The flu virus is constantly changing and mutating.
There are two ways in which the flu virus mutates from year to year. The first is called antigenic drift. When you think of the word “drift” you may imagine a slow flow from on thing to another. These slow changes in the influenza virus occur over the year(s) and create just enough change in the virus so that your immune system can no longer recognize it from one year(s) to the next. When one flu virus drifts and mutates in to an unrecognizable form, these are considered two different “strains” of the virus. This is the reason why we have a new flu vaccine every year.
The second way the virus mutates occurs more suddenly, and we call these changes antigenic shifts. This happens when two different strains of the virus infect the same cell and then combine to form a new version of the virus. The mutation may create a new flu subtype and because people have no immunity to the new subtype, it can lead to a severe flu epidemic or pandemic. This is also the type of mutation that allows the virus to jump between species–animal to human–such as in the case of the 2009 Swine flu pandemic.
It’s because of these genetic changes that the influenza virus is able to display different versions of HA and NA on its surface and is able to keep eluding the immune system year after year.
Your best fight against the flu is to get vaccinated as soon as the new flu vaccine comes out every year. This may not KEEP you from getting the flu, but it sure can help make it a lot less severe. There’s still time to go get your flu shot…
Source: thevaccinemom.com
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