The swine flu is about to strike. At the same time, countless people line up for a chance to take the H1N1 vaccine. But do they really need to? What is the problem with the swine flu and who should take the vaccine?

H1N1 is a new strain of virus against which our body has never fought and, thus, has no defenses. This means that the likelihood of serious complications is greater, especially in young people. This is what makes it different from the common flu.

The vaccine was developed using the same technology used to develop a new vaccine for the flu every year. It is as safe as the standard flu vaccine, though with so many people wanting a shot it has quickly shown to be less available.

Most people infected with the swine flu will have no complications at all and need no hospitalization. However, certain groups of people are at increased risk of developing serious complications, and those groups should be the first to take the vaccine.

Children and pregnant women are the first in line. Children have an immature defense system and are the least likely to have ever fought the virus, thus they are the least prepared. Pregnant women not only have a depressed immune system, but they carry the responsibility of two lives instead of one. And because the virus spreads so easily, people who live or work with either of these groups are also recommended to take the vaccine, in order to protect them.

Health care professionals are also recommend to take the vaccine. This is not only to protect themselves (as they will be more exposed to infected people) but, most importantly, to protect their patients.

Finally, young people with chronic conditions, especially mental and respiratory diseases, should also take the vaccine. This is because they already have less defenses or a weakened respiratory track and because they are least likely to prevent or identify the disease in time.

If you belong to any of these groups, then you should take the vaccine. If not, you can wait until supplies are more readily available, because you are very unlikely to suffer any problem resulting from the flu. And if you already had the swine flu, there is no need for the vaccine at all.

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The flu is an airborne disease. But this does not mean that viruses are floating around in the air and there is nothing you can do to stop them. In fact, the influenza virus is very fragile and does not survive in the air for long – it needs to land quickly or it will die.

This presents a valuable opportunity to prevent the disease. Why worry about drugs and symptoms if you can avoid the illness completely?

* Avoid touching things that many people touch, such as doors, buses and subways, or the virus will jump to your hands. Most people who have the flu have virus infested hands and anywhere they touch will be contaminated.

* Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth, or the virus in your hands will infect you jumping right inside your body.

* Wash your hands frequently. This will not kill the virus; however it will wash it away and leave your hands virus-free. Use simple soap and water (remember that the goal is not to kill the virus) and only use alcohol based scrubs when soap is not available. I hope you are starting to grasp the importance of your hands by now.

* When you cough, cover your mouth with your arm instead of your hand to avoid contemning yourself with your own viruses. If the virus stays in your arm it will not contaminate surfaces, nor will you re-infect yourself. How many times do you touch with your arm in anything as compared to your hands?

* Avoid handshakes and kisses. Kisses are like a rapid way for virus transmission. And handshakes just skip the need for a contaminated surface.

* If you have symptoms, stay at home. This may not help you, but it will help others.

* Use paper tissues and throw them away as soon as you use them. You don’t want virus growing there that will pass to your hands and re-infect you later when you finally decide to throw the tissue away.

* Avoid public spaces, especially crowded spaces where the virus can use the air to jump from person to person before dying.

The most important thing to keep in mind is your hands. Watch them and they will watch for your health.

The flu is a very common disease. And the swine flu threatens to become common as well. It is important that you recognize when you need emergency medical care and when you don’t, or you will be clogging the system. And if people are clogging the system, when you really need emergency care you won’t get it in time.

The symptoms of the swine flu are the same as with the normal flu: fever, sore throat, runny nose, body aches… The main difference may be in the intensity of the symptoms and in the appearance of symptoms different from those you usually have when you have the flu (for example, diarrhea if you usually don’t have it when with the flu).

The main complication of the flu is pneumonia. Pneumonia happens by bacterial proliferation inside your lungs. These bacteria, along with the dead remains of your own cells, clog the alveoli and stop oxygen from reaching the blood. This causes breathlessness which, along with pallor, fast heart pace and short breath should prompt you to search for emergency medical care as soon as possible. Pneumonia is a serious disease that kills hundreds of thousands of people per year, so you should respect it.

Another important symptom is nausea, especially if accompanied by vomiting. This can also lead to dehydration and any sign of dehydration is another indication to seek emergency care: dizziness, absence of urination, lack of tears when crying.

Seizures should prompt you to seek emergency care in any situation, but especially so in the flu. They can signal that the brain is being affected somehow, which is a serious matter because brain lesions do not recover.

Finally, in children you want to look for specific signs: unresponsiveness, confusion, lack of tears when crying, intolerance to any type of food, and not wanting to play are all serious signs.

There is no need to rush to the ER as soon as you detect a runny nose. However, if you or someone you know experiences any of these symptoms, you should seek emergency medical care.

If you are pregnant, the flu is especially dangerous. Not only is it linked to increased risk of abortion, premature birth and death of the mother, but even in survivors it has been linked to congenital diseases and mental problems later in the life of the child. What should you know about H1N1 if you are pregnant?

