Tag: influenza

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 Can Transfer To Human Race

Have you been watching the news and/or read your daily broadsheets at all recently? If so, youve probably heard the term Swine Flu bouncing around a lot. While you are in the pigs fair or your hog race backyard and you were ever unlucky enough to be sneezed on by a sick pig, would you catch its flu? Not necessarily it takes more than simply breathing in a pig’s germs (just like kissing his messy and slimy nose) for you to get sick.

While most people come down with the normal human flu at some point, its not really a danger to anyone but the very young (from 0 month to 7 years old) and the very old (from 60 to 90 years old). Fortunately, the human immune system is there to recognize and neutralize the effects of the virus. Each year, the virus mutates just slightly and most of the population is once again susceptible to the disease. This is why a new vaccine must be created regularly to reflect the most recent influenza mutants out in the environment.

When the human flu virus mutates its external proteins, the bodys defenses still recognize them and eventually mount a response (the period of sickness occurs while the body is developing that response). If this failed to happen, you would eventually succumb to the virus and you will die.

If a peoples immune system might not immediately stop a new human influenza infection, it does recognize that new mutant and begin building a response. Avian and swine peplomers, on the other hand, are not easily recognized by the human system because our race did not include pressure from those particular viruses. The animal influenza has been able to mutate enough to cross the species bridge and infect humans as well as humans we have come into a close contact with the animals (e.g. as a hog racer, we care for them and eventually sold out to the market for more extra income) that carry these viruses.

In the past this would not have been a worldwide epidemic. An infected village might just die out in isolation (the nearest hospital was more than 10 miles away from the village). Now its different: if a traveler can become infected from a hog race backyard in one region and fly thousands of miles to another, long before they experience symptoms of possible flu.

So whats the fall away message from all of this? Can we do anything? Well as individuals its wise to go through the same sanitary practices as we might during flu season. We must be aware if our pigs catch flu during the season so that we put them instantly in a quarantine area that no other individual will take care of your pigs without protective suits. And traveling to places which have reported Swine Flu cases probably isnt a great idea.

There are people as you observe in different agencies and they have spent their whole lives preparing for just these kinds of epidemics and they are currently working very hard to provide the public with the best information and advice about the Swine Flu.

They are only there waiting for your attention and willingness to diagnose if you suspected yourself a possible Swine Flu virus. They are there to help you live longer.

Signs And Symptoms Of Swine Flu

Most of the human race is now aware of the news outbreak about Swine Flu but are we aware of the signs and symptoms of swine flu? We already know how to prevent but the signs and symptoms is still a puzzle in our mind. Well, through this article, I will give you insights if you are now a victim of Swine Flu virus.

But before, we proceed let me introduce to you first about Swine Flu. The 3-10% of the global population estimated to affect the yearly influenza epidemics that can be a result in severe illness in 34 million patients and causing 200,000400,000 deaths worldwide. Severe illness and deaths occur mainly in the high-risk populations of infants, the elderly, pregnant women and chronically ill patients in industrialized nations.

In addition to these yearly epidemics, the influenza A virus has caused three major global pandemics during the 20th century: there was the Spanish flu in 1918, the Asian flu in 1957 and in 196869 was the Hong Kong flu. These pandemics were caused by an Influenza A virus that had undergone major genetic changes, due to which the population did not possess significant immunity.

In pigs influenza infection produces lethargy, sneezing, fever, coughing, difficulty breathing and decreased appetite. In some cases especially the pregnant women, the infection can cause abortion. Although mortality is usually low (around 1-3%), the virus can produce weight loss and poor growth, causing economic loss to farmers. Infected pigs can lose up to 10 pounds of body weight over a 2 to 3 week period.

Main symptoms of swine flu in humans can be a direct transmission of a swine flu virus from pigs to humans is occasionally possible (called zoonotic swine flu). Under phase one, an animal outbreak of flu symptoms in your hog race backyard.

In phase two considered when the owner within the hog race backyard got infected with a flu from their animal symptoms.

Phase 3 reviewed when a child within the hog race backyard got infected together with his father, his mother and his siblings. The fourth phase, there is a cause of community-level outbreaks of human-to-human transmission of an animal or human-animal flu virus. This phase will focus to contain the spreading of the virus.

Countries will be informed asking to advice their people such as traveling to containment areas. All countries with infected with the swine flu must also consider in deploying a pandemic vaccine. (e.g. when the infected family member went out from their backyard decided to talk to his friends and unaware that hes spreading the virus.)

