Now a day all over the world people are suffering from swine flu so this disease is declared as a pandemic disease. This flu can preventable and successfully treatable by homeopathy medicine. The 2009 flu outbreak in humans is due to a new strain of influenza A virus subtype H1N1 that derives in part from human influenza, avian influenza, and two separate strains of swine influenza. The origins of this new strain are unknown. It passes with apparent ease from human to human, an ability attributed to an as-yet unidentified mutation. The strain in most cases causes only mild symptoms and the infected person makes a full recovery without requiring medical attention and without the use of antiviral medicines.

What is H1N1 (swine) flu?

H1N1 (referred to as 'swine flu' early on) is a new influenza virus causing illness in people. This new virus was first detected in people in the United States in April 2009. Other countries, including Mexico and Canada, have also reported people sick with this new virus. This virus is spreading from person-to-person, probably in much the same way that regular seasonal influenza viruses spread.

In late March and early April 2009, cases of human infection with swine influenza A (H1N1) viruses were first reported in Southern California and near San Antonio, Texas.

In the beginning it was difficult to predict the effect of this virus on general population. In seasonal flu, there are certain people who are at higher risk of serious flu-related complications. This includes people with 65 years of more age, children below five years, pregnant women, and people of any age with chronic medical conditions.

This virus is contagious but, at this time, it not known how easily the virus spreads between people. The symptoms of H1N1 swine flu in people are similar to the symptoms of regular human flu and include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Some people have reported diarrhoea and vomiting associated with H1N1 swine flu. Severe illness (pneumonia and respiratory failure) and even deaths have been reported with H1N1 swine flu infection. Like seasonal flu, H1N1 swine flu may cause a worsening of underlying chronic diseases.

Homeopaths are singularly confident about treating viral illness, including flu. There is a long history of successful management of serious acute infections with homeopathy, particularly the flu. Homeopathic medicine proved extremely effective in the management of the 1918 flu epidemic, and it will prove itself in any future flu pandemic, just as it does every winter in the treatment of that year's flu cases. The Spanish flu pandemic was a plague that exceeded the ravages of the Bubonic Plague of 1347 that killed a third of the European population. Worldwide the Spanish flu killed an estimated 40 million people. In some primitive cultures the death rate was 100 percent.

 Fortunately, many patients in the United States had access to homeopathic medical care. A report to the American Institute of Homeopathy in 1921 documented the dramatic success of homeopathy in the worst flu pandemic in history. The death rate of 24,000 flu cases under conventional medical care in that study was 28.2 percent, while the death rate of 26,000 cases treated with homeopathy was a nearly miraculous 1.05 percent. Similarly, many homeopathic physicians each reported treating thousands of patients with very few deaths.

1The most significant flu pandemic occurred in 1918/1919. The global mortality rate from the 1918/1919 pandemic is not known, but is estimated at 2.5 to 5% of those who were infected died. With 20% or more of the world population suffering from the disease to some extent, a case-fatality ratio this high would mean that about 0.5-1% or 50 million to 100 million people worldwide were killed. In 1957, an Asian flu pandemic infected some 45 million Americans and killed 70,000. Eleven years later, lasting from 1968 to 1969, the Hong Kong flu pandemic afflicted 50 million Americans and caused 33,000 deaths, costing approximately $3.9 billion. In 1976, about 500 soldiers became infected with swine flu over a period of a few weeks.

Signs and Symptoms:

* Difficulty in breathing or shortness of breath
* Pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen
* Sudden dizziness, sneezing, coughing
* Confusion
* Severe or persistent vomiting
* Flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough

Coughing, Diarrhea, Fever, Headache, Lack of appetite, Lethargy

Muscle aches, Nausea, Runny nose, Sore throat, Vomiting

Complications of Swine Flu as seen by Homeopathy:

* Pneumonia

* Bronchitis

* Sinus infections

* Ear infections

children, emergency warning signs  and symptoms :            
* Bluish or gray skin colour
* Not drinking enough fluids
* Severe or persistent vomiting
* Not waking up or not interacting
* Being so irritable that the child does not want to be held
* Flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough

Which of these swine flu medicines to take with Homeopathy?

If the patient has mild flu like symptoms (runny nose and watery eyes etc) but no other peculiar symptom but is anxious if it might be swine flu - think about  Aconitum napellus: This remedy is used for symptoms that come on very quickly and strongly especially at night along with fever and thirst alternating with chills.

