At the risk of being labelled a racist – listen up. I was born in England, I live in the US, and spread disease like a cat spreads fleas. I’ve had two major viruses this year (both the flu), amongst other illnesses. OK, so I’m probably not that far up there in the statistics. But given that I would rarely get ill in England, it seems odd that I’d get ill in the US.
Is it possible there is a divide in immunity between the seas? Would it be far fetched to suggest that Americans are immune to the strains of viruses in their country, and that other nationalities are immune to the strains to their countries? Is the gift of my parent’s immune systems actually a curse? Of course, all of this could be put down to coincidence – nonetheless, I’d like to explore my thoughts further.
The H1N1 virus that has recently infected news media faster than the human population has clearly become an international celebrity virus. Can all viruses become international viruses?
To understand my proposition, we need to delve into what the immune system is and how it works.
The immune system by definition is “a system that protects the body from foreign substances and pathogenic organisms”. Specifically, it defends against bacterial, viral, and fungal infections. (Viral being the flu – that’s about all I really care about at this point.)
In the case of the flu virus, the virus isn’t actually ‘alive’. By my understanding, a virus is a cell that corrupts the DNA of other cells in your body. When you are infected by a virus, your body sends out white blood cells to ‘eat’ the virus. Once your body recognises the virus, it ramps up production of white blood cells and wages a bloody war against it.
Eventually, your body will defeat the virus – assuming that your body is in good health. Some viruses (HIV for example) specialise in eradicating the immune system, meaning that your body cannot protect itself from the virus. In effect, HIV doesn’t actually kill you, but rather the next virus it opens your body up to does.
Assuming it all goes well, after you have defeated the virus, your immune system remembers it in case it ever tries to come back. And bless your lucky offspring, because your immune system’s memory will be passed down to them. If you are immune to something, there’s a chance they are too. (though this isn’t always true!)
Knowing that each generation passes immunity to the next, it seems less far fetched to suggest that physical breaks in generations could create drastically different states of immunity. For example, each virus I have caught this year, my wife and child have seemed immune to. In fact, further to that observation, I don’t recall anyone suggesting I had infected them.
A friend of mine, who inherited his immune system from his Mexican parents, also became ill with this virus. Is it all a coincidence? I don’t know. I’m not a doctor, and I have no authority in this area. However, if it is true that the origins of my immune system makes me more susceptible to viruses – I cannot help but wonder if I should be on the priority list for vaccinations.
Disclaimer: My description of the immune system is straight from my memory of science classes more than 8 years ago. If I’m wrong about anything, please feel welcome to correct me!