptoms for what must have been the common cold and did not have a headache at all. So this tends to confirm my theory about the mutating form of that virus returning to the Northern Hemisphere for our winter season. The headache seems to serve as a tell tale sign. I do remember speaking to a young man who was probably in his mid twenties who was working to install new central heating for my next door neighbour and I brought up the subject of the virus and he said that he had had it and that it was terrible.

Initially back in January I wanted to know if what I had was the common cold or the flue and at that time there was no clear explanation and in fact there was no news at all. Therefore we had gone from October 2016 to January 2017 with no information on the virulence of the flu virus and the only the only report I could find at that time was one from a hospital in Canada which reported of providing more beds and funding it themselves in preparation, so they were aware of the situation, and the common reported situation around the World was a shortage of beds in hospitals.

The situation of reporting is very different now because there have been ample warnings of the Australian variant which I had suspected was a mutation of what we had during the 2016-17 flue season. It was at this time that I was drawn to try understand what is meant by the A (not subtyped) variant and also here there was no clear information that I could find, although it is most likely known to health professionals. It was notable that this was the most prominent proportion/type in the Northern Hemisphere at the time, and a recent observation of its strength during the period coming out of the flu season, from the WHO charts, was that it remained the strongest and least affected by the natural decline, meaning that it maintained its resiliance.

I had finally come to the conclusion that the none subtyped variants pertain to the Human whereas all others have their origins in animals, such as Swine Flu or Bird Flu. Again, looking at the make up of the Australian flue virus types, it is notable that the A (not subtyped) virus has been reduced as a proportion of all of the known variants for the Australian flu season but at the same time there is a strain which has become more dangerous so therefore I concluded that what had taken place is that it had mutated into the animal variants and on checking on my journey home, Monday evening found that this has been reported to be the case. The same proportion of flue variants found in Australia are now shown to be identical in the USA according to the present WHO charts.

This is what was written in longhand this morning (Monday) when I made a start but did not finish it.

As explained in January, the virus was not normal and would change the form of its symptoms as time progressed in a topsy turvy manner. It took just under six weeks to subside.

I believe that what I had in January this year was the beginnings of what had made its way to Australia, mutated, and is now returning to the Northern Hemisphere for our winter flu season.

I initially caught the virus from my sister Angela who always has her annual flu jab, and I was not concerned when she told me that she had the bug.

So looking back and reflecting on what is being said or advised now, is that the only defence is to have the flu jab, and this has been very prominent, but which also comes with the advisory that it may not be effective to protect against the Australian Flu.

The A(not subtyped) was quite a large constituent of the over all influenza picture, and was mirrored in the US, Canada and Northern Europe. I suspect that this has cross mutated into the other strains which are animal bases in origin and so have become more virulent and potent. Thus it can be seen that the A(not specified has become less of the proportion in Australia and this is mirrored by what can be seen in the current WHO diagrams for America.
RGH