The Hindu Business Line : `Oft it hits where hope is coldest and despair most fits'

WHO would have thought that the flu fears would come home to roost all around us? Look around: "WHO warns of bird flu outbreaks," says ABC News; "Chinese Ministry of Agriculture announced an emergency scheme in Beijing Thursday to tackle human infection of bird flu after first human cases were confirmed," reports EastDay.com; "Vietnam to Purge Cities of Live Poultry," notes Newsday, NY; "Indonesia reports two more human deaths from bird flu," says Wexford Echo, Ireland; "Animal rights group launches bird flu campaign," informs Channel News Asia, Singapore; "Bird flu fear spreads," writes News24, South Africa; and "SARS survivor tells of pandemic fears," says Leading The Charge, Australia.

Disturbingly, all these reports are less than an hour old at the time of writing this. It's `flu', therefore, to come to terms with, this week.

Flu appears after Flt Lt and Flt Sgt in Concise Oxford English Dictionary. "Influenza or any similar, milder infection," it says. "Any of several virus diseases marked especially by respiratory symptoms," defines Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, which traces the etymology of influenza as "Italian, literally, influence, from Medieval Latin influentia; from the belief that epidemics were due to the influence of the stars." Flu is a shortening of influenza, as much as a few unconnected ones too, as you can find on www.acronymfinder.com: Fault Location Unit, Fleet Life Expenditure, Flute (music scores), and Forced Labour Unit (gaming). Flew is past tense of fly, as in, `The birds flew south every winter,' explains Dictionary of Same-Sounding Words (www.business-words.com) . Flue means "passage to let air or gas escape, as in."

From www.computeruser.com, one learns that flu is `computer slang for a bad computer virus'. On www.onelook.com you'd find many words containing `flu', as for instance: Asian flu, blue flu, canon weeny flu, flu-flu, gastric flu, h. flu, Hong Kong flu, intestinal flu, Spanish flu, tapanui flu and so on. "Digestive-system diseases commonly called `stomach flu' (and widely misunderstood as being influenza), see Gastroenteritis," distinguishes Wikipedia.

Influenza is defined by Encarta as "a viral illness producing a high temperature, sore throat, running nose, headache, dry cough, and muscle pain". The illness is widespread, especially during winter months, and can sometimes be fatal, it adds. "The flu is caused by viruses that infect the respiratory tract which are divided into three types, designated A, B, and C," explains www.medterms.com. "Most people who get the flu recover completely in 1 to 2 weeks, but some people develop serious and potentially life-threatening medical complications, such as pneumonia," it adds. "The flu usually begins abruptly, with a fever between 102 to 106°F (an adult typically has a lower fever than a child)," elaborates MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia on www.nlm.nih.gov.

"Other common symptoms include a flushed face, body aches, and lack of energy. Some people have dizziness or vomiting. The fever usually lasts for a day or two, but can last 5 days."

The most common way to catch the flu is by breathing in droplets from coughs or sneezes, alerts the Web site. "Less often, it is spread when you touch a surface such as a faucet handle or phone that has the virus on it, and then touch your own mouth, nose, or eyes." Statistics from the US are that tens of millions of get the flu each year. While most recover within a week or two, about thousands of people each year get sick enough to be hospitalised, and about 36,000 people die each year from the flu, adds the Medical Encyclopedia.

"An infectious illness which is like a very bad cold, but which causes a fever," says Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary about flu. `Robby has a bad case of the flu,' reads a frightening example on http://dictionary.cambridge.org, because flu that looms large now is bad enough! "Every time I get the flu, with a really high temperature, I start to hallucinate," said Joshua Homme. But the current problem is one of real fears, rather than hallucinations, about flu.

"An acute contagious viral infection characterised by inflammation of the respiratory tract and by fever, chills, muscular pain, and prostration," is the definition of influenza on www.bartleby.com. "Also called grippe. Any of various viral infections of domestic animals characterised generally by fever and respiratory involvement," it adds. "Caused by an RNA virus of the orthomyxoviridae family," educates http://en.wikipedia.org. "It rapidly spreads around the world in seasonal epidemics, imposing considerable economic burden, in the form of health care costs and lost productivity."

