The France and the Spain are the first affected

Influenza, me I treats with disdain! "Who has not heard this saying apparently struck at the corner of good sense In reality, the reactions of the sick winter flu virus vary considerably depending on the country. When, at the entrance of the winter, the French feel the first revealing chills of a virus attack, they rush in 72 of the cases the doctor. In contrast, the British subject to the same event are marble. Only a quarter of them visit the doctor, 28 spin at the corner pharmacy to ask Council and 38 go digging in the family cupboard. Between the reactants and the flegmatiques, are all cases of figure. The Germans and the Spaniards are quite close to the French and the Americans are to halfway.

(Pay) self-medication defenders and supporters of the prescription (in General reimbursed) have one thing in common: they know that should attempt a manoeuvre of defence. "In about 90 of cases, consumers decide to start a medical action at the first appearance of symptoms", indicates the British doctor Rob Hicks, who coordinated the survey of 3,500 people in six major industrialized countries (Germany, Spain, France, Great Britain, Italy and United States). In more than half of the cases, patients have two reasonably ambitious objectives: reduce the duration of the disease to a minimum and avoid complications. Almost 40 of them claim a specific treatment (which they have heard about) and 37 are evidence of a bel altruism: they say health care to not contaminate their family or professional environment.

A pandemic threat

The investigation also revealed the level of knowledge of the citizens of the country. Almost half are waiting at least two days before deciding to visit the room to wait crowded medical office. But at this stage of the disease, the virus began its infernal cycle of replication in epithelial cells of the respiratory system. Result: existing treatments have practically lost any effectiveness. "Over two days, can no longer make much" admitted Werner Lange, Director of German monitoring centre of the flu. Recently, the Swiss pharmaceutical Roche has met some of these experts in Basel. Objective: measure the level of knowledge of the infection in the man in the street and understand the motivations of the sick.

The producer of the famous Tamiflu hopes to boost sales of its antiviral drug become famous since the arrival of the outbreak of avian flu. For a possible pandemic, the Basel tenfold its production capabilities. He said now able to produce 400 million treatment (approximately 4 billion capsules). The spectrum of the pandemic is as seems far away (at least for this winter), the Swiss laboratory seeks rather to educate Europeans about the dangers of seasonal flu. "Winter flu is not a benign disease." "Every year, it produces 500,000 died in the world", justifies Eugene Tierney, responsible of the Virology in rock division. In fact, the pandemic threat brandished by many experts of the disease but not proven to date décrédibilisé this argument. Result: a majority of people continue to think that flu "is a wrong time to cure a week remaining in the bottom of his bed with aspirin and some grogs."

One thing is sure: all epidemics that regularly affect the rich, the flu is the better monitored. EISS (the European Influenza Surveillance Scheme) European network brings together nearly 13,500 practitioners who are the first to be in contact with the sick. These sentinels provide information to their regional or national centres. Upon the arrival of the first frost, 480 million Europeans are thus tapped viral. The system is well-honed. The data are collected at the beginning of each week, centralized and analyzed. A weekly newsletter (published on the Internet) allows to track in real-time the evolution of the disease on the Continent. For unknown reasons, the epidemic spreads always in the same direction. The France and the Spain are the first affected. Then the virus passes the Rhine and attacked the Germany, the Benelux and Scandinavia. At the end of a campaign that lasts between six and fifteen weeks, it is being depleted and disappears. "The monitoring network is indispensable." "It allows to identify the strain in circulation, to know its virulence, to follow the evolution of the epidemic and to predict its magnitude" indicates the Professor Koos van der Velden, President of the EISS.

How to raise awareness of the danger of flu without producing too anxietyproducing information whose effect would be probably counter-productive "For years, told the English influenza it sufficient to remain quietly at home", note Rob Hicks. The same ignorance is found for the vaccine which is seen as a "treatment of the third age" in many countries. "The British Government is considering lowering the age for reimbursement of vaccination to 50 65 years aactuellement.". The imperfect protection of the vaccine (sometimes less than 60 in the elderly) has also tarnished the image of this solution. "Many people who are vaccinated in the past still caught the disease." They don't believe vaccination. "In any event, there is a confusion between cure and preventive vaccine," concludes the British doctor.