Tag: Canada

Swine Flu Thousand Cases

A pandemic second quarter of 2009 outbreak of influenza A (H1N1) virus is a new strain of influenza virus identified commonly referred to as Swine Flu confirmed cases topped almost 6,000 individuals, as Belgium became the latest European nation to be hit by the influenza A(H1N1) virus. World Health Organization (WHO) officials said the number of cases of influenza A(H1N1) stood at around 6,000 and nearly 7,000 in more than 30 countries, with more than 60 people having died from the disease.

Cases were first discovered in the U.S. and officials soon suspected a link between those incidents and an earlier outbreak of late-season flu cases in Mexico. In less than a week hundreds of suspected cases, some of them serious, were discovered in Mexico. Soon thereafter, the WHO along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) expressed concern that the A(H1N1) could become a worldwide flu pandemic, and WHO then raised its pandemic disease alert level to “Phase 5” out of the six maximum, as a “signal that a pandemic is at about to happen level”.

More than three thousand cases of infections including three deaths was the recorded highest number of A(H1N1) by the United States compared to Mexico where only more than two thousand reported cases of infection including 60 deaths were confirmed. The WHO said 389 people were also confirmed with the virus and one person had died in Canada who happens to be with the 19-year-old Chinese career that brings in to China a spread out. Two other cases have been confirmed in Hong Kong. Authorities there said they had quarantined six people who traveled with the second case, a 24-year-old man, by plane from San Francisco. A further 45 people who sat near him on his journey had already left Hong Kong, they said.

China, in the meantime, stepped up the search for people who came into contact with the mainland’s two confirmed Swine Flu patients. A 30-year-old man was confirmed to have the virus in the southwestern city of Chengdu. He had been in the United States before his homecoming to China. Plane (Air Canada flight to Beijing) and train (for Shandong Province with 20 people on board) travelers with a 5 meter contact with a 19-year-old student (his surname is Lu: second confirmed victim) are being haunted by Chinese Authorities in Beijing and Eastern Shandong province.

Hes not feeling well, a couple of days after his arrival in Beijing but still continue to travel by train with a fever, sore throat and a headache. They believed that virus highlighted in China and Hong Kong could be a mix of bird and human flu which came together in pigs.

Belgium confirmed its first case of Swine Flu in a 28-year-old man who also had been in the United States. Jose Angel Cordova (Health Minister of Mexico) moved to reassure tourists, saying that the country’s beaches and resorts an important source of foreign income — were safe for visitors. “There’s no risk to tourists,” he said, noting that most of the flu cases detected in holiday hotspots like Cancun and Acapulco dated back nearly two weeks.

The Swine Flu outbreak was expected to cost Mexico’s economy of more than 2 billion dollars or about 0.3 percent of gross domestic product.

Swine Flu Phase 5

Of this Swine Flus 5th phase spread out, if there are at least two countries in one region and spread the virus by any means of human-to-human transmission. The signal of the pandemic is strong. The infected countries are required to advise people with respiratory illnesses to stay at home. There should be an advisory of suspension of classes. Some key states in the United States already announced suspension of classes. An example of this is when a man-infected virus either a family member or any of his friends travel to another neighboring country.

If an infected man goes out from his community booked a flight to another country such as China, that country will get infected too. People whom he talked while in plane even if hes experiencing a fever, sore throat and headaches can be possible Swine Flu career after few more days before he/she can discover the virus. Similar case from a 19-year old Chinese student from Canada (he closely contact with dying man by Swine Flu virus and later traveled home to Beijing and boarded the train.)

In the Philippines, no outbreak of swine flu yet but the government is now planning and preparing for the possible spread out. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo instructed Health Secretary Francisco Duque III to closely monitor the possible spread out to the Filipino. Some Filipinos are aware of the pandemic but they still go to the countries with flu spread out cases believing themselves that they have strong immune system.
In Mexico, some of the schools are already closed to protect their children from bigger numbers of flu cases.

This massive spread out was all started from scratchthe phase one. This article will try to reenact the source of Swine Flu with a short fiction story. In the first phase, there is an animal-flu governed the hog farm in a poor community. Suddenly by the next phase, this cute little pig started delivering sneezed out from the slimy and shiny nose to his owner. The owner suffers with a sneeze, cough, sore throat, fever and headaches by the next few hours.

Unintentionally, as a Swine Flu carrier, will be sharing his cough to his child on the next phase. And on the fourth phase the child greets her friend who is now leaving for another country for a vacation. And that friend while in the plane experiencing a fever and sore throat with headache until her father discovered in that country that she had a Swine Flu virus.

Some countries are also doing their planning and preparation for the prevention of the Swine Flu virus spread out. Advance preventive measures will lessen the spread out. Check your health officers about the information available against Swine Flu.

Research about Bad Habits

Bad habits plague many people in one form or another. We want to know what causes us to fall into bad habits. Questions arise about how are the best ways to quit. New research gives new answers and confirms some of the old ones.

