Tag: Worldwide Epidemic

Swine Flu: The New Pandemic

Everyone’s all abuzz with panic nowadays it seems. That’s mostly because after SARS and bird flu, another new strain of virus has managed to rear its head. The H1N1 influenza virus, more popularly known as the swine flu, exploded on to the global scene last April via a large-scale infection in Mexico City.

I think everyone’s seen the images on CNN a thousand time. Surgical-masked Mexicans crowding the hospitals with worrisome shots of full hospital beds.The Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization raised their alert levels in hopes of catching and cutting off the infection at the bud, but it seems that cases have been reported all over the world. It seems that the current fatalities from disease are from Mexico but everyone is just expecting for the other shoe to drop.

To understand all of this panic, ypou need to have a little background. Influenza, or more popularly known as the flu, is probably one of the most infectious diseases out there. Airborne and highly contagious, it could spread like wildfire all across the world. Now you’re asking what’s the matter with a few people getting a bit of sniffles? That’s because this isn’t your ordinary flu.

A lot of the flu viruses we are exposed to have been in the human system for hundreds of years. We’ve managed to build an immunity to these strains. The big problem that’s got everyone running scared is the idea that a flu strain has crossed species. This is what happened with the bird flu and now, with the swine flu. The pigs and birds have also built up resistances to these diseases, however, since humans are not used to them, these strains of flu have a very large potential of being fatal.

The last time a large-scale flu epidemic raged around the world, electricity was just coming into vogue and cars were all Model Ts. The Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918 literally set the bar for every modern disease in terms of casualties. Fifty to a hundred million people worldwide died over a period of two years from 1918 to 1920 as the disease spread worldwide. Following on the heels of the Great War, it was a one-two punch that killed an entire generation of young men and women. What everyone’s afraid of is this: the 1918 epidemic was a subtype of the H1N1 flu virus, the same virus that seems to have crossed over and become a real threat to humans.

This is why the CDC is keeping a close watch on Mexico and hoping all of the subsidiary cases worldwide aren’t indications of the beginning of some worldwide epidemic. The good news about this is that the disease is treatable. Medicine and vaccine production alerts have been sent out by the CDC and most pharmaceutical companies have started churning out oseltamivir and zanamivir.

The problem with that is the demand may outstrip the supply depending on the swine flu’s virulence. More common antiviral drugs are also available but they’re not exactly definitive cures. They serve to weaken the symptoms and give you a fighting chance and prevent some of the worse flu symptoms like diarrhea and vomiting.

So as the world waits and watches the situation in Mexico, it would be a good idea to take a few precautions. Regular hand washes and vitamins can help make sure you avoid the initial infection of the swine flu. Avoiding pork’s not needed though. Swine flu can’t be transmitted through food. Remember to just a take a few preventive measures and you can come through clean and healthy.

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.