The H1N1 flu is coming your way soon if it hasn’t already.  Unlike most flu seasons where the elderly and those with weakened systems are at the highest risk, the individuals who are at greatest risk for this flu are those in the healthy 2-24 year old age group.  This past week in Vacaville, an apparently healthy seven year old girl died from the H1N1 flu.

Still, surveys show that 50 percent plan not to get immunized against this flu when the vaccine is available.  Fears cited include that the testing has been rushed and vaccinations cause autism.  The later has not been proven and the vaccine manufacturers say the process for producing the flu vaccines is the same as for the seasonal flu.

The reasons why apparently healthy young people are ending up in intensive care or dying from this flu are not yet known.  Others in this same age group suffer much milder symptoms.  Eventually, the epidemiologists will figure out the why as they did in the 1918 pandemic.

There wasn’t a vaccine available for the 1918 pandemic.  There is today, but there might not be enough in time to prevent swarms of people becoming ill at the same time and overwhelming hospitals. For now, the doctors are not able to predict who among the healthy will be the most susceptible to severe illness or death due to the H1N1 swine flu.

That alone should be frightening enough to get everyone in the susceptible age group vaccinated.  The risk of death to a young healthy person is simply not acceptable if it is preventable.  Society cannot afford to lose the valuable potential of any single generation.  Modern medicine was just beginning to evolve in 1918, we need to learn from all the research and studies done in the past by stepping up to help our families and stepping forward to help others.