Monitoring Influenza
In 2018, the world will mark a centennial since the great influenza pandemic that killed far more people than those who had just died in the First World War. In fact, war created the crowding circumstances that turned an epidemic into a pandemic. This piece offers a new fact to that story and to our time: 75% of people infected with influenza virus present no symptoms, though they can still spread the disease. Immunization is a good preventative, but because so many fail to vaccinate, a cheap, accurate, and easily available device to detect either the virus or the cytokines the body mounts in defense might keep schools, churches, business places, and military facilities from becoming deadly transit points. Such a device does not now exist other than as an inventive opportunity. MORE
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