Influenza Vaccine Administration Record-Child: Fill & Download for Free

Guide to the Answer:A. History of VaccinationB. Major Arguments Against VaccinationThe history of vaccination is long - very long. I think in order to understand our current resistance to vaccination you need to understand the history a little. Throughout the story you will see a pattern -“We don’t like what we don’t understand, in fact it scares us, and this monster is mysterious at least!”Historians noted that people began observing the protective effect of acquiring some diseases, such as smallpox as early as 430 BC.[1] Records from the 10th century indicate Chinese physicians were inoculating through a process called “variolation” - deliberate infection with disease by blowing scabs up a healthy person’s nose. Variolation worked, too - cutting mortality from around 30% down to 1–2%.[2]Why would it take so many centuries? There were several problems. First, the early inoculation attempts worked — sort of. Often the person would get a lesser form of the disease. Sometimes they wouldn't. Sometimes they’d contract another disease. Because the physicians had no clue about other blood-borne diseases, sterile technique, secondary infections and the like, they often caused unexpected problems that were rather difficult to understand.Above everything else — no one really understood why people got sick in the first place, much less why this method of making a person sick — just less sick — worked. Germ theory of disease was proposed in 1546, and improved in 1762 — but largely ignored in favor the more plausible miasma (bad air) theory, which went back to antiquity (note to scientists — beware of “settled science”!) So the physicians by and large believed that smallpox was caused by “bad air”, and for whatever reason, exposing people to the lesions and giving them the disease this way protected them against the disease contracted through the “bad air” — particularly if a worse case of “bad air” came along.The physicians were pragmatic — they observed it worked, so they wanted to do it, but let’s be real here, the treatment is a bit gross. A lot gross. The physicians were cutting open scabs from the following types of lesions:People were terrified of this disease, and rightfully so. It killed between 30% to 100% of the people who got it, depending on the strain. Many people who survived were scarred for life. They might go blind, or become completely crippled from the disease attacking their bones and joints.Physicians were asking people to let them take fluid or powder from those pustules, and blow it up their nose or inject it right into them. Think about how frightening that must have been! They didn't even want to be near someone with the disease, or near someone who had been near a person with it because they all knew it was contagious. This was a terrible invasion of privacy.So people did what people always do — they invented a million reasons the physician should NOT do this terrifying thing to them.In 1721 a tremendous smallpox epidemic broke out in Boston. The Rev. Cotton Mather initiated a highly controversial inoculation program. Yes, that Cotton Mather, of the Salem Witch Trials — he wasn’t all bad.mezzotint portrait of Cotton Mather (Feb. 12, 1663 - Feb. 13, 1728), American Puritan clergyman.Peter Pelham, artist - http://www.columbia.edu/itc/law/witt/images/lect3/Cotton Mather was inspired by a slave named Onesimus, who told him about his inoculation in Africa, and by a letter published to the Royal Society of London in 1721 by Emanuale Timoni describing the procedure and its efficacy. He was backed by exactly one physician — Zabdiel Boylston. He faced opposition that was religious and scientific.Why do you fight God’s will? (doesn’t this sound familiar)There’s not enough evidence to use that method (not a bad science argument).Cotton Mather and Zabdiel Boylston decided to argue against the religious people with a fairly succinct message — this is no different than any other invasive medical procedure.And the scientific argument? Well — that meant collecting data. So they began inoculating people — not as many as they could have if they had had the support of the town’s physicians as a whole, but they managed to inoculate 287, and only 2% died, compared to nearly 15% of those in the city at large.[3] That largely put the matter to rest in the mind of the scientific community, and the practice was adopted to the great health benefit of the Boston community. (See graph below)The Fight Over Inoculation During the 1721 Boston Smallpox Epidemic - Science in the NewsNow, keep in mind, people still had no idea why this worked. Only that it did.Twenty years later, in 1774, a farmer in England named Benjamin Jetsay contracted cowpox. All the dairy farmers and milkmaids knew if you got cowpox, you could safely nurse people with smallpox and you wouldn't get the disease. Cowpox was much milder than any form of smallpox, so this was very good. Jetsay had heard about inoculating people with smallpox, and even though he wasn't a doctor, he decided to deliberately inoculate his wife and sons with cowpox.