Swine FluJust another Totalaccessnet.com Blogs weblog

Swine flu is an illness which derives its name from a virus that infects

pigs. While the virus cannot affect people, they are likely to get an

infection from time to time. The virus is communicable and can be

transmitted from one person to another.

The symptoms of swine flu are like those manifested in a regular flu and

may include cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, fever, chills and

fatigue.

The H1N1 virus continues to become widespread in the United States. The

Center for Disease Control believes that the number of cases,

hospitalizations, and deaths will continue within the coming days and

weeks.

The Center for Disease Control is aggressively responding to the growing

outbreak. The objective of the agency is to curb the spread and severity of

the illness as well as to inform health care providers, public health

officials, and the general public to fend off the challenge by the medical

crisis. Likewise, the CDC is giving interim guidance on a daily basis as a

response to the rapidly growing crisis.

For treating swine flu, there are antiviral medicines that can be

administered. So far, oseltamivir, amantadine, rimantadine, and zanamivir

are the approved drugs for swine influenza treatment in the United States.
However, amantadine and rimantadine will not work against swine flu as the

H1N1 virus was found to be resistant against these medicines. Laboratory

procedures, on the other hand, have proven that H1N1 is susceptible to

oseltavimir and zanavimir.

Using antiviral drugs in the treatment of swine influenza works by making

your illness milder and making you feel relieved earlier than expected.

Aside from that, antiviral medicines prevent the onset of serious

complications.

Antiviral medicines are most effective when administered after the onset of

the illness usually within a couple of days. However, it should be

considered two days after the onset of symptoms, especially for

hospitalized patients or those at greater risk for influenza-related

complications.

Administration of anti viral drugs is also useful in preventing influenza

when given to an individual who is not sick but has exposed to a person

with swine influenza.

It can reduce the possibility of infection by 70% to 90%. The duration of

intake will be determined by the condition of the patient. Currently, there

are no accessible vaccines for protecting against H1N1.

In order to keep yourself from getting infected by the virus, here are some

of the things that can be done:

- Keep yourself informed about H1N1. You can visit the official website of

the World Health Organization or check brochures from local hospitals or

medical facilities. 
- Since the influenza virus can be transmitted from one person to another

through coughing or sneezing, you can keep yourself busy by doing the

following:
 
- When coughing or sneezing, cover your nose and mouth with a tissue. After

using the tissue, dispose of it and throw it in the trash.
- Wash your hands with soap and water after coughing and sneezing. Use

alcohol-based hand sanitizers whenever necessary.
- To prevent germs from spreading, refrain from touching your eyes, mouth,

or nose.
- If you become ill, the CDC recommends that you avoid contact with other

people at work or school so as not to infect them.
- Comply with public health advice concerning school closures, crowd

avoidance, and social distancing efforts.

As far as swine flu is concerned, health authorities are doing everything

they can to prevent the outbreak of another deadly virus.

Majority of the readers in any search engine are looking of anything under

the sun.  They are looking about animation, love, pornography, showbiz,

politics, cartoons, masquerade, games, cards, download materials, travel

and leisure, heartache, etc.  They are more familiar of the mentioned

topics, but are they aware of the recent pandemics that outbreaks the

world?  What?  The pandemics! What? The Swine Flu! Swine or pigs, then Flu

means respiratory infections. 

So, a simple man will ask: “Am I interested with the Swine Flu outbreak?

There’s no flu-like in my community, even I, doesn’t have a swine flu, we

don’t have pigs in our community, why should we afraid of the swine flu?

Why should I know about that? Should I know to prevent the swine flu?”

The answer is: “Even if, there’s no swine flu in your community, you must

know how to prevent that kind.”  This article, will teach you the basic

steps on how to prevent the Swine Flu virus in a very simplest way.

First, washing our hands frequently using any germicidal soap with water

can help us prevent with the spreading virus especially if we suspected

someone.  If you don’t have available germicidal soap in the area, you can

use alcohol-based hand sanitizer.  Either if you are using soap or hand

sanitizer, you must follow this steps: connects your two palms facing each

other, rub them horizontally, vertically then squeeze each other throughout

your fingers.  Do it for five to six times a day. 

Secondly, you must cover your nose with a tissue paper before you deliver a

cough and sneeze especially if you are talking to somebody else.  Throw

your tissue in the trash can after you use it, so that transfer of the

virus coming from your respiratory will be avoided.

Third, if you are not feeling well avoid going out to your friends,

playground, schools and offices, much better you have to stay in your house

and quarantine yourself for three to four days.

Fourth, avoid hugging or kissing at any public occasions instead gesture

your hands and smile at each other until the Swine Flu Outbreak diminish.