If the flu patient is listless, prostrated, indifferent, has offensive diarrhoea and the parts rested upon feel sore and bruised - think about  Baptisia. Influenza with marked gastro-intestinal symptoms may need this remedy, especially when there are present putrid diarrhea stools.

Homeopathy swine Flu Prevention

For at least the past 125 years homeopathic practitioners have used the medicine Influenzinum as a flu preventive. Influenzinum is a homeopathic medicine made from flu viruses. A proprietary preparation is produced each year using the flu virus strains recommended by the World Health Organization for the year's vaccine production. The typical dosage is once per week for four weeks beginning in October or later, followed by another dose three weeks later.

Between the years 1918 and 1957 the preparation of Influenzinum was derived from samples of blood or nasal secretions taken from patients who contracted the flu during the deadly 1918 flu pandemic. Subsequent to 1957 Influenzinum preparations come from a homeopathic preparation of the yearly flu viruses chosen for the flu vaccine.

Homeopathic Flu Medicines, Natural Remedies for the Swine flu:

The two most frequently indicated homeopathic flu medicines over the past 100 years have been Gelsemium and Bryonia. There are significant differences in the symptom pictures of these two medicines that make it easy to decide which is the better fit. They are not the only medicines used to treat the flu, but between them they will probably fit the majority of cases.

SWINE FLU Homeopathy remedies:

Arsenicum album: For exhaustion and chills as well as restlessness and anxiety, watery runny nose, frequent sneezing and dry cough. The head feels very warm while the body is chilled

Allium cepa. Profuse catarrhal coryza; the nose runs freely, there is sneezing, irritability cough, for when the eyes water and sting, along with frequent

 

Apis mellifica: For fever which alternates between sweating and dry periods, flushing of the face, sore throat and swollen tonsils in conjunction with low thirst, pain in the ears and swollen eyelids.

Antimonium tart: For late night feelings of suffocation, mucous rattling in the lungs, strong frequent cough.

Baryta carbonica: For runny nose, swollen lymph nodes, tonsils, adenoids and lips.

Belladonna: For sudden and strong symptoms which can include fever, hot skin, flushed face and hypersensitivity to light as well as an inflamed sore throat, strong migraine, frequent cough and feeling of cold to the extremities.

Bryonia: For muscle aches, headache, frequent strong cough, stomach pains and a dry mouth with constant thirst.

The trouble here is largely bronchial and going down. When a person is very grumpy and feels miserable with the flu, wanting only to lie still and be left alone, this remedy is likely to be useful. Headache, muscles, aches, and cough or stomach pain may be the major symptoms. Everything feels worse from even the slightest motion. The person’s mouth usually is dry, with a thirst for long cold drinks.

Carbo veg: For throat roughness and rawness accompained by pain, hoarseness, evening cough and mucous.

Causticum: For cough at night or caused by stooping and accompanied by hip pain, painful throat, rattling in the chest, feeling of lack of air when talking or walking.

Chamomilla: For tightness of breath, dry cough at night, wheezing and rattling in the chest, hoarseness and raw throat.

Dulcamara: For nasal congestion and facial pain especially if the individual has a history of allergies.This is one of our best remedies in the acute form; the eyes are suffused, the throat is sore and the cough hurts because of the muscular soreness. If brought on by damp, cold changes in the weather, so much the surer is Dulcamara indicated. 

Euphrasia: For inflamed teary eyes, bouts of sneezing, cough from phlegm collecting in the throat and clear nasal discharge.

Ferrum phosphoricum: For reddened cheeks, migraine, tiredness and fever along with frequent dry cough, powerful thirst and vomiting after meals.

Kali bichromicum: For the later stages when it is hard to clear the throat from viscous stringy phlegm, strong coughing, and pain at the base of the nose.

Kali carb: For middle of the night coughing, hoarseness, sharp jabbing pains on the sides of the chest when breathing deeply.

Lycopodium: For forcible cough, especially at night or when breathing deeply, pressure and constriction of the chest.

Mercurius solubilis: For swollen lymph nodes, bad breath, tonsil or ear infection, sensitivity to temperature changes and sweating and drooling at night.

Natrum muriaticum: For migraine, attenuated sense of taste and smell, cold sores around the mouth, chapped or cracked lips and clear nasal mucous.

Nux vomica: For strong chills and nausea, digestive cramping, painful cough and forced breathing along with high fever, hypersensitivity to light, odors and sound.

Oscillococcinum (also called Anas barbariae): This one is generally regarded to be the number one product utilized for homeopathic flu remedies. It is widely used in Continental Europe, especially in France.

