Article by Gene Marcotte
We have plumbed the ocean depths, climbed the highest peaks and even left our footprints on the moon. We claim an absolute right to self determination and resolutely forge the world to fit our needs. Yes indeed, man is top of the pile. Yet a tiny bug continues to confound and defeat our best efforts to bludgeon it into submission. Influenza or the common or garden flu, still resists all of mans best laid plans to relegate it to a dusty exhibit in the natural sciences museum and probably will for all time.
Flu lays millions of people low each year and is believed to affect up to 50% of the population of countries such as the US every winter. The virus is predominantly airborne and can survive, un-hosted, in that environment for hours. Using the one medium we cannot survive without as a transfer vehicle, influenza has a sure fire survival and propagation mechanism and has proven exceptionally difficult to contain. So, what do we do about this