“The worst pandemic in modern history was the Spanish flu of 1918, which killed tens of millions of people. Today, with how interconnected the world is, it would spread faster.” ~ Bill Gates
“Seasonal flu is now a pandemic that lasts for years and years because you’ve got so many people that it’s jumping back between northern and southern hemispheres and moving itself around the world. By the time it gets back to where it started, it’s changed sufficiently so that people are no longer immune.” ~ Nathan Wolfe
I’d love to be telling you that I’m enjoying a fabulous Easter with my husband and friends, dancing in my gumboots at Bluesfest and celebrating all that the Easter Weekend has to offer.
But I can’t. I’m horribly unwell. Think fevers, chills, headache, neck ache, chest pains, congested sinuses, cough and body aches and pains.
My friend who came to stay with us arrived sick. Sick but she was trying to soldier on because she’d made plans with us, and she had festival tickets, and she didn’t want to let anyone down. But my friend felt exhausted and miserably sick. So sick that she ended up staying home all day while we went to Bluesfest without her. So sick that she ended up in emergency that night. She’s back staying with family now, and Ben and I are both home in bed sick!
People, I need you to know something about those of us for whom flu or cold is more than an inconvenience:
Thanks to chronic lyme-disease I’m immune-compromised, which means that I don’t have as much resistance to bugs as other people might.
There are many immuno-compromised people out in the world. Babies and old people. People with chronic illnesses, diabetes, asthma, heart problems, auto-immune diseases and cancer. People who’ve had transplants, or who need one. People recovering from illness or in fragile health. They look like you and I, so you might not be able to pick them out as having weaker immune systems.
For people with weakened immune systems getting a bad cold, virus or flu can seriously endanger our health.
Please, if you have a cold or flu, think before you go out into the world. Look after yourself, and through your consideration, look after those of us for whom any kind of unexpected illness is a big deal.
