The renamed influenza 
has baffled in part to the society to be more virulent and attacking a segment of the population that traditionally it would be considered less prone: young people. Speculation began to soar, so it should had more defenses? defenses virus infecting, collapsing the lungs?
These comments we have heard in the gatherings of mouth of inexperienced journalists and that does not seem that they had opened up a manual of Immunology in the life which is the truth? with the difficulty that involves speaking truths on land as slippery as microbiology and Clinical Immunology, could be that the cause was found on a simple concept: residual immunity.
Our agency once time fights an infection (viral or bacterial) develops a long-term response, saving ” somehow these specific defensive cells has been created against this infection. This not only acquired immunity protects us from this virus, but it may be partially effective in viruses of the same family or with genes in common. in this last century there has been 3 pandemics to highlight:
* Spanish flu (1918-1919): the virus of type A (H1N1) caused between 20 and 50 million dead, was probably related to the swine flu and avian influenza. It caused seasonal and intermittent outbreaks until the emergence of another flu.
* Asian flu (1957): this new infuenza of type A (H2N2) arrived to kill more than one million people.
* Hong Kong flu (1968): this virus (H3N2) virus replaced the Asian flu until the re-emergence of the H1N1
* Spanish flu recurrence to (1977): despite more than 20 years remain disappeared in the human population, people older than 20 years kept a residual immunity, reducing the severity of the pandemic.
From 1977 has existed a cohabitation or co-circulation of different virus: H1N1, H3N2, and strains of the virus type B. But the fact to mention is that residual immunity in the past served as protection, and in this case, if as suspected the virus has different influenzas genes, it could be the cause of the protection enjoyed by our elders, her would have inherited from different outbreaks that occurred in 1977.
Tags: influenza, swine influenza, swine Influenza
