Pandemic fears? I'll cough up

Chris Northover PHOTO/FILE

I've been suffering from a nasty respiratory virus for more than a couple of weeks now. I'm on the second round of antibiotics in fact, and the chest X-rays are a concern. I cough all night and wheeze all day. My darling wife also had it but has gone back to work - obviously much tougher than me. People attempting to use the words "flu" and "man" in the same sentence are gently (so far) told to push off with their unpleasant feminist drivel.

As usual, the thought arises - where did we catch this? We both are very disciplined about avoiding touching anything in public places and we wash our hands - often. Children attending "germ swap" meetings every day are a likely candidate.

Isolation seems to be the best form of defence, which is futile if you are out and about all day. The best advice I've been given is to stop touching your mouth, eyes or nose unless you have only just finished properly washing your hands - the mucus membranes in these areas are the prime entry points for infection into the body.

Time spent laying low has left me thinking about epidemics the world has seen. Yes, I know: probably more thinking than was healthy! I even thought about the potential for terrorist acts using a disease like ebola. In 2003, I was apprehended by a masked and very serious-looking Chinese woman as I walked off a plane into Hong Kong Airport. She wanted to take my temperature because I had shown up as "hot" on the infra-red scanner above the immigration gate. Apparently if I was infected with Sars I probably would have had a temperature - clever. No Sars, but "hot" none the less!

Back in 1918, a pandemic of the "Spanish flu" killed nearly 6 per cent of the world's population - more than the "Black Death" managed in the 14th century - it was called "Spanish flu" because it seemed to be worse there. It wasn't any worse - other countries it occurred in simply hid the facts to keep up morale during time of war.

Ebola - which is currently raging through West Africa and has been found in Europe and the US - is actually much harder to catch. It is usually transmitted through body fluids - not through the air like flu and measles - and fortunately you can rarely catch it just by sitting next to an infected person on a plane.

For ebola to spread, it requires contact with infected body fluids such as blood, saliva, urine or faeces through broken skin or mucous membranes (such as the mouth or eyes). Ebola is infectious only when the symptoms begin to show up.

Why ebola has spread so fast in West Africa is that infected people can't be taken to a hospital, as hospitals are either full or non-existent - so they are cared for at home by family members who don't have the knowledge or equipment to ensure they don't become infected themselves. According to the Ministry of Health, ebola is unlikely to spread to New Zealand because we have very few people travelling between here and the badly infected countries.

The good news is that I believe we will be safe from the ebola epidemic here in Wanganui so long as we don't go touching anyone who is showing signs of having it or who has died from it, or touch their body fluids - and of course, stay away from places where it is raging, or be very, very careful. No need to block off state highways 3 and 4 just yet.