A flu patient in Thailand developed meningitis. Just in case you didn’t read my earlier post, the theory I have been harping on lately is that the overreaction by the body to a new viral infection that takes it by surprise results is a large release of cytokines called interferons which have been shown to inhibit viruses but also instruct bacterial fighting cells to stay out of the way, leaving the lungs vulnerable to bacterial infections like pneumonia, meningitis and whooping cough. That is not to say the flu virus itself doesn’t kill anyone but it would explain why second waves of pandemics are more severe than first waves. The larger pool of compromised victims lets more bacterial epidemics sweep through the sick. If it really is the case that a lot of people who die from flu pandemics die because of secondary bacterial infections then I would suspect that larger concentrations of flu victims would provide more fertile ground for pathogenic and opportunistic bacteria to sweep through a population. While the bacteria that causes meningococcal meningitis is widespread as normal flora (even the vaccine only keeps you from getting the meningitis, not from harboring the organism in your nose and throat now and then) it does seem to spread in epidemics of pathogenic cases. Perhaps the bacteria needs to alter its metabolism to be pathogenic and once induced to do so will start causing illnesses whereas it would normally just hang out. So if there are lots of compromised flu patients around and a meningococcus gets angry it starts making trouble along with other bacterial opportunists like Streptococcus pneumoniae.
New Zealand is experiencing its worst flu season in 12 years. Flu rates are double what they were this time last year and I would assume last year there were three or four strains doing it while H1N1 seems to have largely pushed competing flues to the margins as pandemic strains tend to do.
Australia is seeing record absenteeism. Oh, and they have a flu spike and a whooping cough epidemic going on right on top of one another in Queensland. Whooping cough is caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis in the lungs. It is highly contagious on it’s own but a little extra help from numerous instances of “mild” swine flu in an area might just have given it a boost, I suspect.