[4]It worked.It was another twenty years before Edward Jenner caught wind of this wonderful phenomenon, and decided to stake his career as a physician on it. In 1796, Jenner gave his first trial, inoculating a child with material he gathered from a milkmaid’s pustule. He continued his inoculations, and two years later published “An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vacciniae.”[5] The book was pretty much a hit — people read it — and debated it widely — but it wasn't really accepted by the scientific community immediately. Jenner had to do a lot of work to get this idea accepted. However, he was tireless, and vaccination spread through England, and ultimately to America as well.That’s not to say it didn't have people up in arms!James Gillray's The Cow-Pock—or—the Wonderful Effects of the New Inoculation!, Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZC4-3147As you can see from the image abov,e there were those who thought that cowpox inoculation might turn you into a cow. Does this really seem much different than modern-day fears?All this — and people still thought disease was transmitted by “bad air”. Although several physicians working with microscopes had described microorganisms and implicated them in the bubonic plague (black death), smallpox, measles, rabies, and others, their work by and large just wasn’t accepted by physicians or the public.This work was probably set back in no small part due to the understandable fear of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek[6], “the father of Microbiology”, who developed a unique method of grinding lenses in the 1650s that enabled him to create microscopes of spectacular resolution. Due to a lack of patent law protection, he guarded his secrets and took them to his grave, and similar caliber instruments weren't developed for almost 200 years. This set back microbiology by about the same amount.The Geographer - by Johannes Vermeer - historians believe painting is of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek[7]It wasn’t until 1854 when a physician named John Snow, working to stem a cholera outbreak, realized that the disease must be transmitted by an agent present in water [8]— and that it was coming from feces of infected individuals. He meticulously detailed the contamination of water used for drinking and cooking with waste from infected individuals in a number of cases. Only after removing a single pump he believed infected with cholera did the epidemic in London subside.After another outbreak, he argued strenuously for filtration of water. He was convinced that people’s poop was contaminating water, and in drinking water with poop from sick individuals, everyone was getting sick and dying. Unfortunately for the citizens of London, and the world elsewhere, his ideas were slow to catch on. Why?It was too disgusting to accept.[9]How slow? Well, in 1854 the Italian scientist Filippo Pacini published a full description of the virus[10] that caused cholera, and in subsequent years further described how to properly treat the disease as well as how the disease became so deadly[11]. Somewhat later, and independently of him, scientific literature not being quite so easy to share in the 19th century, Robert Koch published his work describing the same bacterium[12] (1884).Now you would think the matter of cholera settled, right? It is, after all, 2019. We've understood how to combat this disease now for over 150 years.WHO Cholera Kit inforgaphic. [13]From the infographic: “Researchers estimate there are as many as 4 million cases each year and up to 143,000 deaths annually (2017).”OK, but what does this have to do with worldwide anti-vaccination sentiment?A lot, I’m afraid. You see, the persistence of cholera is only one symptom of the anti-vaccination sentiment that’s been around since the beginning of vaccination. The first cholera vaccination was available in the 1880s.[14] People are still afraid to get vaccinated even when they know they run a high risk of contracting and dying from cholera, a disease that has mortality between 10–90%, and can kill within 2 hours[15].2 hours.Did I mention there are vaccines for this? Now you’d think people would be MORE afraid of cholera than of vaccines, but — no. In fact, they’re not even afraid enough of cholera to wash their hands or drink bottled water consistently.[16] People are weird like that.Throughout history, and worldwide, people invoke the same reasons over and over and over for why vaccination is bad, or at least just isn't right for them.