Fifth, if you suspected yourself of a possible flu-like virus, you better

report to your nearest Health Officer in the community for proper

diagnostic.  (Note: if you suffered fever, sore throat and cough for more

than two days, don’t hesitate to go to your Health Officer, its better to

check as early as possible than to die early).

Sixth, there are a number of things that you can do in preparing yourself

and those around you for a flu pandemic.  It is important to think of it

the challenges that you might face, particularly if a pandemic is severe.

Seventh, for assurance in planning for the impact of a Swine Flu virus on

you, your family and your business, go to your Health Officer for more

information about swine flu careers from individuals, families, and your

workplace, and for information directed from schools, health care

providers, community organizations and governments

Aside from your own Swine Flu prevention, there are some government

agencies such as the Department of Health, Department of Education and the

Department of National Defense to help us strengthen our immune system and

detect a possible Swine Flu in our community.  Planning and preparation can

be lessened the effects of a pandemic if do it ahead of time.

Vaccine against seasonal influenza strain H1N1 is not believed to protect

us.  Vaccines against the Swine Flu to cope with seasonal flu to minimize

infection rates are typically developed, and yet annually it still kills

around half a million of the world’s population.  Today, they use an

injection of “killed virus”, the world’s flu vaccines.  Manufacturers are

asked to produce a vaccine for H1N1, they are unlikely to be able to

respond quickly enough if a global pandemic is declared.

About a billion doses of any one vaccine each year is the only they can

produce, so that even if all the capacity was switched to fight a pandemic

flu, as opposed to a seasonal flu.  Few years ago, the supply of the

vaccines they have produced were enough to epidemic but now is not enough

for the total population’s outbreak.

Deadlier wave of a new H1N1 strain they forecast will reappear this fall

and they have to produce pandemic vaccines as early as now to prepare for a

turn out as the vaccine may not be as effective will be sure to a big waste

of resources with serious results, and there would also be a shortage of

seasonal flu vaccine available.  Only a few more weeks were needed for the

World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention) CDC to develop a “seed strain” of the pandemic virus on the

first days May, but producers would then need four to six months before

they could create large volumes of vaccine.

In other point of view, the WHO will attempt to make sure that a

substantial amount is available and should a pandemic be declared and a

vaccine produced, for the benefit of developing countries.  Vaccine

manufacturers and countries with standing orders, such as the U.S. and some

European countries will be asked to share with developing countries from

the moment the first batches are ready if an H1N1 vaccine is made.

2009-2010 flu seasons are ineffective against the new strain with the

previous influenza vaccines for the north and south hemispheres.  The WHO

claims that two separate immunizations will be required for seasonal and

swine flu, but no decision would be made on whether to begin producing a

swine flu vaccine.  The board will receive inputs from manufacturers (e.g.

GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis and Baxter International)

regarding when they are able to finish manufacturing the seasonal shot and

begin production of the swine flu vaccine, waiting from the WHO of their

recommendations and “seed virus”, and some may be ready to proceed with

production at that time.

There also antiviral drugs available for treatments of influenza, the virus

is resistant to amantadine and rimantadine but sensitive to the oseltamivir

and zanamivir.  There remains concern that this strain may mutate develop

resistance to oseltamivir in the future.  For the treatment and prevention

of the Swine Flu, the CDC recommended the use of Tamiflu (oseltamivir) and

Relenza (zanamivir).  Studies shows that the medication continues to

maintain its effective that why the U.S. government had already extended

the shelf life of federally stockpiled Tamiflu from their original five

years to seven years.

Buying medications from online sources is not recommended by the WHO

because they believed that half of the drugs they sold are counterfeited. 

Others are thinking if they grab up antiviral drugs for their safe even if

they have no symptoms, the health officials warned them may eventually lead

them to the Swine Flu virus developing drug resistance.

With the new strain of influenza running around, I think everyone should

know a few things. The thing is with any disease, even the swine flu, is

it’s not the disease that really kills you. It’s ignorance that does it.

You have to know enough to take care of yourself.

One of the things you have to remember is that influenza is spread via

germs, and germs are spread via contact with contaminated items then

contact with either your eyes, nose, or mouth. Germs can’t get through the

pores of your skin and need a convenient opening to get into. Don’t give

them that opening. There’s a simple and easy way to do it: just wash your

hands regularly, especially before eating anything or touching anything

that you want to eat – like that tasty sandwich you’re about to have for a

snack

It may seem rather simplistic but the regular act of rinsing and

disinfecting your hands can help make sure that you never get infected with

the swine flu. Another way to avoid infection is to avoid close contact

with sick people. Remember germs can also be transmitted by air though

microscopic droplets that are released when a person coughs or sneezes.

