January - March, 2003

Ask Dr. Clark

Viruses: They're everywhere you want to be

The winter season brings families and friends together. That’s also a wonderful way to bring viruses in close contact with their human hosts. As a consequence, the cold and flu season begins its relentless attack on humanity every new year in the northern hemisphere.
Whether the infection is from a common cold virus or influenza, the body is reacting to a viral infecting agent. Millions of patients assume that any symptom related to cough, congestion or fever must have bacteria as causation – and such thinking is not only unscientific but it could also be dangerous.
Bacteria live in our bodies whether we are ill from a virus or we are feeling on top of the world. These bacteria can cause disease – for example, if they were to invade the kidney or the lung tissue. For the most part these bacteria are part of the normal human environment and when they are exposed to a needless antibiotic during a viral illness a few of them learn how to be “survivors.” These same survivors live and grow in the body for the rest of our lives – only now they are resistant to the antibiotic used during the viral illness. Why is this a problem? Well, if the host ever gets a real bacterial infection from these organisms, antibiotics may no longer be effective.
The answer to many viral illnesses will come when science can formulate effect anti-viral drugs. Fortunately, we already have some of these available today. There are two antiviral drugs which are now effective in shortening the course of the influenza viral infection known as “the flu.” The downside to their use is that they must be given very early in the course of the infection to be effective.
When Dr. Merle Sande, one of the physicians for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City was confronted with a influenza outbreak in various teams housed in the Olympic Village, he discovered that treating the infected athletes early was effective and by treating their close contacts (other team members) with the same anti-viral agents, the flu virus did not spread through the teams or the compound.
Of course, the influenza vaccination is still the best way of preventing the flu, or at least preventing many of the serious complications of this illness that causes 20,000 deaths every year in the United States alone. Flu vaccines are manufactured from killed viruses, so they cannot give anyone the actual flu. Additionally, anyone with a respiratory condition (asthma, chronic bronchitis, etc), should have a flu vaccination every season. The myths about the flu vaccine are rampant – and because they are promulgated by the general population, thousands of needless deaths occur every year. For more information on these flu myths – and the realities that could save a life – go to www.stjohns.com and search for “influenza.”
Don’t let flu myths take you down this winter season.

Have a question for Dr. Clark? Alan Clark, M.D., is available to answer questions concerning general medical topics. Ask Dr. Clark is for the purpose of disseminating health-related information and is not intended for the purpose of diagnosing or prescribing. Please consult your physician before undertaking of adopting any form of medical treatment, exercise program or dietary plan.