[17][18][19] [20][21] [22] [23] [24]Moral/Religious FoundationInvulnerabilityCost/Benefit Ratio isn't worthwhile* (this is complex)Fear of Bad EffectsNone of these are irrational — per se — not even the moral/religious foundation argument.Moral/Religious FoundationThis argument hasn't changed much. There aren’t that many groups [25]that claim a religious exemption to vaccination, and those that do aren’t under significant expansion in numbers. You’ve got the Christian Scientists, and some members of the Dutch Reformed church. For major religions, that’s it.InvulnerabilityCalvin of Calvin and Hobbes - being selective about accepting realityPeople are very good at this — feeling invincible. Invulnerable. That’s why 15% of Americans don’t use seat belts[26] and 43% of drivers admit to texting and driving[27] (seriously, people STOP IT!). When it comes to vaccines, a fair number of people don’t believe they or their child will actually become ill, so they forgo vaccines. This is a major factor in why people routinely travel without proper vaccinations.Cost/Benefit Ratio isn’t worthwhile* (this is complex)Costs of vaccination vary widely. Many people receive free or low-cost vaccination for children — but the money cost isn't the only cost involved. There’s time spent traveling to and from the provider. This may be fairly trivial in much of the Western world, where vaccinations can be received at any grocery store pharmacy as well as community clinic or hospital, but in developing nations it can present a huge roadblock. A parent may not want to deal with a child being feverish or cranky after vaccination after a tough night on a previous course. They may perceive vaccines as not being effective enough to justify the cost or inconvenience (this is especially true with influenza vaccines). A lot goes into the decision to actually get up and go get a vaccination — and people acting in rational self-interest don’t always weigh the factors the way those invested in public health would hope they should.Fear of Bad EffectsBy far and away, the current anti-vaccine sentiment roared to a new momentum with the 1998 study led by Andrew Wakefield that seemed to link autism to the combined measles mumps & rubella (MMR) vaccine.[28]Andrew Wakefield, Certified FraudThat study was a disaster from the moment of publication — and honestly, it wreaked havoc in far more than just vaccine science. In that same paper, now retracted, which cost Wakefield his medical license, [29]Wakefield et al. proposed the now terribly popular “leaky gut” theory that you can find all over the place — that GI disturbances from food cause a “leaky gut” which in turn leads to “bad blood” and every ailment known to mankind. All of it is modern quackery nonsense, and all of it widely embraced by far more than just those afraid of vaccines.The study was a disaster — with a selected sample size of 12, no control, and terrible statistics, The Lancet never should have published it. Publish it they did, and the damage was done. His co-authors ultimately retracted the paper, but Wakefield went on a martyr tour, selling his “leaky gut” hypothesis. After that, as they say, the horse was out of the barn, and hysterics piled on.“Thiomersal!” became the new rallying cry. As with the MMR issue, there was little scientific evidence for that hypothesis, and a lot against it.[30][31]In fact, there is only one serious research group pursuing this theory at this time, and they self-refer to their own studies most of the time, a hallmark of quack science. Moreover, even though the use of the preservative was phased out[32] in most of Europe and the U.S. after 1999, autism rates continue to rise — making the correlation hypothesis very difficult to support.This is the oldest, and most intractable of the problems — yet seemingly the most simple. Unfortunately, it goes hand-in-hand with distrust of authority, so reinforcement by peer networks is playing a large role in the spread of anti-vaccination sentiment.Combating this movement will require a good deal of public health work[33] — but it also is a responsibility of every parent and citizen. Talk to your friends and neighbors. Encourage vaccination with positive, fact-based information. When you see them spreading misinformation, don’t be afraid to point it out — tactfully. (OK, I admit — this can be hard!). Ultimately vaccination protects both individuals and the population.It’s a wonderful time we live in, when so many awful diseases can be prevented. Now, if only we can get everyone to fully appreciate how lucky we are!Now go check to make sure your vaccines are up-to-date.And get your flu shot!Don’t forget — immunizations are for adults, too!Relaxed. Researched. Respectful. - War ElephantFootnotes[1] http://Gross, C. P., & Sepkowitz, K. A. (1998). The myth of the medical breakthrough: smallpox, vaccination, and Jenner reconsidered. International journal of infectious diseases, 3(1), 54-60.[2] Smallpox: Variolation[3] The Fight Over Inoculation During the 1721 Boston Smallpox Epidemic - Science in the News[4] http:// Nicolau Barquet and Pere Domingo. "Smallpox: The Triumph over the Most Terrible of the Ministers of Death". Annals of Internal Medicine. Retrieved 2006-10-26.[5] http://Jenner, E. (1800). An inquiry into the causes and effects of the variolae vaccinae, a disease discovered in some of the western counties of England, particularly Gloucestershire, and known by the name of the cow pox. author.[6] Antonie van Leeuwenhoek | Biography, Discoveries, & Facts[7] The Geographer by Johannes Vermeer: Geography in Fine Art[8] http://Snow, J. (1855). On the mode of communication of cholera. John Churchill.[9] http://Chapelle, Frank (2005) Wellsprings. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0-8135-3614-6. p. 82[10] http://Pacini, F. (1854). Osservazioni microscopiche e deduzioni patologiche sul cholera asiatico. tip. di F. Bencini.[11] Who first discovered cholera?[12] http://Koch, R. (1884). An address on cholera and its bacillus. British medical journal, 2(1236), 453.