Swine Flu Outbreak

Right back in February 1976, a 19 yrs old, Army recruit Pvt. David Lewis of Ashley Falls, Mass. complained to his drill sergeant that he felt very tired and weak but not sick. 24 hrs later, he was dead, killed by what health officials disclosed as “Swine Flu”. Such deadly influenza was last seen in the “Great Plague” of 1918-19 which took almost 20 million lives worldwide. With that disaster in mind, everybody started considering “Swine Flu” as a big scare and epidemic. Apparently, no one could trace where the virus came from back then. Except for Pvt David Lewis, there were no other casualties however his few colleagues did catch the flu, still they remained unharmed. The virus and the story ended with that. Now guess what? “Swine Flu” is back again and it’s bigger and better, so to speak.

So what exactly is “Swine Flu”?

Basically, when pigs get influenza or flu, it is said to be a “Swine Flu”. According to a reliable resource, Swine Flu viruses often does not infect people. The few rare human cases that have occurred in the past have mainly affected people who had direct contact with pigs. So it was not as dangerous as it looked like. Perhaps not. But this swine flu virus has behaved differently. It’s actually spreading from person to person irrelevant of whether the person infected was in contact with pigs or not. Apparently it all started in Mexico and then moved onto United States, Canada, United Kingdom and even Australia. There have been some suspected cases reported in South America and one confirmed case in Moskva, Russia. If you are wondering how it is spreading, well you can pick up germs directly from the infected person. Sneeze, cough or even by touching an object they recently touched. It becomes airborne when the infected person send the germs into air, when coughed or sneezed without the mouth being covered.

“Swine Flu” has caused many deaths in Mexico which apparently has been worst effected. Both in UK and USA, there have been various reported and confirmed cases of Swine Flu, however big majority of people survived the flu in those countries. Researhers have no clue why effected Mexican were not able to survive this flu while most effected Americans did. Of course the research has been going on and some reason or other will come up soon.

I really believe you should know the symptoms of “Swine Flu” and keep up to date with the latest on this deadly virus. Apparently the symptoms are almost similar to other regular flu symptoms. It includes fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills, and fatigue. It is also reported that Diarrhea and vomiting are associated with “Swine Flu”. Now what worries everyone is that such symptoms are common for every kind of flu. And neither you, nor your doctor can easily tell you whether you have Swine Flu or not. The doctor has to send a sample for lab test in order to ascertain the disease.

It’s always better to take precaution rather than find a cure. The advised precaution are to wash your hand with soap on a regular basis, specially after sneezing or coughing. You may want to use some alcohol based hand cleaner for that matter. You should also avoid getting too close to sick people and of course avoid touching your mouth, nose or eyes at least when you are not at home. As for the treatment, may people who were infected by this virus, recovered fully without any medicines or treatment. However it is suggested that antiviral drugs like Tamiflu and Relenza should be taken within 48 hours when the symptoms develop. These medicines treat or prevent swine flu. However there is no vaccination for “Swine Flu” as on yet. Since it is a totally new form of virus, therefore the vaccinations should be out within few months. And in case you have been vaccinated already with this season’s flu vaccine and you think you won’t get this swine virus, well, think again! The vaccines does not have any fighting power against these new viruses.

One more thing. You cannot get infected with “Swine Flu” if you eat Pork, Bacon or any pig product. However i would say, what’s the rush? Why take chances anyways?..

Alright, so that is all things important that i knew about “Swine Flu”. If you are wondering why have i written such an article then here is the reason. My father is a Doctor and it is important for him, professionally, to keep up to date with all such diseases specially with flu and viruses outbreak. So, today, early morning, i researched lot of reputable websites in order to find information on this influenza. When i was done with it, i felt the need of spreading to message to everyone. If even few of you read this article on “Swine Flu”, I’ll believe my hard work on this research has been paid off. Just don’t forget to spread the message to as many people as possible. Tweet it, Digg it or mail it or just word of mouth. I will be happy with anything! 🙂

Please Note: It is also important to mention that my research has been from reputable websites like Wikipedia.com, WebMD.com and Google.com. So i think the article is pretty accurate as far as symptoms, stats and treatment is concerned. However you might want to double check it again! Thanks

Google Maps is being updated regularly with people who are suspects or have been confirmed for “Swine Flu”. It also marks the areas where cases have resulted into deaths. The legends used for your convenience are : Yellow for those who tested negative, Pink for suspects, Purple for confirmed cases and markers with no dots in between are death cases.