Swine Flu Situation

First of all to understand a virus we need to understand how they work. Most viruses look kind of like little lunar landers. They fly into your body and try to find a moon to land on. Some will land on blood cells, which is the case with HIV or they will land on whatever they seem to be tagged for. Each lander is tagged for something different. Once they land they send out their little gang plank and their little green men walk out onto your cell. Once on your cell they begin to drill and break through the barriers into the core. After this is done they insert their own devices that work their way into the systems in that cell, causing it to react or change. Once this is done that cell is no longer recognized by your system. That is why your body tends to sneeze, your stomach gets queasy, you get a fever. This is your bodies reaction to unrecognized cells. The problem with HIV and other deadly viruses is that they seem to take over fast, like a mass invasion. There is no time for your body to react and get it out before it has consumed the cells it came to attack. Plus once we think we have it figured out, it changes, kind of like a shape shifter. These viruses have their own defense mechanism that helps them to survive. They are hard to battle, but not completely unstoppable.

What causes most epidemics is a fast moving virus, like HIV, that are hard to predict and they mutate, shape shift. Once we find something that is working, the virus mutates and we have to start again. Airborne viruses are harder to stop too. They travel, like we do through space, and most can survive for long periods of time. HIV is not airborne, we know now that it is in body fluids. The recent Swine Flu is airborne, it is traveling fast and can live outside its host for some time. It is like any other flu that flies around this time of year. Just like pollen it floats in the air and gets sucked up when you breath, touch or put it in your mouth. Just like pollen it travels on anything it can to move across from person to person. Just like pollen it sticks to you.

Your best defense? Some people don’t think of some of these.

1. Wash your hands, everyone should already know this.
2. Avoid money, yeah that will be the day. Money is one of the number one ways to transfer viruses. It carries germs and is never washed. Yes you could wash it but you are taking the chance of having it either fall apart or wash down the drain. I hate to send the world into a cashless society which is predicted in the bible, but using checks or debit cards is much safer when there is a situation with public health.
3. Carry a hankie with you. Some people still do this. It something you could have handy to grab things like door handles, shopping carts even money. It is also something you could throw in the wash.
4. Carry hand sanitizer. Don’t over use it though because studies have shown that being exposed to some germs helps to increase your natural defenses. Not being exposed to any will lower them.
5. Lysol or bleach all your surfaces. People don’t really think about keyboards and phones. It’s hard to bleach them but you can spray them with Lysol to disinfect them, or other surfaces that are hard to bleach, such as light switches, plug ins, phone and other chargers, your mouse. Keeping these areas clean, especially if they are public areas or used by the whole family will help keep the virus from spreading.
6. Use your sleeve or other fabric or tissue to block sneezes and coughs. Most people are told to use their hands, but then they don’t go immediately and wash them. If you use your sleeve or other object rather than your hand then there is less chance of transfer to something else.
7. Keep your hands away from body openings, eyes, mouth, nose, ears, etc. These opening are direct routes into your body. If you have a virus on your hands, you transfer it in through these areas. If there is no broken skin on  your hands it is less likely, if you are exposed, that it will get into the blood stream and land on the cells to infect them through your skin. That is why we have so much skin, it is there to protect all your vulnerable areas.

I realize that there are a lot of people out of work right now and that getting to a doctor can be costly. But we need to report these incidences of viruses so that they can be tracked, so we know where they are and watch them move and be prepared. So if you catch the flu please at least call your local health department. It may save the life of someone who was too vulnerable to defend themselves. Please remember if you get it don’t go to work, school, the mall. Stay away from others as much as possible.

The symptoms of swine flu as quoted from the CDC website at http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/key_facts.htm

The symptoms of swine flu in people are expected to be similar to the symptoms of regular human seasonal influenza and include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing. Some people with swine flu also have reported runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.