[13] World Health Organization[14] http://Barrett, A. D., & Stanberry, L. R. (2009). Vaccines for biodefense and emerging and neglected diseases. Academic Press.[15] Cholera - Symptoms and causes[16] http://KOZICKI, MARKUS, ROBERT STEFFEN, and MEINRAD SCHÄR. "‘Boil it Cook it, Peel it or Forget it’: Does this Rule Prevent Travellers ‘Diarrhoea?." International journal of epidemiology 14.1 (1985): 169-172.[17] The Four Main Reasons People Don't Vaccinate[18] http://Gordon, D., Waller, J., & Marlow, L. A. (2011). Attitudes to HPV vaccination among mothers in the British Jewish community: reasons for accepting or declining the vaccine. Vaccine, 29(43), 7350-7356.[19] http://Canning, H. S., Phillips, J., & Stephen Allsup, M. D. (2005). Health care worker beliefs about influenza vaccine and reasons for non‐vaccination–a cross‐sectional survey. Journal of clinical nursing, 14(8), 922-925.[20] http://Kee, S. Y., Lee, J. S., Cheong, H. J., Chun, B. C., Song, J. Y., Choi, W. S., ... & Kim, W. J. (2007). Influenza vaccine coverage rates and perceptions on vaccination in South Korea. Journal of Infection, 55(3), 273-281.[21] http://Singleton, J. A., Santibanez, T. A., & Wortley, P. M. (2005). Influenza and pneumococcal vaccination of adults aged≥ 65: racial/ethnic differences. American journal of preventive medicine, 29(5), 412-420.[22] http://Constantine, N. A., & Jerman, P. (2007). Acceptance of human papillomavirus vaccination among Californian parents of daughters: a representative statewide analysis. Journal of Adolescent Health, 40(2), 108-115.[23] http://Darden, P. M., Thompson, D. M., Roberts, J. R., Hale, J. J., Pope, C., Naifeh, M., & Jacobson, R. M. (2013). Reasons for not vaccinating adolescents: National Immunization Survey of Teens, 2008–2010. Pediatrics, peds-2012.[24] http://Francis, M. R., Nohynek, H., Larson, H., Balraj, V., Mohan, V. R., Kang, G., & Nuorti, J. P. (2018). Factors associated with routine childhood vaccine uptake and reasons for non-vaccination in India: 1998–2008. Vaccine, 36(44), 6559-6566.[25] http://Grabenstein, J. D. (2013). What the world's religions teach, applied to vaccines and immune globulins. Vaccine, 31(16), 2011-2023.[26] Policy Impact: Seat Belts[27] Facts & Statistics About Texting & Driving (Updated for 2018)[28] http://Wakefield, A. J., Murch, S. H., Anthony, A., Linnell, J., Casson, D. M., Malik, M., ... & Valentine, A. (1998). RETRACTED: Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children.[29] Doctor behind vaccine-autism link loses license | TIME.com[30] http://Gadad, B. S., Li, W., Yazdani, U., Grady, S., Johnson, T., Hammond, J., ... & Ferrier, C. (2015). Administration of thimerosal-containing vaccines to infant rhesus macaques does not result in autism-like behavior or neuropathology. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(40), 12498-12503.[31] http://Uno, Y., Uchiyama, T., Kurosawa, M., Aleksic, B., & Ozaki, N. (2015). Early exposure to the combined measles–mumps–rubella vaccine and thimerosal-containing vaccines and risk of autism spectrum disorder. Vaccine, 33(21), 2511-2516.[32] Thiomersal - Wikipedia[33] The International Roadblocks To Achieving Global Vaccination

Yes.Many people are saying that COVID-19, the new strain of coronavirus that is now spreading throughout the world, is no deadlier than the common influenza and that people are panicking over nothing. The Trump administration in particular has been promoting the narrative that COVID-19 is no deadlier than the common influenza and that it poses no serious threat.This, however, incorrect; COVID-19 is, in fact, many times deadlier than the seasonal influenza and it is important that the virus be contained. It is true that the vast majority of people who contract COVID-19 do survive. Nonetheless, if COVID-19 is not successfully contained and no vaccine or cure is developed, it could still potentially kill tens of millions of people within the next year or two, many more people than the influenza normally kills in the same amount of time.COVID-19 and the seasonal influenzaThe normal, seasonal influenza has a case fatality rate of about 0.1%; whereas COVID-19 has a case fatality rate of somewhere between 2% and 3%. That means COVID-19 is somewhere between and twenty and thirty times more likely to kill someone who has it than the normal, seasonal influenza.The elderly are significantly more susceptible to COVID-19 than the young. The fatality rate of COVID-19 for people under the age of fifty is only around 0.5%, but the fatality rate for those over the age of seventy is around 8%. This means those over the age of seventy who contract COVID-19 have almost a one-in-ten chance of dying from it.While it’s true that the vast majority of people who contract COVID-19 survive, including the vast majority of elderly people who contract it, we have to remember that COVID-19 is extremely contagious, that there are about 7.53 billion people on this planet that the virus could potentially infect, and that there is currently absolutely no known vaccine or cure.Put together, all of these factors mean that, if COVID-19 becomes a global pandemic, it could potentially kill tens of millions