Standing around sick people increases the chance of infection so try to

avoid doing that, mostly because you can’t avoid touching stuff that

they’ve sneezed on and those germs can go directly into your nose and mouth

when you inhale.

So what if you suddenly get the sniffles? Is it time to hie off to the

doctor for a consult? The smart thing to do is to just stay at home first

and monitor your condition. The problem with identifying the swine flu is

that it shares many of the same symptoms as the normal run-of-the-mill

human flu: coughs, colds, fevers and the whole nine yards. Take the usual

medicine at first and see if you settle down after that.

The over-the-counter antiviral drugs aren’t as effective on swine flu as

human flu but they can make you feel a whole lot better and rev up you

immune system to deal with your infection. You should also try your best to

limit the infection to yourself. Cover your mouth when sneezing or coughing

so as to prevent the spread of germs in your environment.

If your symptoms are taking too long to cure, you might be infected. Note

that swine flu is like the normal flu in that it manages to weaken your

immune system for other respiratory diseases like pneumonia and bronchitis

to spread. It can also worsen any conditions that you might currently have,

like asthma. If you start vomiting or start suffering from diarrhea, it’s

time to have the doctor drop by immediately.

Although it has caused a few deaths, the swine flu is nothing to worry

about. As long as it has been caught early, there is treatment available in

the form of antiviral inhibitors that help stop the virus from reproducing,

which should help make you feel a whole lot better.

The current situation may all seem a bit frightening, but the swine flu is

just a disease. All you need to protect yourself from it is to act smart

and be prepared. Hopefully, this information can help a bit and act as

theat ounce of prevention so you won’t have to use that pound of cure.

To discuss and make strong decisions to fight the widespread Swine Flu, the

World Health Organization set a meeting with the vaccine manufacturers

together with other health experts to stop the Swine Flu Outbreak. 

Different Pharmaceutical companies are ready to begin making a Swine Flu

vaccine — but as the virus may alter, there are questions formed:

How much should they have to produce? How will the government distribute

the vaccines to the infected areas? Who should get it, babies, youngsters,

adults, men, women, pregnant?

Most flu vaccine companies mentioned that they can only make one vaccine at

a time: either seasonal flu vaccine or pandemic vaccine.  Production takes

months and it is impossible to switch halfway through if health officials

make a mistake.  Vaccine makers can make limited amounts of both seasonal

flu vaccine and pandemic vaccine — though not at the same time — but they

cannot make massive quantities of both because that exceeds manufacturing

capacity.

Even if we are in the modern era, still the health officials have a big

problem to solve the spreading of deadly swine flu is, and whether they

will need more seasonal flu vaccine or swine flu vaccine.  Scientists are

not sure the effectiveness of a vaccine, if the swine flu will transmute. 

Only two billion doses of swine flu vaccine could be produced annually

based on the estimation of World Health Organization officials, though the

first batches wouldn’t be available for four to six months.

A “seed stock” to make the vaccine, which should be ready and it will be

distributed to manufacturers worldwide so they can start producing the

vaccine is now on the go as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention works on.  After the vaccine manufacturers get the seed stock,

they won’t know how many doses of vaccine they can make or how long that

would take.

Including vaccine producer, GlaxoSmithKline PLC, the World Health

Organization is under negotiation process to save some of their swine flu

vaccine for poorer nations.  A couple of years ago members of the rich

nations like United States, Switzerland, France, Denmark, Canada and

Britain signed deals with the vaccine makers to guarantee them pandemic

vaccines as soon as they’re available.

Cipla (The pharmaceuticals giant in India) instructed by the World Health

Organization to make a generic version of Tamiflu antiviral drug.  Tamiflu

also known as oseltamivir, one of the two antiviral drugs to treat the

Swine Flu.  Then WHO said Cipla’s generic version was more effective than

the original made by Swiss firm Roche Holding AG and would hopefully make

the drug more accessible to the third world countries.  As we all know that

Indian pharmaceuticals produce drugs in very affordable prices.

North America has been the hardest-hit continent for the Swine Flu virus

that kills two Americans from Texas (including a pregnant woman) and one in

Washington.  If the vaccine productions are enough to all suspected Swine

Flu carrier, it won’t happen again that a simple pregnant woman died

fighting the virus. 

Through this article, we will inform the public of an early planning and

prevention against Swine Flu for their safety.  Consult to the Health

Officers about planning and prevention against the virus.  According to an

unidentified source that one out of three Americans can only take the

Tamiflu.