A Case Study Involving Influenza and the Influenza Vaccine

by John Bennett, Department of Biology, Carroll College, Waukesha, WI

Part I—Flu and “Flu”

Karen and Mary work at a grocery store. Mary is a nursing student and works part time to pay for her living expenses. Karen has worked at the grocery for nearly 30 years, since she was 22. The two of them are talking when Karen points to one of the tabloids by the check-out with a headline suggesting that aliens created the bird flu. As their conversation progresses, Mary suggests that Karen should get a shot when the nurses come in next week selling influenza vaccine.

  1. Karen:

    No way am I going to waste 15 bucks on another flu shot. I got one last year and I still got sick. Do you remember that horrible sinus infection I had? I was so sick that I missed the Packer’s game at Lambeau Field. I had to watch the game at Tom’s house because he was having a party. I could barely breathe!

  2. Mary:

    I remember that you were sick last year, but that wasn’t influenza. The influenza virus causes fever, aches and malaise.

  3. Karen:

    What’s malaise?

  4. Mary:

    That’s when you feel sick.

  5. Karen:

    Well duh, I already told you I was sick.

  6. Mary:

    But you went to the party to watch the game.

  7. Karen:

    I was sick, I wasn’t dead.

  8. Mary:

    Look, if you had had influenza you wouldn’t have gone out to a party. In fact, you probably wouldn’t even have cared to watch the game on TV at home. Malaise is the very sick and weak feeling that comes with having influenza, and it takes all of your energy away and leaves you with no desire to do anything but lie still. That’s influenza!

  9. Karen:

    Well, anyway, Tom also got the flu shot and he still got the stomach flu real bad a couple weeks later. You can’t tell me that the flu shot did him any good.

  10. Mary:

    I can’t argue with that. You’re right. The influenza vaccine didn’t protect him from the stomach flu.

  11. Karen:

    There! So you admit it!

  12. Mary:

    I don’t admit anything. What you call the stomach flu has nothing to do with the flu shot. The shot is a vaccination that protects against influenza, not vomiting and diarrhea. Some people do get those symptoms, but influenza is the fever and aches. The stomach flu is caused by other viruses like rotavirus and Norwalk virus; sometimes they’re called noroviruses. The influenza vaccine doesn’t do anything about those.

  13. Karen:

    If it doesn’t stop you from getting the stomach flu, then what good is the vaccine? And another of my friends says that there are a lot of side effects from getting the flu shot, like allergic reactions, seizures, even autism.

“That ought to do it,” Karen thought to herself. She wasn’t about to lose this argument to a kid of Mary’s age.

Questions

  1. What are the main symptoms of influenza?
  2. Would you expect a flu shot to protect against the “stomach flu”? Why or why not?
  3. Identify some of the various causative agents of “stomach flu” and compare them to the influenza virus.
  4. Explain how a vaccine provides immunity against infection. Are there any side effects to the influenza vaccine? Should Karen or Mary worry about developing autism?
  5. Karen described the upper respiratory infection (URI) that she suffered last year and thinks that her well being is a matter of fate. How many infectious agents cause URI? How can these infections be prevented? How can they be treated?

Go to Part II—Shift and Drift

Date Posted: May 06, 2008.

Image Credit: Licensed photo ©iStockPhoto/T. Brugger.

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