Sickness at the Worlds
 

Any of our European correspondants have a sense of what's going on with
the illnesses? It's been variously described as a cold, a flu-like cold
and the flu. Any sense of which it is. Obviously, traveling, training
regimens and close quarters make athletes especially suceptible to
illness, but I am curious, since a flu vaccine has been available this
year and in the U.S., at least, cases are not running high yet.

Gene

In article ,
Gene Goldenfeld wrote:

Any of our European correspondants have a sense of what's going on with
the illnesses? It's been variously described as a cold, a flu-like cold
and the flu. Any sense of which it is. Obviously, traveling, training
regimens and close quarters make athletes especially suceptible to
illness, but I am curious, since a flu vaccine has been available this
year and in the U.S., at least, cases are not running high yet.

Gene

That depends upon where you are -- it has been locally very bad in
some places. E.g., in east Tennessee, where I have family, many city
and county school systems have been closed, some for a week or so,
because of the flu epidemic; this includes Blount, Anderson, Sevier,
Loudon, and Knox counties, as well as several city school systems in the
area. Before closure, absenteeism at some of the worst affected schools
was around 30%, and in some of the systems, so many faculty were sick
that it would have been virtually impossible to find enough substitutes
to staff the schools even if the absentee rate among the students had
been under control. Area hospitals have also cancelled visiting hours
for patients, many area businesses with high employee absentee rates
have been scrambling to handle the work load, etc.

Given that ski racers' immune systems are probably "on the edge" much
of the time due to the demands of racing, training, and travel, as you
noted, I can easily imagine that a similar localized "mini-epidemic"
might affect a good many potential competitors at the championships.

I was thinking, don't the athletes get flu shots? That's not aboslute,
but does cut down the chances enormously. However, I don't know that
it's really the flue.

Gene


"David L. Webb" wrote:

In article ,
Gene Goldenfeld wrote:

Any of our European correspondants have a sense of what's going on with
the illnesses? It's been variously described as a cold, a flu-like cold
and the flu. Any sense of which it is. Obviously, traveling, training
regimens and close quarters make athletes especially suceptible to
illness, but I am curious, since a flu vaccine has been available this
year and in the U.S., at least, cases are not running high yet.

Gene

That depends upon where you are -- it has been locally very bad in
some places. E.g., in east Tennessee, where I have family, many city
and county school systems have been closed, some for a week or so,
because of the flu epidemic; this includes Blount, Anderson, Sevier,
Loudon, and Knox counties, as well as several city school systems in the
area. Before closure, absenteeism at some of the worst affected schools
was around 30%, and in some of the systems, so many faculty were sick
that it would have been virtually impossible to find enough substitutes
to staff the schools even if the absentee rate among the students had
been under control. Area hospitals have also cancelled visiting hours
for patients, many area businesses with high employee absentee rates
have been scrambling to handle the work load, etc.

Given that ski racers' immune systems are probably "on the edge" much
of the time due to the demands of racing, training, and travel, as you
noted, I can easily imagine that a similar localized "mini-epidemic"
might affect a good many potential competitors at the championships.

"Gene Goldenfeld" wrote in message
...
I was thinking, don't the athletes get flu shots? That's not aboslute,
but does cut down the chances enormously. However, I don't know that
it's really the flue.

If you've ever had flu you'll remember how your body was
completely debilitated. There was no chance you'd be able to
race for several weeks. Since these racers seem to recover
reasonably quickly the chances are that its not a flu virus thats
hit them.

In the UK flujabs become publicly available around the first week
in October.
I believe the World Health Organisation plot which flu epidemics
are currently traversing the Earth and the vaccine provides protection
against the three most likely to hit your area within a given period.

Airline pilots and World Cup athletes move from one part of the
globe to another so buying flu shots for these guys must be difficult.