Phytolacca: For roughness and inflammation of the throat with dryness and soreness.

Phosphorus: For reddened face, dizzyness, weakness, migraine, sore throat with cough and a strong thirst followed by vomiting.

Pulsatilla: For thick, greenish yellow mucous, congestion and fever especially in the late evening and night.

Rumex: For throat irriation, inability to cough up mucous, pains in the centre of the lung which may be accompanied by rawness and burning.

Sabadilla. Sneezing is the great keynote of this remedy. Sneezing and lachrymation on going into the open air. The throat is swollen and the pain is worse on empty swallowing; the sneezing is excessive, shaking the whole body. Shudderings, with gooseflesh chills creeping upwards, are also prominent symptoms. Frontal headache, dryness of mouth, without thirst and cough, worse on lying down, are additional symptoms. It suits well many cases of the catarrhal form of flu; other remedies having sneezing are Cyclamen and E Sanguinaria nitrate is especially valuable when the trachea and larynx are affected. Phytolacca. Specific when the throat is inflamed and spotty, with great hardness and tenderness of the glands.

Spongia. For hoarseness with a feeling of burning or constriction in the throat, dry, frequent coughing, difficulty, and chest weakness.

Sticta pulmonaria. General confusion of ideas ; inability to concentrate them. Dull sensation in the head, with sharp, darting pains through the vertex, side of face, and lower jaw. Dull, heavy pressure in forehead, and root of nose. Catarrhal headache before the discharge sets in. Burning in eyelids, -with soreness of the ball in closing the lids or turning the eyes.

Sulphur: For long lasting or ongoing symptoms of a searing, hot origin with sweating.

Homeopathy Dosage Directions
Select the remedy that most closely matches the symptoms. In conditions where self-treatment is appropriate, unless otherwise directed by a physician, a lower potency (6X, 6C, 12X, 12C, 30X, or 30C) should be used

Links : www.drharshadraval.com

 

 

 

Dr Harshad Raval MD[hom]
Honorary consultant homeopathy physician to his Excellency governors of Gujarat India. Qualified MD consultant homeopath ,International Homeopathy adviser, books writer and columnist. Specialist in kidney, cancer, psoriasis, leucoderma and other chronic disease,. www.homeopathyonline.in email : info@homeopathyonline.in

Prevention of Spread of Swine Flu

Dr.Kedar Karki

 

In Mexico in April this year, a never-before heard strain of swine flu emerge, turning ill more than a thousand Mexicans and causing the death of 68. Swine flu has spread to other parts of the world such as the US and New Zealand when affected individuals (Mexicans or tourists to Mexico), traveled to those places. Swine flu has spread so far and wide that the World Health Organization fears it will bring about the next pandemic. A June 10, 2009 update by the U.N.'s World Health Organization (WHO) states that 74 countries have officially reported 27,737 cases of influenza A (H1N1) infection, including 141 deaths. In India till date 23 cases are being confirmed in city like Hyderabad, Bangalore, New Delhi, and Jallandhar in Punjab. Government of India is now thinking about suspension of air flight to U.S.A as most of confirmed cases in India have been detected from the persons who had recently traveled to U.S cities and had returned from there. WHO’s decision to raise the pandemic alert level to Phase 6 is a reflection of the spread of the virus, not the severity of illness caused by the virus.

This is not the first time the world is threatened by swine flu. Swine flu, which is also referred to as pigfluenza, hog flu, pig flu, or swine influenza, typically affects pigs only. In 1918, an H1N1 virus caused flu pandemic in humans. Scientists speculated that H1N1 was created either when human influenza virus crossed specie boundary and affected pigs, or the other way around.

In 1930, a study confirmed that influenza virus caused the illnesses of pigs; the viral strain was identified as H1N1. Other past outbreaks in humans include the 1976 US outbreak (number of deaths: 5) and the 1988 Wisconsin outbreak (number of deaths: 1).

 

2009 Swine Flu Outbreak

.

The strain that caused the swine outbreak in 2009, on the other hand, is different from other types of swine flu viruses before. It infects humans only. Pigs show no sign of infection. As such, scientists are having a difficult time establishing the origins of this new disease. The 2009 swine flu outbreak is caused by a strain that combines a single strain of human flu virus, a single strain of avian or bird flu virus, and two strains of swine flu virus.

Transmission

 

Swine flu virus in pig is transmitted when uninfected animals touch the nose or dried mucus of the infected pig.

