Tag: infections

What Risks Are Associated with an Untreated Yeast Infection?

Can My Yeast Infection Go Away Without Treatment?

A yeast infection can clear up eventually, but even so, the waiting time is extended and accompanied by all the usual pain. Most of the time, a yeast infection will cease when a womans period begins, because the blood causes much of the yeast to die.

Can I Become Infertile from an Untreated Yeast Infection?

No, the yeast infection has nothing to do with fertility. It is a fungal infection that affects tissues, but has no impact on the reproductive system. You cannot get cervical cancer from a yeast infection, either. These ideas are completely false, so dont spend any time worrying about them.

What Will Happen If I Leave My Yeast Infection Untreated?

You will have a much longer and more painful experience than if you had treated the infection. There are not very many occurrences of serious health issues arising from an untreated yeast infection. Some women who have repeated yeast infections suffer from this condition due to a pre-existing medical problem that is causing the infections to take place. If you have yeast infections very often (three times or more in one year), you would be wise to set an appointment with your doctor. It may be that just a few simple changes or a medication can help your life return to normal.

In some cases, an untreated yeast infection can lead to a blood condition known as sepsis, in which the blood is contaminated with bacteria. The bacteria then travel throughout the entire body; in effect, this is a form of blood poisoning. Although yeast infections rarely every lead to this disease, you should at least consider the possibility when deciding whether or not to treat your infection. Its really not worth the risk, especially when treatment is so simple and inexpensive. If you are unable to afford prescription medications, there are plenty of natural remedies that are proven to help fight the yeast infection.

If you find that you develop yeast infections three times or more each year, you may have a problem known as vulvovaginal candidiasis. This simply means that you are prone to have yeast infections and will probably continue to have them unless you seek medical assistance. Your doctor or a gynecologist can help you treat these recurring yeast infections.

So Should I Treat My Yeast Infection?

Yes, of course! There is no reason to let the yeast infection run its course, although it will likely die naturally during your next period. You have a choice between mainstream medicine, which will consist of prescription or over-the-counter medicines, and natural medicine, which will likely call for home remedies. Either way is effective. If you choose to make use of home remedies, make sure you do your research first. Some folk remedies are perfectly safe if they are applied in the correct manner, but can be quite hazardous if the user is unaware of the right way to use them.

Don’t Touch That Pork: A Few Swine Flu Truths And

Don’t Touch That Pork: A Few Swine Flu Truths And Myths

With all the wailing and gnashing of teeth involved with the latest flu outbreak, I think it’s time we set a few things straight about the swine flu. Think of it as a little public service announcement just to shock some of you out of that panic and get you thinking straight.

First of all, pork is safe. Yes, I know it’s called swine flu but it’s nothing like mad cow disease. That’s why there’s a flu at the end instead of disease, of course. The disease spreads via the same way normal flu spreads: contact with a contaminated area or person then contact with either the eyes, nose, or mouth of the prospective infected. Cooked pork can’t possibly be ever infected because cooking and preparation make sure that the meat is clean and healthy for consumption. So, yeah, no need to worry about the ham and bacon in the supermarket.

Secondly, there’s a treatment. Zanamivir and oseltamivir are neuroaminidase inhibitors which is a fancy description of what they do; they’re a type of antiviral drugs that inhibits cell reproduction of viruses so that they won’t spread in the patient’s body. The Center for Disease Control has highly recommended their use for the treatment and control of the disease. Actually, if you find yourself sick, you can do initial treatment via the normal over-the-counter antibiotics that you use when dealing with the normal flu. These can help make the symptoms more bearable and help your body resist the disease better. Those and quite a bit of bed rest can go a long way to make you feel better.

Thirdly, it’s not gonna kill us all. Even at the height of the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic, with its more than fifty million worldwide death count, the human race wasn’t exactly in danger. Plagues and diseases have been a part of human civilization and history for years. Humans have a way of surviving and infections eventually burn out, one of the disadvantages of killing your hosts too quickly. The bodycount may pile high but no natural disease can eliminate the human species that easily. Besides, like I mentioned earlier, it is treatable and you can recover from it.

