It can be really difficult to give a brief summation of viruses..there are so many types - DNA single stranded, RNA single stranded, DNA double stranded, RNA double stranded, segmented, linear, etc.....There are loads of reasons why influenza is a scary pathogen apart from genome shuffling. RNA viruses are notorious for incorporating 'mistakes' into their sequence. In DNA based organisms, DNA is copied then a proof read and mistakes removed. RNA viruses don't possess this feature, so they tend make a lot of mistakes and as such are the most dangerous to humans (HIV, Ebola, etc).
Zoonotic viruses are even more of a problem as they can incubate in other animals and so are more difficult to eradicate simply by vaccination programs. Bact when I was a med student, polio was meant to be eradicated from the world by 2010, but I don't see that happening in the next 4yrs. Influenza is one of those viruses that will be around as long as a host is around for it to replicate in. Sometimes the best course of action is to stay away from crowds, don't travel abroad and wear masks in public (altho' viral particles can penetrate these as well in reality). A virus can travel the globe in under 2 days due to modern travel (mainly the crap, cheap form of air circulation in planes)..and they don't even need a passport
Flu isn't really that common as virus infections go..as I said, most people think they have the flu when they don't..you can be safe that between March till Oct, in this country, it's not the flu. Mainly children are the pathogen magnets, so adults tend to suffer less frequently...under 1yr olds are most at risk from complications. A G.P. will not take a sample and do a lab PCR to check, so even a doctor's diagnosis is not exact unless this is carried out.
If you do opt for the vaccination, it will make you feel a bit ropey for a few days and you should be safe from the strain the vaccine is targetted against, altho' I stress that this is not 100% guaranteed with any vaccine due to the unique human HLA system. On the other hand, if you don't get the vaccination, chances are you'll still will not be infected and if you are, you'll just be ill for a week or so. I think a new trivalent vaccine is currently being trialed in the UK. This is a dead virus vaccine instead of an attenuated (weakened but live) virus vaccine and is meant to have less side effects post vaccination and higher efficacy. I can check that out for you if you want?
I do apologise for the long windedness above...I just love talking about viruses and I don't care if that's sad. Also, there's not enough information out there regarding this virus and people are being scared for no bloody reason other than to sell papers and detract from whatever current political mess is going down at Westminster.