First of all, if you get any flu symptoms you should contact your doctor. The flu when you are pregnant is not a disease to toy with. For the same reason, even if you don’t have symptoms, if you are in contact with someone with the flu (such as other children, your husband, or in your work) you should also seek medical advice.

The other main thing to care about is preventing the flu. This virus is spread by contact with infected surfaces through your hands (that you later take to your mouth, eyes or nose). For that reason it is important to avoid crowded places, touching public objects, and handshaking. For the same reason, you should wash your hands frequently with simple soap and water (or alcohol, only if soap is not available).

As for the vaccine, the CDC recommends you take it. The H1N1 flu shot is made in the very same way that all other flu vaccines have been made over the years (because it is the same virus). This process has been shown to cause no harm in pregnant women and it can prevent a serious disease, so there really is no reason not to take it. If you have doubts, seek council from your doctor.

And because it is better to prevent, stock your house with emergency supplies, such as pain medication and food. If you get infected, don’t leave the house except if your doctor tells you to. This will not only allow your body to rest and fight the disease better, but it will prevent the spread of H1N1.

The flu is a serious disease, especially in pregnant women. But if you keep an eye out for dangerous situations and symptoms, you will have no problems but to chose what color to paint the baby’s room.

Swine flu is nothing more than flu. There is essentially no difference between the different seasonal flu viruses and the swine flu virus. They are all influenza and they all vary in the same components. So what is all the fuss about swine flu?

The flu virus, influenza, is a very deceptive creature. It has two important proteins that allow it to infect cells – one binds to cells allowing the virus to infect them (hemagglutinin) and the other allows the virus to escape from infected cells in order to infect other cells (neuraminidase). These two proteins are also the ones targeted by your defense mechanisms and by doctors.

However, the virus is not stupid and it is constantly changing these proteins. So this year you are infected by a certain strain of flu, let’s say H5N2 (which has hemagglutinin type 5 and neuraminidase type 2). Your body develops defenses against H5 and N2. You are happy, because you know you won’t be infected by H5N2 again, because your body will not even allow the virus to enter cells.

But next year a new strain reaches your body, this time H4N2. Your body is unprepared – the flu won’t be much intensive because you already have defenses against N2, but you will still suffer some symptoms due to H4.

Because we have been exposed to many types of H and N, most of the times our flu is mild and goes away easily. The problem happens when a virus which has a type of H and N against which you have never fought reaches your body.

That is the case with H1N1, the swine flu. The vast majority of the population (old people excluded) has never been exposed to neither H1 nor N1, which have not been around for tenths of years. Because of this, their body cannot react against this infection before it reaches alarming proportions with destruction of a large part of your lungs.

So you see, there is nothing really special about swine flu. The problem is in our own bodies – in the fact that we have never met this virus before and are, therefore, unprepared. For our bodies, swine flu is the same as a new disease. Fortunately for us, flu is a very old disease and medicine is more than ready to face this threat.

The flu is an airborne virus. This means you can catch the flu just by breathing infected air.

However, there is no reason to be alarmed, because the virus does not survive for long in the air. Instead, it needs to rest on surfaces such as your hand, food, door handles, and other objects. The real danger is not in the virus floating around – it is in the virus that rests in convenient places where it can jump to your hand and then to your mouth.

Imagine the following scenario. A person infected with influenza coughs, but covers her mouth with her hands. The virus is propelled from the throat through the hair and lands on her hands. There the virus can survive. A few minutes later, she pushes a door to enter a bar and a few viruses jump to that door. Then another costumer enters the very same bar, using his hands to push the same door and some of the viruses stick to his hand. Later on that day, the guy scratches his nose with his hand and voila – the virus jumps to this new host and infects him.

The hands are the main vehicle of transmission for the influenza virus. It is for this reason that the main recommendation to prevent H1N1 is to wash your hands frequently. Washing your hands does not kill the virus, because it cannot be killed. Instead, it washes the virus away (and it eventually dies on its own), leaving your hands clean and free of contaminants.

Because the objective is not to kill the virus, you don’t need to use disinfectants. A good soap will do the trick and it doesn’t kill native bacteria necessary for a healthy skin. Only use alcohol-based scrubs when you don’t have soap and water.

Another important measure to prevent transmission is using your arm to cover your mouth when you cough instead of your hands. Avoid touching things that many people touch and throughout the day avoid moving your hands to your mouth, eyes, or nose.

Avoiding the flu is not easy. But there is also no need to panic – though the virus is airborne it is rarely transmitted by air alone. Watch your hands and you will be safer than most.

Vaccines are often heralded has a panacea, a promise of healing before disease even strikes. However, this is not true for flu vaccines, especially for the H1N1, or swine flu, vaccine, which was met with a wealthy (not healthy) dose of criticism.

