Thanks for your response, Katherine.  I know it never crossed my mind that
you could have been involved in such a piece of misinformation about BF
during maternal flu infection.  I didn't know just how big CDC was, but I
knew it was more than a computer with one BF expert behind it.
The other thing that never crossed my mind was that our subscribers would
get vitriolic in communicating with another Lactnet subscriber, one who is
known for thoughtful posts and top-flight knowledge.  This saddens me.  I
hope the people who hit their 'send' buttons a little hastily, will
recognize themselves and apologize to you.

I worked in a flu lab when I was a nursing student, and I got the real flu
once from one of the specimens we had received for culture.  The swab got
flipped out of the vial it was sent in when I was drawing the medium up with
a syringe to inject it into a fertilized hen's egg, and sprayed a huge
inoculum all over my face and hands - yuck.  48 hours later almost to the
minute, I came down with the flu.  Our lab was part of the epidemic
monitoring system, and we received nasal and pharyngeal swabs from all the
emergency rooms in the Seattle area, taken from patients with flu symptoms
(fever and cough being the absolute requirements, aches and malaise common -
and contrary to what many people think, influenza does not affect the GI
tract - if you are vomiting or having diarrhea it is not 'the flu' that is
causing your illness).  Most flu sufferers are just that: sufferers.  It is
an uncomfortable illness, but it doesn't usually get life-threatening unless
you are immunosuppressed or compromised, or have reduced respiratory
function from some other underlying condition.   Viruses come in cycles;
some flus are more virulent and more aggressive than others, and some years
more people are severely ill than in other years.

Lactating women will have antibodies in their milk against every strain of
flu that has provoked their immune system in their lives, and if they are
exposed to a new strain, there will be antibodies in their milk long before
they can be detected in their blood.  Nature prioritizes the offspring.
Lars Hanson emphasized this in the talk I heard him give last week.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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