Some research has been done to find out what motivates people to quit bad habits. It turns out that the emotional reasons seem to be the most telling of all. If a person does not have the desire to change, then that person is likely not to have any success with quitting.

Knowledge is only helpful if you use it to influence your emotional well-being. For example, if you work to set up a social network to help you when you quit smoking, you have used your mind to influence your emotions. Penalties help drive people to quit bad habits by playing on their emotions and their intelligence together.

Other research inquires into the effects of habitual activities on the brain. Researchers studied the brain responses in rats. The rats were sent through mazes at the end of which was chocolate. Their basal ganglia (where habitual behavior is learned in the brain) responded to all the information in the maze when they were learning the maze.

After awhile, this area of the brain only responded to the beginning and end of the maze. This would be like the response you have when you have developed bad habits. You are focused on the reward.

Then, the chocolate was removed. At that point, the basal ganglia again began to respond to every part of the maze again. When this happens, it is like quitting bad habits and living moment to moment.

When the chocolate was reintroduced, the area in the brain came alive during the beginning and the end, as before. Finally, the brain is cued to become alert to your addiction again when the desired object or bad habits resurface.

Another study evaluated the ability of people to replace old habits with new ones. This was done by testing using memorization and word tests. The researchers tried to see if subjects could learn new associations after learning similar ones first.

The conclusions of the test were interesting. First of all, the habits learned first were more automatic and below the conscious level. Second, stress caused people to revert to old habits.

Third, aging that affected the memory seemed to leave the subjects with more susceptibility to older habits. All this information can be used by people who struggle against bad habits.

One study took a look at the way people think about risky behavior. Surveys were given out in two different parts of Canada to find out what these people thought were the most dangerous. In the majority of cases, people thought that bad habits like smoking, overeating, and other health habits were more risky than non-habitual behaviors.

It is important to study how we think and feel about, and react to bad habits. The more we know, the better chance people have of learning how to overcome them. With good research being done, bad habits may be easier to break in the long run.

The History of the Air Ambulance

We have all come to know the familiar sound of the helicopter overhead that is flying quickly from the scene of a tragic car crash to the nearest trauma center at a nearby hospital. We may have even known someone who has needed to utilize such air ambulance service. Do you know the history behind these marvelous methods of medical transportation?

Think back nearly a century ago. During World War I, air ambulances were first introduced. Between 1914 and 1918, a variety of military organization tested the use of flying ambulances to treat patients. Over time, this beginning has spawned into the air ambulances of today.

What later became the Royal Doctor Flying Service started in the year 1928. This milestone event was the first air ambulance service ever to exist. This service began in the Australian Outback. This non-profit organization was intended to provide service to people living in the remote areas of the Outback. The Royal Doctor Flying Service provided emergency medical care, as well as, primary care for individuals who found it difficult to reach general healthcare facilities or hospitals due to the distance.

In 1934, Marie Marvingt started an air ambulance service. This was the first civil air ambulance service in Africa. The air ambulance service was established in Morocco. Again, the remote areas and terrain played a role in the decision to begin this service in the specific location.

Marie Marvingt used her pioneering spirit and record-breaking personality to help others when she began the air ambulance unit. She was the first woman to fly combat missions as a bomber pilot. She also was a qualified nurse. Specializing in aviation medicine she was the perfect candidate to begin the air ambulance service in Morocco. In fact, she worked to establish air ambulance services worldwide.

It was in 1936 that a military air ambulance service assisted wounded. The injured were evacuated from the Spanish Civil War. The wounded received treatment in Nazi Germany.

The Saskatchewan government established the first civil air ambulance in North America in 1946. Regina, Canada was home to this landmark service. Still today the air ambulance service is in operation.

Only one year later in 1947, Schaefer Air Service began. This was the first air ambulance service in the U.S. Founded in Los Angeles, California by J. Walter Schaefer. The Schaefer air ambulance service also became the first to be FAA certified in the United States.

It wasn’t until November 1 of 1970, that the first German Air ambulance helicopter began service at the hospital of Harlaching, Munich. This unit was called Christoph 1. As the idea spread over Germany, the air ambulance service continued to grow rapidly. By 1975, Christoph 10 began service. Currently, around 80 helicopters are being used as air ambulances in Germany. Each unit is named after Saint Christopher, the patron saint of travelers.

Denver, Colorado was home to the first hospital-based air ambulance medical helicopter in the United States. In 1977, Flight for Life began. Soon, the helicopter air ambulances expanded to use other types of aircraft.

In 1977, Ontario, Canada a flight paramedic program began with a single rotor-wing aircraft. Today, this program has become the largest and most sophisticated air ambulance program in North America. The fleet is dispatched to over 17,000 missions annually.

Lee County, Florida began a public service air ambulance transport in 1978. They began using a Bell47 then progressed to a BO 105. Currently, they use a BO 105 and an EC-145.

Today, the air ambulance industry has grown and expanded to become worldwide. Aircraft vary from helicopters to jets. The medical advances and technology has also grown to include high-tech tools and equipment that can effectively monitor and prolong life during medical emergencies in the air.