of people within the next year or two. By contrast, the World Health Organization estimates that the influenza only kills around 650,000 people each year worldwide. The influenza may be killing more people than COVID-19 right now because it is currently far more widespread, but COVID-19 has the potential to be far deadlier than the influenza if it spreads out of control.ABOVE: Scanning electron microscope image from Wikimedia Commons of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19COVID-19 and the Black DeathCOVID-19 is significantly deadlier than the standard influenza, but some people have gone wildly overboard in describing its deadliness. In popular culture, COVID-19 has sometimes been compared to the Black Death, the pandemic of bubonic plague that spread throughout Europe between 1346 and 1351 and is estimated to have wiped out somewhere between 30% and 60% of the total population of Europe. The comparison between COVID-19 and the Black Death is dangerously misleading, however.The Black Death was so extraordinarily devastating because nearly everyone who contracted it died of it. Although we can’t possibly know the exact percentages, surviving written sources unambiguously describe the Black Death as having been widely seen as a death sentence, implying that, as soon as the buboes started to appear, people instantly knew they were going to die. The contemporary Sienese chronicler Agnolo di Tura del Grasso, for instance, records the devastation of the plague in a famous passage from his Chronica Maggiore. Here is the passage, as translated by William M. Bowsky:“The mortality in Siena began in May. It was a cruel and horrible thing. . . . It seemed that almost everyone became stupefied seeing the pain. It is impossible for the human tongue to recount the awful truth. Indeed, one who did not see such horribleness can be called blessed. The victims died almost immediately. They would swell beneath the armpits and in the groin, and fall over while talking. Father abandoned child, wife husband, one brother another; for this illness seemed to strike through breath and sight. And so they died. None could be found to bury the dead for money or friendship. Members of a household brought their dead to a ditch as best they could, without priest, without divine offices. In many places in Siena great pits were dug and piled deep with the multitude of dead. And they died by the hundreds, both day and night, and all were thrown in those ditches and covered with earth. And as soon as those ditches were filled, more were dug. I, Agnolo di Tura . . . buried my five children with my own hands. . . . And so many died that all believed it was the end of the world.”Judging from this description and others like it, I would say it is likely that probably somewhere around 90% of people who contracted the Black Death in the fourteenth century died of it. Even today with modern antibiotics, the bubonic plague (which still exists) still has a fatality rate somewhere between 8% and 11%.COVID-19, however, only kills an extremely minute percentage of the people who contract it. Its potential for devastation lies not in it having an extraordinarily high fatality rate, but rather in it having a moderately high fatality rate and there being an extremely large number of people that it could potentially infect.In the fourteenth century, the Black Death wreaked unbelievable devastation, but the devastation was constrained by the small population of the world at the time and by the fact that there was very little direct contact between different parts of the world, meaning it was not able to expand significantly outside of Eurasia.ABOVE: Fourteenth-century manuscript illustration of a man and a woman dying of the Black DeathABOVE: Manuscript illustration by Pierart dou Tielt dated to c. 1353 depicting the people of the city of Tournai burying victims of the Black DeathCOVID-19 and the 1918 “Spanish” influenzaWe shouldn’t be comparing COVID-19 to the seasonal influenza or to the Black Death. Instead, the comparison we should probably be making is to the 1918 influenza pandemic, known colloquially as the “Spanish influenza,” which is estimated to have killed somewhere between 30 million and forty million people worldwide between 1918 and 1920 in the aftermath of World War I.Like COVID-19, the case fatality rate for the 1918 influenza is estimated to have been somewhere between 2% and 3%. At the time of that pandemic, the total population of the planet was somewhere between 1.8 and 1.9 billion people. The 1918 influenza is estimated to have only infected around 27% of the world population at the time.If COVID-19 were to infect 27% of the current population of 7.53 billion people, that would mean around 2.03 billion people would be infected. If COVID-19 infected that many people and we assume that it kills roughly 2.5% of its victims, that would mean around 51 million people would be killed. This means that, if left uncontrolled, COVID-19 could potentially be deadlier than one of the deadliest pandemics in all of modern history.The dangers of COVID-19 are made even more significant due the fact that it can sometimes have an extraordinarily long incubation period. The incubation