The reason why flu vaccines don’t always work is because the virus is constantly mutating. A vaccine allows your body to block linkage between the virus and your cells, preventing it from infecting your body. However, the protein in the virus responsible for doing this link is constantly changing and you may be immune against a certain strain of virus and be infected by another.

For H1N1 a further problem was posed – this is a new vaccine, so how can you be sure it is safe? Well, flu vaccines are new every year. The technology used to make them has been proven to work and to be safe, so there is no need to validate each individual vaccine. Remember that a new flu vaccine is made every year containing the strains most likely to cause disease that year.

There is no more reason to fear H1N1 vaccine than there is to fear the annual flu vaccine – they are made in the same way using a valid technology.

A major concern is about the vaccine and pregnant women. Some pregnant women are afraid of the vaccine because it was linked to an increased likelihood of autism in newborns. However, I have two things to remind you: the flu is more serious on pregnant women, being more likely to kill both mother and child, and even if it doesn’t kill, the flu has been linked to mental diseases later in life for the fetus, a stronger link than that between the vaccine and autism.

In the end, deciding whether or not to take the vaccine should be your choice. You should weigh the risks and benefits and though I recommend you ask your doctor for advice, the decision should be yours.

The swine flu, H1N1, is getting ready to strike full force. As more and more people grow careless, the virus spreads its evil tentacles and prepares to launch a frightening pandemic that threatens to cause severe social, health and economic consequences.

This particular strain of virus is concerning health care professionals because of its behavior. Not only is this a new strain against which most bodies are not prepared to fight, but the virus has continued to grow during the summer, when influenza viruses are supposed to lie dormant. Doctors are concerned with a viral boom when the climate is appropriate for its propagation and children’s summer break ends and the return to school halls, the perfect spreading vehicle for the virus.

And while countless people wait in line for their chance to take the flu shot, the medical profession is unarmed to fight against this virus. If you are infected, all doctors can do is help your body, they cannot kill the virus directly. Instead, the best action is to prevent the virus from spreading, which can only be done if each and every single person collaborates. That means you. If you want to avoid the flu, the best way is help stopping it.

Don’t forget that you have an obligation towards society even if you choose to ignore your own safety. If you don’t follow prevention recommendations it is not only your health that you are putting at risk but everyone else’s. In today’s world, filled with airplanes, intercontinental traveling and world-wide trade, a careless individual represents a threat to the entire world.

Do avoid public places. Do wash your hands and cover your mouth when sneezing. Do stay at home if you have flu symptoms. Do make sure your children follow these recommendations as well. Are these measures really that much of a trouble when compared with the risks of the disease?

Who knows, maybe you will be a part of the first ever successful containment of a flu pandemic.

The flu is in the news. Not because anyone really cares about people with body aches or fever. What makes this swine flu news-worthy is that it kills. Or better put, it leads to pneumonia which kills. But how, you ask?

The influenza virus, responsible for the flu, infects cells in your respiratory system. It enters these cells and uses the cells’ own mechanisms to produce copies of itself. When the cell is filled with influenza viruses, the virus triggers a chain of reactions that lead to that cell’s death. The cell bursts open and the viruses are released to infect other cells.

Progressively, your respiratory cells die and your lungs are filled with dead cells. This has two dangerous consequences. These cells were supposed to protect your body but they are no longer there, so bacteria can easily cross that barrier into the blood and tissue beneath. But more importantly, the dead cells are excellent food for microbes.

Bacteria thrive in the remnants of your cells and as more cells die of influenza, more food there is for bacteria. And the bacteria grow, attracting your aggressive white cells. These cells will swarm to your lungs, releasing deadly substances that clog the fine tubes that compose your respiratory system.

As more lung tissue is clogged, less air reaches the blood and people start feeling breathless. That is the terrible fate of untreated pneumonia – people die by drowning as less and less oxygen reaches the blood and cells all around the body die of energy shortage.

You can see why the seemingly insignificant flu worries so much health care professionals. Picture a scenario where you body has no clue how to fight the specific virus infecting it. How much destruction could that virus cause that would feed bacteria?

That scenario is precisely what is currently happening with the swine flu, H1N1, a strain of virus our bodies have not encountered in the last tenths of years. And if we are not careful, the pneumonia-causing pneucomcocci will strike.

I received this great article that illustrates the importance of dental hygiene to prevent the flu and the spread of disease. We all know that brushing your teeth is important for your teeth but in fact good dental hygiene is important to your health, especially now that it is flu season.

Of the hundreds of stories that were written last year offering counsel on how to avoid illness, how many did you read that suggested taking plenty of Vitamin C, washing your hands regularly and getting plenty of rest? How many stories told you that proper diet and exercise could boost your immunity? Finally, how many stories told you that your bleeding gums and spotty brushing habits could be making you sick? If the mouth is the gateway to the body, why does no one remind you to increase security? Read the rest of this entry »