Reminiscences 11 - The Story Of An Infection Poem by Unnikrishnan Sivasankara Menon

I choose to make a hopping jump from my village to Chennai.

Today I read a news titled 'Anti-Measles Antibody prevents viral fusion'.

The news states that 'the researchers revealed an important epitope that may provide a new druggable target for MeV as well as other paramyxoviruses like mumps'.

I felt it very interesting. Because, I am reminded of an episode, which occurred when we lived in Chennai.

During one February, when our daughter was eleven or twelve years old, my wife was affected by Chicken Pox. The infection was severe and she was very weak when she finally recovered after about twenty days.

I had no fear of contacting the infection, for I was affected by Chicken Pox some two decades back, while I was living in Delhi and the acquired immunity lasts. But our daughter had had none. So, we were worried about she being affected, especially for two reasons: one, her annual exams in the school was nearing, and two, she was already a little weak from the Mumps she was affected by recently. Even, our doctor was not very comfortable with she staying with us when her mother was infected and she helping me to take care of her mother. So, we considered leaving her with one of our friends who lived in the same apartment. But she was not willing. And our doctor couldn't rule out the chances that our friends family may get infected if she lived with them. So she continued to stay with us all through.

But, to our great relief, she never got infected. Our doctor surmised that the immunity she had acquired by the recent mumps infection had seen her through.

The 'researchers' wake up only now!