Fourth, it’s not that contagious. Okay, yeah, it’s contagious, but like all diseases it has its particular infection vectors and if you know those vectors, a disease can easily be avoided. In this case, swine flu it may be, but it’s still the flu. This means it spreads through the contact points I said earlier. Regularly washing your hands before eating is a step in the right direction and, also, not hanging around sick people, though that one should be pretty obvious.

Fifth, it’s still the flu. The description maybe a bit vague and the name exotic, but it’s still the flu in the beginning. You’ll know you’re from it the same way you know you’re sick from the flu: colds, coughs, chills, and fatigue. That’s the initial stuff though. If you were smart, you’d have taken your antibiotics and lessened the effects. If you’re okay after a few days, that was just the normal flu. However, if the symptoms persist, and you start to vomit or start to suffer from diarrhea, then it’s swine flu and you better call for a doctor.

Well, that’s all then. Hopefully, these bits of information help clear up a few things about the swine flu and help you to undestand the currect situation the world is in.

An Overview of Swine Flu

Swine flu or influenza is a condition caused by strains of subtypes of Influenza A virus called H1N1, H1N2, H3N1, H3N2, and H3N3. These viruses are common in pigs located in midwestern United States, Canada, South America, Mexico, Mainland China, Japan, Taiwan, Europe, and other Eastern Asian countries.

Transmission of influenza virus from swine to humans is relatively uncommon and does not always result to human influenza but often leads to production of antibodies in the blood. When properly cooked, pig meat does not have the potential of passing the virus. Transmission that leads to human influenza is called zoonotic swine flu.

People who work with pigs, particularly those with direct exposure, are at greater risk of being infected with swine flu. Towards the middle of the 20th century, identification of influenza subtypes became likely paving the way for an accurate diagnosis of transmission to humans. Since then, 50 infections have been confirmed and recorded.

It is rare for these strains of swine flu to be transmitted from one human to another. In humans, the symptoms of swine flu are similar to common influenza as well as influenza-like illness such as chills, sore throat, fever, coughing, muscular pains, severe headache, and general discomfort.
The 2009 swine flu outbreak in humans was caused by a new strain of influenza A virus subtype H1N1 which have genes that closely resemble swine influenza. The root of this new strain is not known. According to the World Health Organization for Animal Health, this new strain has not been isolated in pigs. It is capable of human-to-human transmission and manifests the normal symptoms of influenza.

Swine can be infected with human influenza such as the case of the 1918 flu pandemic and the 2009 flu outbreak. Swine flu was first proposed as a disease associated with humans during the 1918 flu pandemic. During that time, pigs became simultaneously sick with humans.

Influenza virus as a cause of disease in pigs was first identified in 1930. For the next six decades, strains of swine influenza became almost exclusively H1N1. From 1997 to 2002, new strains of three varied subtypes and 5 different genotypes were identified as the cause of influenza among pigs in North America.

From 1997-1998, H3N2 strains developed. They included genes acquired through reassortment of human, avian, and swine viruses and have been a principal cause of wine influenza in North America. Reassortment between H1N1 and H3N2 resulted to the development of H1N2. In Canada, a strain of H4N6 resulted from the reassortment of avian and swine flu but was isolated on a single farm.

The H1N1 variant of swine flu is one of the descendants of the strain that brought about the 1918 flu pandemic. While persisting in pigs, the descendants of the 1918 virus have also been transmitted throughout the 20th century which resulted to the usual seasonal influenza outbreaks.
It is interesting to note that direct infection from pigs to humans is rare, with only 12 confirmed cases in the United States since 2005.

However, since the influenza strains remain in the pigs after they have disappeared in the human population can make these pigs a reservoir where the influenza virus could survive and later on transmitted to humans as soon as their immunity to the strain is no longe effective.

Swine flu has been recorded as zoonosis in humans several times, oftentimes with limited distribution and rarely with massive distribution. Swine outbreaks are common and can lead to significant economic losses in the industry, mainly leading to stunting and expanded market time. Swine influneza, for instance, the British meat industry has experienced 65 million of losses annually.

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.