Virologist Alan Hampson stated on ABC TV's Stateline of May 22nd, "If there are people out there who are unwittingly spreading influenza, maybe because they have very low grade symptoms or no symptoms at all, then there’s no telling how many people they may have passed it on to in the interim." (transcript available at http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/vic/content/2006/s2578513.htm)
While perhaps technically correct, it is that kind of unqualified expert opinion that drives fears through the community. It conjures images of perfectly well people going about their ordinary business of the day, while mysteriously exuding highly infectious particles from every pore of their skin. It ignores the simple fact that respiratory infections are transmitted when people cough and sneeze, that is, while they most certainly do have symptoms, even if they do not want to be labelled as ill. The number of influenza viruses dispersed by an unguarded cough or sneeze is incomparably greater than any released by talking or laughing before symptoms are present.
Perhaps it is that kind of misinformation that underlies some of the anxiety surrounding issues of management at Clifton Hill Primary School. If parents have been told that the virus is highly contagious before symptoms erupt, as Tracie Winch ('Struck down by a bad case of bureaucracy', 24/5) wrote, "over a two-day period during the girl's potentially most infectious time", it's no wonder she was bemused by the different responses to her queries.
If parents have been given to believe that influenza is highly infectious in the interval of one or two days between the minute when transmission occurred and the beginning of symptoms, then it's no wonder they are frightened and confused. The propagation of untruths is a serious matter, especially in a setting where members of the community do not have a grasp of the basic scientific facts.
People may volunteer for prolonged isolation (quarantine) while they are not infectious, especially if they are scared out of their wits. But it is not 1347, the current wave of new influenza strains will not cause an outbreak of the Black Death, and most responsible members of the community will heed advice that is based on current knowledge.
The fact is that we do not take seriously our responsibilities to our fellows when we are coughing and sneezing. While blithely ignorant of the cause, we don't care where our secretions end up. We need always to be conscious of the potential for infecting others, not just when the vapours of Swine Flu are wafting through the air.
