National Influenza Immunization Program - The Swine Flu of 1976 Essay

In 1976, repayable to an outbreak of in influenzaenza at Fort Dix, New Jersey, the United States caste a precedent in immunology by attempting to vaccinate the entire nation of the country against the possibility of a swine-type Influenza A epidemic. While a great many people were successfully immunized in a genuinely short period of time, the National Influenza Immunization schedule (NIIP) quickly became recognized as a failure, one reason universe that the feared epidemic never surfaced at all. But this massive undertaking deserves more than analysis than full a simple repudiation. For example, all evidence conjugate to the pathology, microbiology, and historical cycle of grippe and the outbreak at Fort Dix suggests that the reactions of the scientists and some other personnel involved in the NIIP were correct. However, one must also let in the many complications and misjudgments that plagued the computer programme after its initiation, from biological difficulties, lo gistical problems, to tensions with the media. The swine flu is a historical event that needs to be evaluated, regarding both its successes and its failures, so that lessons cigarette be learned for future immunization programs.While influenza, or the flu, is not commonly recognized as an extremely lethal disease, the pathology of influenza, and peculiarly of the kind found at Fort Dix, does suggest that an immunization program was a reasonable course to take in 1976. In the publics mind, influenza is often not seen as a specific disease, using common names for it like flu, gripe, and virus. (Silverstein 1) However, influenza is very different from an everyday low fever or stomach flu. It is a respiratory infection, connected with a fever, coughing, and muscle aches, which often la... ...d be held responsible for not creating a more adaptable program that could fill in with these occurrences. The NIIP must be evaluated for its drawbacks and its successes, so that people will no t just see this as an unfortunate historical event, but can recitation it to help further immunization and disease-fighting programs in the future.Works CitedThe Flu. Online. 17 Feb. 1999. Available www.ultranet.com/jkimball/BiologyPages/I/Influenza.htmlLaitlin, Elissa A. and Elise M. Pelletier. The Influenza A/New Jersey(Swine Flu) Vaccine and Guillain-Barr incisive Syndrome The Arguments for Causal Association. Drugs and Devices Line, 1997. Online. 15 Feb. 1999. Available www.hsph.harvard.edu/Organizations/ddil/swieflu.htmlSilverstein, Arthur M. Pure Politics and Impure recognition The Swine Flu Affair. Baltimore and London The John Hopkins University Press, 1981.