period for the seasonal influenza is usually about one to four days. The incubation period for COVID-19, however, is usually somewhere between one to fourteen days. That means you could contract COVID-19 and not show any symptoms until two weeks after you contracted it, which gives the virus many more opportunities to spread.COVID-19 definitely won’t wipe out the entire human race, nor will it wipe out anywhere close to the same percentage of the world population as the Black Death. Nonetheless, it could potentially be extremely devastating and kill tens of millions of people if it is not kept under control. This is why it is important that governments recognize the disease’s potential for devastation and not pretend like it is of no serious concern.ABOVE: Photograph from c. 1918 of soldiers sick with the Spanish influenza in the hospital ward of Camp Funston in KansasABOVE: Photograph from 1918 of a temporary ward set up in Oakland Municipal Auditorium for people suffering from the influenza, tended by nurses from the American Red Cross(NOTE: I have also published a version of this article on my website titled “How Deadly Is COVID-19 Compared to Other Diseases?” Here is a link to the version of the article on my website.)

If your wife had a cold last week, your child caught one two days ago and you're sneezing today, it is possible that each of you was infected by the same virus. But a specific diagnosis would require extensive laboratory testing, and even then a conclusive finding would be difficult because many viruses cannot be isolated for identification.For this reason, and others, viruses are among the most perplexing challenges facing medical researchers. The two 2:83,4:83>best-known viral illnesses are the common cold and influenza, but viruses also cause herpes, conjunctivitis, measles, smallpox, polio, AIDS and, research suggests, cancer of the cervix and a rare form of leukemia .The connection between viruses and disease is one of the most active areas of medical research.These are among the questions yet to be answered:* Why are some people susceptible to certain viruses and others are not?* Why do viruses affect people in varying degrees of severity?* Why do some viruses disappear and others lie dormant in the body then flare up years later?Why one person catches a ''bug'' and another does not -susceptibility - is affected in part by age, general health and, perhaps, in ways not fully understood, by poor nutrition. To a physician, susceptibility refers to lack of antibodies - the proteins that the body forms to fight off infectious agents. The body forms such antibodies after previous exposure to the bug, either from past infection or immunizations. Living conditions are also a factor; proximity to others increases the likelihood of contracting some diseases.The same virus can infect people with varying severity. No one knows why one person becomes extremely ill from a virus that causes only a mild attack in another.There is even confusion about colds and flu. Colds come on gradually, with nasal congestion, malaise and sneezes. Influenza hits suddenly, with fever and muscle aches followed by respiratory symptoms. The flu (influenza) is a specific viral illness, although the term is often used to describe flu-like symptoms caused by bacteria or fungi, which, unlike most viruses, can be treated with antibiotics. Some viral infections can also be complicated by a secondary bacterial infection.What is known about viral illnesses is that they are caused by a microbe that is both infectious (capable of invading and multiplying in the body) and communicable (capable of causing illness by itself or through one of its toxic products). But this does not necessarily mean that the microbe is contagious (spread by person-to-person contact). There are at least 300 known viruses, members of the 17 ''families'' that infect humans. As many as 200 human viruses cause the common cold alone. Many others can cause the flu. An additional 40 virus families affect plants and animals.Doctors can recognize some viruses by the characteristic evolutionary patterns of their symptoms. Measles, for example, is not the only ailment to cause a fever, sniffles, a cough and red eyes. Nor is it the only illness to cause a rash. But the measles rash is unique; it first appears in the mouth as tiny red spots with white centers known as Koplik spots, named for the physician who first described them. The spots next emerge as blotches on the face and then on the body. The rash usually breaks out about three days after the fever and respiratory symptoms. By putting together the symptoms and their sequence, the physician can make a diagnosis.Most viruses begin with the same general symptoms; some then go on to cause specific syndromes that are classified according to the organ that comes under greatest attack. Polio, for example, is caused by any of three viruses that usually enter the body through the intestinal tract. In only a small percentage of such infections does the virus travel through the blood from the intestine to the spinal cord to cause paralysis.Although most antibiotics are ineffective against viruses, a few new drugs have been successful in specific cases. The Food