Transmission of swine flu from pigs to humans occurs when a person touches an infected pig such as during animal transport or cleaning of pig pens. Swine flu is not acquired by eating pork.

Transmission of swine flu from human to human occurs when airborne viruses brought about by sneezing and coughing are inhaled by another person. Touching of contaminated surfaces and bringing one’s hand to one’s nose or mouth.

Symptoms

 

Symptoms of swine flu in humans are non-specific. They are quite similar to other types of influenza such as common flu and bird flu. People infected with swine flu often the following: Fever, chills, coughing and sneezing, sore throat, muscle pain, discomfort, fatigue, vomiting, and diarrhea.

 

In pigs, swine influenza virus cause:  fever, lethargy, decrease in appetite, abortion, sneezing, coughing, weight loss, poor growth. Difficulty breathing.

 

Because swine flu symptoms are non-specific, a laboratory taste of nose or throat swab is needed to confirm viral presence.

How to Prevent Spread of Swine Flu

 

Among swine: owners should implement facility management and management. Vaccinating the pigs may also help reduce the chances of spreading of the flu.

 

To prevent transmission of swine flu from pigs to humans, farmers, veterinarians, and other people who come in close contact with live pigs should wear masks and gloves when working with infected pigs.

Here are several steps to prevent the spread of the swine flu virus:

 

If you have flu symptoms, stay home from work or school to avoid spreading the disease. Do not return until two days after your symptoms are gone.

 

Cover your nose and mouth when you cough or sneeze, and wash your hands frequently.

 

Go to the hospital if you have severe symptoms such as difficulty breathing. If your symptoms are mild, stay home to avoid spreading the virus to others at the hospital.

 

Masks may be recommended for health care workers, family members and others who come in close contact with swine flu patients, but there is no need for the general public to wear masks.

 

It is safe to eat properly handled pork. Cook it to an internal temperature of at least 160 degrees.

 

At the moment, only Tamiflu and Relenza seem to work against swine flu. Many countries have a supply of these vaccines, though not enough to curb a pandemic if the current swine flu reaches that level.

Senior Vet.Officer,Central Veterinary Laboratory Kathmandu Nepal M.V.St. Preventive Veterinary Mrdicine

Swine Flu – Alternative Medicine Solutions

Swine flu cases are set to grow exponentially over the next few months. The chief medical officers have been predicting and warning us all about a flu pandemic for a number of years now. This flu not only brings the same aches and pains but comes with a ‘cytokine storm’ that causes symptoms that may lead to pneumonia. This may be fatal so all asthmatics beware. This time the warnings are real.

In this article I will set out some natural medicines you should be taking to stop getting infected by swine flu and also some remedies to treat it if you do. All of these suggestions are based on modern scientific research. However, if you suspect you have swine flu you must go to your doctor to be on the safe side, especially if you are having breathing difficulties and having chest pain. Best thing overall is to try and make yourself less susceptible. In pandemics like this, large groups of people do not get infected as there are less susceptible.

There are more than 200 viruses that can cause the common cold and flu, and usually the signs of infection strike, 18 to 24 hours after the virus enter the body. So here are some very simple and effective ways of both boosting your immunity so we escape infection and self-treatment if you do catch the swine flu. These will help bring about a quicker recovery. All natural medicine interventions must focus on not only boosting the immune system but rather a balance between stimulating the immunity and reducing the production of cytokines causing a storm and its harmful life threatening effects.

What Is Swine Flu?

Swine flu is the flu that is causing the latest flu pandemic worldwide. The flu is a respiratory disease that affects pigs. However it is now affecting humans at massive levels. Flu normally affects vulnerable people like the very young and old however swine flu attacks the healthy person – the 18 to 50s section of the world. One disturbing feature of this virus is that it causes a ‘cytokine storm’ in the body. A cytokine is a biochemical that normally responds to infections and directs the immune system. However in swine flu they are over produced causing harm to the body organs and causing fluid to build in the lungs. As well as all the regular flu symptoms such as headaches, aches, pneumonia can also develop as a result of swine flu.

The Cytokene Storm – Damage Control

The cytokine storm that is created by the body in response to the swine flu is caused by the swine flu being unaffected by the body’s immune response. This causes an over production of cytokines ( TFN-a and IL-6) by the body. This is what killed many people during the Spanish flu in 1918 in the USA. Foods such as; honey, chocolate, spirulena algae and particularly elderberry need to be avoided as they increase the production of cytokines in the body. Try and drink lots of apple, lemon and cranberry juice who have all shown an ability to decrease cytokine production in the body. . Cut out all mucous forming especially diary foods as the respiratory system is the virus breeding ground.

So it’s not just the virus you have to watch out for it’s actually the cytokine storm. The more people that become aware of this the better for both its treatment and outcomes.

Natural Medicine

Natural medicine has been practiced for centuries and moreover in the prevention of disease as well as the treatment of it. Over 80% of the world use herbal medicine as the first method of medical treatment. Natural medicine has been used very successfully when there has been a major health crisis taking place. Especially during the Spanish flu epidemic where you had a better survival rate if you went to a homeopathic hospital

Neurominidase Blockers

The swine flu virus needs neurominidase enzyme in order to replicate. An enzyme is a biological catalyst. The first thing you must do is to decrease you susceptibility to the virus. In order to do this a vitamin and mineral supplement is necessary as part of your diet. Drink the juices of apple, lemon and cranberry juice. Vitamin C and vitamin E has been shown to reduce flu virus loads and also a reduction in cytokines by blocking neurominidase. Green tea has also a very good effect in reduction of cytokine production.

Vitamin Supplements

You should also be taking a proper vitamin and mineral supplement to guard you against flu and also a whole load of other diseases. However this vitamin and minerals you should be taking must be in a food form and not isolated synthetic chemical like ascorbic acid that is sold internationally as vitamin C. The real nutrients that you are looking for can be found at StarGate Nutrition Vitamin website. All their nutrients are in a nature form that your body will understand. They provide the full spectrum of required vitamins and minerals. You should be focusing on lemon juice for vitamin C and also to alkalize your blood to make it more inhabitable for the swine flu virus. The mineral zinc needs to be also consumed and the best way is by eating oysters and sunflower seeds which are foods naturally high in these minerals.

Homeopathy

Popular for years in Asia with over 250,000 doctors qualified as homeopathy in India alone, homeopathy has recently become Europe’s fastest growing form of alternative medicine. Last year sales of homeopathic medicines in Europe topped £3billion. Debate about how it scientifically works are heated, but most Europeans are now going to a homeopath as their first course of treatment and 20 per cent of Scottish GPs currently practice the specialty. Many scientific studies have been carried out to proves its efficacy medically and especially in flu outbreaks such as this.

Critics of homeopathy say that the medicine is no more than the placebo effect psychological factors causing improvement unrelated to drug therapy. However, Dr David Reilly of The Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital led a team of scientists who compared placebo and homeopathy in four trials conducted over 15 years in patients with allergies such as hayfever and asthma. All four studies showed a greater effect from the homeopathic medicine than from the placebo. Overall there have been over 200 trials and over 70 per cent of these conclude that homeopathy is better than placebo. Private European insurers cover homeopathic treatments, and The World Health Organisation recommends them. A few years ago Spain took an initiative to incorporate homeopathy into its national health service.

A report to the American Institute of Homeopathy in 1921 documented the dramatic success of homeopathy in the worst flu pandemic in history. The death rate of 24,000 flu cases under conventional medical care in that study was 28.2 percent, while the death rate of 26,000 cases treated with homeopathy was a nearly miraculous 1.05 percent.

When a similar strain of bird flu, misleadingly termed Spanish Flu, spread around the world in 1918, there is no doubt that it had catastrophic consequences. 50 million people died.  Nevertheless, American hospital statistics from the time show that homeopathic treatment gave a far better chance of survival than conventional treatment did.  The statistics are reported in Randall Neustaedter's excellent book 'Flu:  Alternative Treatments and Prevention'.

For at least the past 150 years homeopathic practitioners have used the medicine Influenzinum as a flu preventive. Influenzinum is a homeopathic medicine made from flu viruses. A proprietary preparation is produced by homeopathic pharmacies each year using the flu virus strains recommended by the World Health Organization for the year’s vaccine production (Dolivaxil – containing Influenzinum 9C). The typical dosage is once per week for four weeks beginning in October or later, followed by another dose three weeks later.

You should have Gelsemium 30c in your house and take when someone sneezes in a bus or your office. This can stop the virus taking root in the body and acts as a preventative.

The first medicine used in France to treat flu is Oscillococcinum made by Boiron and sells 7 million euros annually. Boiron was bought recently by the Bayer group.

Oscillococcinum Alternative Medicine To Tamiflu

This remedy recently toped pharmacy sales list and sales in the US alone are in the region of £20 million. A course costs of Oscillococcinum costs £6, which is used regularly by 5 million French for the prevention of colds and flu’s every year. Lets face it five million French can’t be wrong?

Oscillococcinum was first studied in France during the 1987 flu epidemic caused by an H1N1 virus similar to the bird flu of today. This multi-centre study examined the effect of Oscillococcinum (200C) on the early symptoms of flu. Results were published in the peer-reviewed British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. More patients in the treatment group recovered completely in the first 48 hours than the control group (17 percent of patients with active treatment compared to 10 percent of controls). More patients in the treatment group also judged the treatment as favorable compared to the placebo, 61 percent vs 49 percent (Ferley, 1989).

In 1990 German scientists replicated the French study of Oscillococcinum. They used the same criteria as the previous study and enrolled 372 patients. After 48 hours of treatment with Oscillococcinum the treatment group had considerably milder symptoms than the control group, and the number of patients with no symptoms from day two onward was significantly greater in the treatment group (17.4 percent) compared to the control group (6.6 percent) (Papp, 1998).

Both of these studies show a significant curative effect of a homeopathic medicine in the treatment of flu in carefully conducted, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials. Conventional antiviral drugs reduce the duration of flu by about one day if taken within the first 48 hours of illness (Cooper, 2003). These studies shows that homeopathy carries the potential to make a dramatic difference in any flu epidemic without the risk of drug side effects.

However, is anyone planning to stockpile homeopathic medicines proven to effectively treat the flu for over one hundred years?

St Johns Worth %26 Goldenseal NOT Echinacea.

Many people might be reaching for the herbal remedy called Echinacea to treat their swine flu or prevent it by boosting the immune system. Stop. In swine flu treatment Echinacea will cause the production of cytokines which will further damage your body.

The best herbs to use during this flu are St Johns Worth which is a potent antiviral as well as a famous antidepressant. The herbs adaptogenic qualities may help the body adapt to the cytokine storm making it have less an impact.

Turmeric, the spice, has an ability to be more powerful the pharmaceutical cox-2 inhibitors. Turmeric works in swine flu by blocking the production of cytokines. One herb I have been personally using over the past few years is Goldenseal which reduces colds and flu’s symptoms quite dramatically. Very little is written about it. Garlic is essential to include in your diet and has an affinity for the lungs as a herb. This can assist in blocking the development of pneumonia and reduce any lung infection by taking at least one clove mashed a day. Parsley will reduce the odour if you need it.

Aromatherapy

Tea tree essential oil from Australia that is very popular world wide is really important in terms of it being the only essential oil that is anti - viral bacterial and fungal. Lavender is very useful in the production of white blood cells. Tea tree oil may reduce the viral load causing a reduction in cytokine load.

Probiotics

Natural bacteria in the gut are essential to maintaining proper health and digestive functioning. Antibiotics not only kill the organisms that cause colds and flu’s but also kill the good gut bacteria. In order to reintroduce the effects of the bacteria you reintroduce them by eating bioactive yoghurts made with strains of gut bacteria such as Lactobacillus. This may also help to reduce any thrush symptoms caused from antibiotics.

Ralph Quinlan Forde the author and Holistic Medicine Consultant has contributed to the following publications over eight years, The Independent on Sunday, The Sunday Herald, IVENUS, Tescos Magazine, The Irish Examiner and The Sunday Tribune. He is also the founder of www.medicinebuddhafoundation.org

A pandemic second quarter of 2009 outbreak of influenza A (H1N1) virus is a new strain of influenza virus identified commonly referred to as Swine Flu confirmed cases topped almost 6,000 individuals, as Belgium became the latest European nation to be hit by the influenza A(H1N1) virus. World Health Organization (WHO) officials said the number of cases of influenza A(H1N1) stood at around 6,000 and nearly 7,000 in more than 30 countries, with more than 60 people having died from the disease.

Cases were first discovered in the U.S. and officials soon suspected a link between those incidents and an earlier outbreak of late-season flu cases in Mexico. In less than a week hundreds of suspected cases, some of them serious, were discovered in Mexico. Soon thereafter, the WHO along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) expressed concern that the A(H1N1) could become a worldwide flu pandemic, and WHO then raised its pandemic disease alert level to Phase 5 out of the six maximum, as a signal that a pandemic is at about to happen level.

More than three thousand cases of infections including three deaths was the recorded highest number of A(H1N1) by the United States compared to Mexico where only more than two thousand reported cases of infection including 60 deaths were confirmed. The WHO said 389 people were also confirmed with the virus - and one person had died - in Canada who happens to be with the 19-year-old Chinese career that brings in to China a spread out. Two other cases have been confirmed in Hong Kong. Authorities there said they had quarantined six people who traveled with the second case, a 24-year-old man, by plane from San Francisco. A further 45 people who sat near him on his journey had already left Hong Kong, they said.

China, in the meantime, stepped up the search for people who came into contact with the mainland's two confirmed Swine Flu patients. A 30-year-old man was confirmed to have the virus in the southwestern city of Chengdu. He had been in the United States before his homecoming to China. Plane (Air Canada flight to Beijing) and train (for Shandong Province with 20 people on board) travelers with a 5 meter contact with a 19-year-old student (his surname is Lu second confirmed victim) are being haunted by Chinese Authorities in Beijing and Eastern Shandong province.

He's not feeling well, a couple of days after his arrival in Beijing but still continue to travel by train with a fever, sore throat and a headache. They believed that virus highlighted in China and Hong Kong could be a mix of bird and human flu which came together in pigs.

Belgium confirmed its first case of Swine Flu in a 28-year-old man who also had been in the United States. Jose Angel Cordova (Health Minister of Mexico) moved to reassure tourists, saying that the country's beaches and resorts - an important source of foreign income -- were safe for visitors. There's no risk to tourists, he said, noting that most of the flu cases detected in holiday hotspots like Cancun and Acapulco dated back nearly two weeks.

The Swine Flu outbreak was expected to cost Mexico's economy of more than 2 billion dollars - or about 0.3 percent of gross domestic product.

Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/http://tanay.articlealley.com/swine-flu-thousand-cases-941640.html

Swine Flu – A Killer Pandemic Which Targets Children?

SWINE FLU Is Now Pandemic and The Vaccine Will Be In Short Supply

You MUST Assume The Virus WILL Reach Your Family Shortly.

In Fact The Likelihood That Someone In Your Family Will Be Infected Is Greater Than 70 Percent. If You Act Now, You Still Have Time To Learn How To Protect Against SWINE FLU.

Presented In One Document, Containing Detailed Analysis, Saving You Dozens Of Hours of research.

I want to quickly run some numbers past you so that you can see where my assertion comes from that there is a greater than 70 percent chance that someone within your immediate family will begin exhibiting swine flu symptoms. Don't worry, I promise it will be a very short math lesson. Then I will tell you what can be done to reduce that statistic - at least for your family because you are about learn things that 99 percent of the population will never take the time to find out for themselves.

If you read through the next few short paragraphs - which set this whole swine flu pandemic in context and you still think you do not need to devise some form of pandemic preparedness to deal with this health threat, then I will not waste any more of your time. Hopefully that sounds reasonable. OK, here we go.

The Mathematics of Pandemic Flu

Before the current strain of swine flu settles into the human population and assumes its new role as a seasonal flu strain, roughly one third of the world's population of 6.6 billion people will become infected. This prediction is based on the known behaviour of the last three influenza pandemics from 1918, 1957, and 1968. It is also a straight forward consequence of the fact that we have no natural immunity to this new virus. What this means is that for any given person, the chance that they will not become infected and begin showing symptoms of swine flu over the course of the pandemic is about two out of three, or 2 / 3. Those might seem like good odds, but the problem is that the odds need to be multiplied for every member of your family. So for a family of three (mother, father, and child) the chance than nobody within your family will be affected is given roughly by the quantity

2 / 3 x   2 / 3 x   2 / 3 =   0.3

Seen another way, the likelihood that your family of three will be touched by swine flu is 70 percent. For a family of four, the likelihood is 80 percent, and the number just gets higher as your family size increases. Granted, this is a very rough analysis of the odds of infection, but there is nothing outlandish about the final numbers. This is simply how the mathematics of pandemics pans out - and it is never in your favour. If those numbers surprise you, and make you feel uncomfortable, that's OK. It is better to experience surprise and discomfort now than to be surprised in the future when swine flu makes its way to your front door. My job will be to help you lessen the chance of that happening, so that the term swine influenza need not become a part of your everyday vocabulary.

Hopefully you will be starting to see the need to take this influenza pandemic seriously. If you are less than 41 years of age you will have never experienced a pandemic, so you can be forgiven for being sceptical about the need to prepare. It's like the period leading up to your first earthquake, or hurricane - they just do not seem all that dreadful until the moment you find yourself caught in one, at which point you find that your thinking changes dramatically.

Trust me this is not something you want to happen to you.

Make The Effort To Learn Today So That You May Protect Your Children Tomorrow http://viralurl.com/wellness/surviveFlu

A Pandemic Which Targets Children?

I am a parent, and I am going to assume that you are one too. I am inclined to do this because when you are young and single and without children, you tend to feel like you are invincible, and something like the threat of pandemic influenza is not likely to send you searching for information on the web about how to deal with it. This is the curse of youth, and it is not something that begins to lift until you are out of your twenties and children have entered your life.

Even if you still maintain the delusion, as I do, that somehow you will muddle through any threat to your safety, you are not likely to be so cavalier when it comes to your children. I know that I am not. In fact, now that I am a parent, the world looks quite threatening to me and I spend a lot of my time thinking about the dangers that lurk around every corner.

I have thought a lot about influenza over the years, and have studied it intently - at first with great interest, and later with foreboding, especially now that I am a parent and have more to lose in the event of a severe pandemic.

The average age of those infected by swine flu in 2009 is just 19 years of age. Unlike seasonal strains of influenza, the novel H1N1 swine flu strain, as it is called, has a particular affinity for the very young. This simple fact should have parents everywhere concerned.

Your children, as you are well aware, can neither recognize that a threat now looms, nor can they do anything to alleviate that threat. They are completely dependent on you for help. This is why is it my hope that you will both educate yourself and prepare some form of pandemic planning, so that both you and the rest of your family will be ready to face the threat with the least amount of risk to your well-being.

This will not happen by accident. It will be up to you to prevent swine flu from making an impact on your life, but I can help you with that as I have already spent the time needed to figure out what the important things are that you need to know.

By reading Survive Pandemic Flu you will quickly learn everything that I have spent (literally) years discovering about pandemic flu and how to survive ity

Why This Should Matter To You

It is easy to forget just how devastating the toll can be on your family or the family of someone you know when a pandemic rises up and sweeps through the community.

The following points made by the American Red Cross - which are in line with my own understanding of this disease - warn about influenza and its reach into U.S. homes:

Each year, over 20,000 children under age 5 are hospitalized as a result of seasonal influenza. A severe pandemic could result in 90 million people getting sick and over 2 million fatalities. The 1918 flu pandemic claimed 675,000 lives (and upwards of 100 million worldwide). The world witnessed three pandemic outbreaks in the twentieth century alone.

The Centres For Disease Control and Prevention put out the following 7 minute video of personal stories from families affected adversely by flu, to remind us of the dangers. While the deaths of less than about 100 small children result from seasonal influenza or its complications every year, this number can swell to thousands, even tens of thousands, during a severe pandemic, and the number of older children and young adults whose lives may be lost can also be substantially greater than anything seen during a regular flu year.

Despite the fact that, to date, the new swine flu strain SEEMS to give rise (most of the time) to fairly mild cases of illness, pandemic flu is completely unpredictable and you need to educate yourself ahead of time so that you will be prepared for any eventuality.

Will The Swine Flu Vaccine Shot Be Safe?

The short answer to this question is yes, and in the book you will discover why.

But there is a problem. A big problem. Vaccine manufacturers have come up short on their vaccine delivery schedule because of production difficulties. Instead of the 120 million anticipated doses that were to be made available to the U.S. population in mid October, they are now saying that only 45 million doses will be available for initial inoculations. This means that tens of millions of Americans will have to forgo their expected swine flu shot until later in the flu season. If you are generally in good health, then that means you.

Make no mistake, when a swine flu vaccine is made available to people there will be a great deal of confusion surrounding who should get it, and why. The swine flu inoculation program of 2009 will be the largest such program in the history of public health programs. But because of supply problems, not everyone will be eligible to participate.

Because of time constraints, the requirement that clinical testing procedures be implemented and followed before production of the vaccine can be scaled up, and the fact that the ingredients for a swine flu vaccine have proven difficult to cultivate, there will NOT be sufficient vaccines available for everyone who may want a shot in 2009. In the book you will learn why this is the case, and what you can do in the event that you are not eligible to receive the swine flu vaccine due to shortages.

Learn how you can be prepared by reading a book that quite simply could save your life

http://viralurl.com/wellness/surviveFlu

Stephen Carter’s book, 'Surviving Pandemic Flu' . has been carefully researched and was written by Stephen who has been actively interested in the topic since 1995.

Stephen spent several years looking into every aspect of influenza as he prepared to write his first novel, and drew upon his training as a scientist to learn everything that could be learnt about this wiley microbe, and much of what he learned helped put the current book together. It will be hard to put down!

http://viralurl.com/wellness/surviveFlu