In our times, some half a million people die of flu each year, says the Web site, listing the following: "1918 - 20 - Spanish Flu, 500 million ill, 50 to 100 million died (pandemic); 1957 - 58 - Asian Flu, 1 to 1.5 million died (epidemic); 1969 - 69 - Hong Kong Flu, 3/4 to 1 million died (epidemic)." The Spanish flu might have contributed to the end of World War I, postulates the Free Encyclopedia. "More US soldiers died from the Spanish flu during World War I than from the war itself." That pandemic, a.k.a. La Grippe, "was caused by the H1N1 type of flu virus, which is similar to bird flu of today, mainly H5N1 and H5N2."

Year 1839 is what Online Etymology Dictionary suggests against flu. Influenza is older by almost a century. "1743, borrowed during an outbreak of the disease in Europe," says www.etymonline.com. The word has been used in Italy for diseases since at least 1504, it adds, citing influenza di febbre scarlattina or `scarlet fever'.

"The 1743 outbreak began in Italy. Often applied since mid-19 century to severe colds." A hyperlink leads to the related word, influence. "Circa 1374, an astrological term, streaming ethereal power from the stars acting upon character or destiny of men," it explains. Latin influere means `to flow into,' that is, `in' + fluere `to flow'.

Were you to flee to literature, you'd find, "Eat, speak, and move under the influence of the most received star," as a line in All's Well That Ends Well. In The Tempest, Prospero says, "I find my zenith doth depend upon a most auspicious star, whose influence if now I court not but omit, my fortunes will ever after droop." Edmund refers to "drunkards, liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of planetary influence," in King Lear. "This huge stage presenteth nought but shows whereon the stars in secret influence comment," sings the Bard in a sonnet. Measure For Measure talks of what is "servile to all the skyey influences." Horatio speaks, in Hamlet, about "Disasters in the sun," and adds, "The moist star upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse."

Back on the etymological trail, the entry for `fluent' notes, "Latin flumen `river;' Greek phluein `to boil over, bubble up,' phlein `to abound'... Used interchangeably with fluid in Elizabethan times." In King Henry V, the Bard writes, "It is a theme as fluent as the sea; turn the sands into eloquent tongues." On some old maps, flu is short for Latin flumen = `river', notes Wiki. Bole is a connected word, whose roots refer to many things such as: tree trunk, blow, swell, leaf, phallus, flower, blossom, flourish, cushion, bag, bellows, pot, cup, bowl, pimple, stare, and pillow.

Back to flu. The Columbia Encyclopedia says that, of the three types of the influenza virus, A and B cause more serious contagious infections. "Type A is also found in swine, horses, whales, seals, and other animals, but wild birds are the only animals to have all A subtypes," and that's how the threat comes from animals. "Some H5 and H7 strains of avian influenza (also called avian flu or bird flu) are especially virulent and can result in financially devastating losses in the poultry industry," explains the Encyclopedia.

"Influenza is difficult to diagnose in the absence of an epidemic, since it resembles many common respiratory ailments," it points out, on the masked character of the problem. Vaccine is another worry because it can offer protection against only a particular strain or subtype; also, the viruses change over time. Thus, "it is necessary to reformulate the vaccine yearly in an educated guess at what strain will appear." Having a vaccine ready before the outbreak of a pandemic seems a theoretical impossibility.

Like many you may ask, "Is there a cure for bird flu?" And that's a query on www.inet.ba. "No. There's no cure for any kind of flu," begins the answer, ominously. However, antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu and Relenza may help reduce severity. "Containing bird flu pandemic could be impossible, says WHO," according to a report on www.newstarget.com. "It will take scientists four to six months to develop a vaccine that protects against the pandemic virus, by which time thousands could have died."

Meanwhile, there are offers on Web sites of pills supposedly to protect you from the current flu. "But buyer beware: Scientists have not yet developed any vaccine to prevent bird flu," alerts www.newsnet5.com. A helpful advice from 50 Connect, UK is to banish colds and flu as soon as they start! For, all's not well; as if to match, there's this worrying line in All's Well That Ends Well: "Oft it hits where hope is coldest and despair most fits."

ComingToTerms@TheHindu.co.in

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