and Drug Administration, for example, recently approved a drug called ribavirin for use in hospitals to treat respiratory syncytial virus infection, which tends to attack infants and young children.HE GOOD NEWS IS that many viral ailments, like measles, mumps, polio, hepatitis B, rubella and rabies, can be prevented by immunizations. (There are other vaccines to prevent bacterial diseases like diphtheria, whooping cough and pneumococcal pneumonia.) Influenza, too, can be prevented with immunizations. Now, at the outset of the flu season, is when the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta recommends vaccinations for high-risk people - those over 65 and those suffering from chronic illness. According to the Centers for Disease Control, vaccination of those who are in this category ''is the single most important influenza-control measure.''The first influenza vaccines were developed in the 1940's, after the isolation of the two main types of influenza: A in 1933 and B in 1940. (Influenza Type A is more likely to result in complications.) The modern versions of flu vaccines are derived from non-living, highly purified viruses of the specific types of influenza that have been circulating most recently.For this winter, epidemiologists at the Centers for Disease Control recommend two flu shots: a basic one to protect against three strains of influenza A and B, and another to protect against a new variant. This new strain has caused outbreaks in several Asian countries and was detected too late to be included in the preparation of the basic vaccine.A remarkable characteristic of the influenza virus is its ability to change antigens every so often, thus outwitting the ability of the human immune system to produce antibodies. For this reason, humans may suffer repeated attacks.F DOCTORS TOOK specimens from all patients with infections and sent them to laboratories for identification, technicians would be overwhelmed. Even if laboratories could cope with such a workload, virologists still might not be able to identify the bug. One reason is that viruses cannot be isolated from all samples. Another is that scientists have not developed the techniques to identify the many viruses that are believed to be the cause of several ailments.Occasionally, however, laboratory testing pays off. In 1975, after their children had suffered a series of similar symptoms - rash, body aches and fever - several mothers in Lyme, Conn., insisted that doctors investigate. They discovered it was a form of arthritis that was caused by ticks and is potentially curable by antibiotics. The bug was named Lyme disease and is now known to occur throughout the world.Diseases are sometimes not identified until a dramatic outbreak makes detection possible. Before the summer of 1976, many cases of pneumonia were assumed to be caused by viruses. But that summer, members of an American Legion group attending a convention in Philadelphia contracted a mysterious strain of pneumonia. After studying the group, doctors were able to identify the ailment, now called Legionnaire's disease, as a bacterial infection. Doctors now know that 10 percent of cases previously called viral pneumonia were Legionnaire's disease.Scientists first identified viruses in the late 1800's, when they found that some microorganisms passed through tiny filters that successfully screened out bacteria. One of the first such agents, found in 1902, was the virus that caused foot-and-mouth disease.It was not until this century, with the invention of the electron microscope, that viruses could be seen. But most detection became possible when techniques were developed to grow viruses in the laboratory. The earliest attempts involved plants and animals with limited results. Greater success came in the early 1930's, when scientists discovered more fertile mediums for growing viruses - mice and eggs. Another breakthrough occured in the late 1940's, when scientists learned that viruses could be grown in cells in test tubes, a step that allowed a wider range of experimentation.When health officials began keeping track of vital statistics a few centuries ago, they saw that certain ailments strike more often during one season than another. Those observations have been recorded more extensively in recent years with expanded medical surveillance. So it is now known, for instance, that influenza strikes most frequently in the cooler months - from October through April in the Northern Hemisphere and from May through September in the Southern Hemisphere.Why should one virus appear seasonally and another have no discernible pattern? Scientists know of no changes that occur in viruses to account for seasonal patterns. Thus they seek such answers in environmental factors and in the natural habitats -called reservoirs - of viruses. Rabies, for example, is a disease of animals that affects humans only through animal bites. Thus, many cases of rabies can be traced to increased outdoor exposure during the spring, summer and fall. Doctors know that only humans are susceptible to polio and measles, but have not identified the reservoir for most other viruses.Source : VIRUSES: STILL A MYSTERY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS