Swine Flu in America

Recently, the hot topic of the medical world has been Swine Flu. A new type of influenza, many can clearly see why this may be a serious threat. While there have been previous outbreaks of “Swine Flu” the current strain that is causing a pandemic is a completely new one, with unknown origin, making it more dangerous, and much harder to treat. While Swine Flu can be treated, if it is not tended to, it can be fatal. The ratios reported are that for every 1,000 people infected, 40 need to be treated on a inpatient basis, and 1 dies.

Symptoms

The symptoms for Swine Flu include those that are in the common flu, as well as some additional symptoms. These include, but are not limited to:

- Fever
- Runny and/or stuffy nose
- Sore throat
- Light to harsh coughing
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Fatigue
- Lethargy
- Lack of Appetite
- Body aches/pains
- Chills
- Cold sweats

Prevention

Many of the prevention techniques are common sense things, such as washing your hands regularly, maintaining a healthy diet, and taking a vitamin supplement strong in vitamin C. Of course, there are also other ways that can help, and that may make a larger impact and difference then any of the common sense ones.

You should of course wear a breathing mask and gloves if you happen to be one of the nation’s farmers when handling any of your livestock (or dead-stock) and the area around them. I would also advise having your livestock treated with vaccines to prevent them from either getting or passing on any disease.

As for the people in the nation that are not farmers, don’t expect to be immediately safe just because you live no where near a farm. There are of course more common sense kind of things, such as using a tissue to blow your nose and washing your hands promptly after. Keep away from anyone that is infected with Swine Flu, or is shows the signs and symptoms of Swine Flu also. For adults, their time of being contagious is about 5-7 days, whereas for children the contagious time is around 10-12 days. Using disinfecting solutions on your household counter tops and commonly touched items, such as door knobs and telephones, can also be a huge factor in killing the virus.

There has also been concern whether or not eating pork items can cause infection.
Eating any pork product, by-product, or anything containing pork will not, and can not cause an infection.

Treatment

Treatment for Swine Flu should be with antiviral drugs, that will make the patient both feel better and can reduce the chances of serious harm. The patient should also be resting, without cause of stress on the muscles, body, or mind. It has been recommended by the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention that the most effective medications to reduce and/or treat Swine Flu are Tamiflu or Relenza. Because of this recommendation, the United States Food and Drug Administration have issued emergency use authorizations for both of these medications.

It has also been found that the current 2009 outbreak of Swine Flu is resistent to the medications Amantadine and Rimantadine.

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