Second to the last phase, when a man-infected virus either a family member or any of his friends travel to another neighboring country. You will know if there your country is in a phase 5 dominant when there is an announcement suspension of classes because of flu spread out.

This final and a pandemic phase is just like when an unaware man-infected virus travel to another continent unaware that he spread out the Swine Flu virus to another races. Now with the above mentioned signs and symptoms, you are now ready to plan and prepare immediately of the possible attacks of the Swine Flu virus. Consult to different agencies that concerns with the Swine Flu pandemics.

How do Physicians Treat Congestive Heart Failure?

Congestive heart failure is precisely what it sounds like; it is a failure of the heart to properly function, and its effects on the body can be devastating. Physicians do their best to treat the symptoms and give the patient the best prognosis possible; however, no true cure for congestive heart failure currently exists.

Heart failure occurs when the heart is unable to properly pump blood throughout the body; as a result, rather than distributing nutrients and oxygen to the tissues and then excreting the excess fluid into the urine the blood pools. This results in either a systemic or localized edema as fluid builds up in the veins and organs, causing swelling of the extremities as well as the organs themselves (this fluid accumulation is responsible for an excessive amount of stress on the heart as fluid accumulates in the pleural cavity as well as the dyspnea, or difficulty breathing, often symptomatic of heart failure). The swelling and lack of oxygen and nutrients will result in permanent damage to the organs if left untreated, providing a very poor prognosis for the patient.

The first stage of treatment generally consists of the administration of extra oxygen to attempt to return the oxygen levels in the tissues to normal. Once oxygen has been administered and a pulse oximeter reveals blood oxygen levels to be acceptable the focus will shift to attempting to treat the fluid build-up in the body. Diuretics will be administered to assist the excess fluid on its path out of the body via the urinary tract, and nitrates are administered to cause the vessels to dilate, allowing blood to flow more freely without the heart having to work quite as hard. Treatment with diuretics is often accompanied by supplemental potassium, as the body will excrete potassium in the urine and long term hypokalemia may result in muscle weakness or paralysis, as well as an increased risk of fatal cardiac arrhythmia.

Patients will often be sent home from the hospital with diuretics, as well as a medication known as an ACE inhibitor (an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor) which prevents the body from creating angiotensin, a substance which raises blood pressure and causes the blood vessels to constrict. An angiotensin II receptor blocker may also be administered if the patient continues to produce angiotensin. Patients may also be treated with vasodilators other than ACE inhibitors, particularly if they have responded poorly to treatments with ACE inhibitors in the past. Nitroglycerin is a common example of this type of medication.

Digitalis, or Digoxin, may be prescribed to strengthen the force of the heart’s contractions, aiding it to push blood throughout the body. Treatment with a beta blocker is also beneficial in cases of heart failure, preventing the heart from beating more rapidly in an attempt to compensate for the poor movement of the blood in the body and placing more stress on the weakened muscle.

Blood thinners are used to prevent the formation of clots in the body that may be caused by the decreased movement of the blood in the vessels. Coumadin and heparin are the most commonly prescribed blood thinners in use today; however, due to an increased risk of bleeding patients taking these medications should undergo coagulation testing regularly.

Lifestyle changes are just as important as medications in the long term treatment of heart failure. Patients should consult with their doctor to establish an appropriate (low sodium) diet and exercise program, and should do at least some moderate exercise daily. Equally important is taking sufficient time to rest every day. The heart pumps more easily when the body is at rest, which is vital to an already overstressed muscle. The nicotine from cigarettes causes an increase in heart rate, blood pressure, and the tendency for clumping in the blood vessels; patients with heart failure should abstain from smoking. Flu or pneumonia can be very difficult for hearts that are failing as they attempt to compensate for the lack of oxygen in the bloodstream being carried to the organs. It is very important that patients receive an annual influenza vaccine, as well as a dose of the pneumococcal vaccine, which will protect them from the pneumococcal bacteria that cause over eighty percent of cases of bacterial pneumonia. Wearing non-constrictive clothing will assist in preventing blood clots and facilitating blood flow to the extremeties, and in cases of extremely warm or extremely cold temperatures it is important that the patient take all precautions necessary to keep the body at an appropriate temperature..

Researchers are still seeking to find a cure for congestive heart failure; however, until that day comes it is extremely important that patients suffering from heart failure follow the treatment plan outlined by their physician. With careful attention to maintaining their condition, the prognosis associated with heart failure increases dramatically.