Swine Flu – What you should know
All newspapers are full of articles on Swine Flu or Mexican Flu, but what is the virus and what are the risks for us, Europeans? What are the symptoms? How should we protect ourselves? Is there a vaccination?
First of all, it must be said that the H1N1 Virus, also known as Swine flu, is very dangerous. The Virus is said to have its origin in Mexico and causes a lung disease for Swines, hence the name Swine Flu, and now it got transmitted from Swines to people. It is a highly contageous virus that is mostly transmitted by coughing, sneezing and human contact. If you want to protect yourself, wash your hands with soap or alcohol-based gel because it reduces the risk of viral infection, keep your hands in front of your mouth while coughing and sneezing and maybe wear a medical mask if you are in close contact with many different people.
The symptoms of the disease are very similar to the ones of normal influenza: fever, body aches, coughing, chills, trouble breathing, and vomiting and/or diarrhea. At the moment, the World Health Organization is working on a vaccine but this can take some months. Meanwhile, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention advises to use the medicines Tamiflu or Relenza in case of contamination. Normal influenza shots like influvax are said to have no effect on Swine flu.
There are already some cases of possible flu in Spain but none of them has been proven to be Mexican Flu. Trinidad Jiménez of the Spanish Health department also confirmed that Spain is prepared for this and has enough medication. But the Spanish gouvernment, along with many other European countries, discourages people to go to Mexico if its not necessary!
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the use of face masks and boosting your immune system by taking lots of vitamin-C is still an effective way of preventing the spread of the Swine Flu virus.
i always advice my kids to wear face masks when going into crowded areas. swine flu is really scary and i dont want my kids getting infected by it.
I have a relative who got the Swine Flu in Mexico. It is a good thing that he already recovered from this disease.
The media do seem to be hyping this up, myself and some friends had swine flu and while it was not a nice experience the symptoms were fairly mild.
I agree about the media – I travel back and forth to Mexico on a monthly basis. The Swine flu is nasty but, so is the hell we go through in Europe every winter. Flu is nasty full stop. There are various strains of it of which, this is just one.
I wish people would grow up and stop being so silly about things. Be careful, be aware but stop being stupid.
My brother got infected with H1N1 or Swine Flu in Mexico. He got a mild fever and luckily he did not die.
If you look at the pandemic of 1977, when H1N1 or Swine Flu re-emerged after a 20 year absence, there is no shift in age-related mortality pattern. The 1977 “pandemic” is, of course, not considered a true pandemic by experts today, for reasons that are not entierely consistent. It certainly was an antigenic shift and not an antigenic drift. As far as I have been able to follow the current events, the most significant factor seems to have been that most people, who were severely affected, were people with other medical conditions.
i think that in asian countries the Swine Flu did not spread rapidly compared to those countries that are located in colder climates. we should still be very thankful that the swine flu did not cause massive infections.