Swine Flu: Know the Facts

In late April 2009 officials from both WHO and the CDC expressed
serious concern about the spread of the virus, stating that the
virus had the potential to become a flu pandemic. A pandemic is
the spread of a disease over a large area such as an entire
country, continent or the entire world. Due to the newness of
the influenza strain, its transmission from human to human, and
the unusually high mortality rate in Mexico the WHO formally
determined the situation to be a "public health emergency of
international concern.

Swine Flu: Know the Facts
By: Jessica Vandelay

In March 2009 a new strain of the type A influenza virus known
as H1N1 or swine flu began spreading. Though the widespread
occurrence of this virus is noteworthy, now is not the time to
panic. It is important to know the facts and make good
decisions. Local outbreaks of an influenza-like illness were
first detected in three areas of Mexico. The virus responsible
was clinically identified as a new strain on April 24, 2009.
Following the identification, its presence was soon confirmed in
various Mexican states and in Mexico City. Within days, isolated
cases were identified elsewhere in Mexico, the U.S., Spain, the
United Kingdom, New Zealand and Israel.

The outbreak of a total of more than 4,000 candidate cases,
prompted the World Health Organization, is a dedicated agency of
the United Nations (UN) that acts as a managing authority on
international public health issues, to increase its pandemic
alert phase to "Phase 5," which is defined as "...human-to-human
spread of the virus into at least two countries in one WHO
region." Despite the scale of the alert, WHO officials noted on
April 29 the majority of people infected with the virus have
made a full recovery without need of medical attention or
antiviral drugs. For more on the epidemiology of flu viruses
read medical magazines like Nashville Medical News, Birmingham
Medical News and Memphis Medical News.

In late April 2009 officials from both WHO and the CDC expressed
serious concern about the spread of the virus, stating that the
virus had the potential to become a flu pandemic. A pandemic is
the spread of a disease over a large area such as an entire
country, continent or the entire world. Due to the newness of
the influenza strain, its transmission from human to human, and
the unusually high mortality rate in Mexico the WHO formally
determined the situation to be a "public health emergency of
international concern.

Throughout history pandemics have occurred including cholera,
tuberculosis, influenza, small pox, measles, leprosy and
malaria. For more on past disease pandemics read Time magazine,
Newsweek and The Economist.

Unlike other diseases like chicken pox, humans cannot get
complete immunity to influenza because the virus is constantly
mutating and producing new strains that change from year to
year. Even though humans cannot get complete immunity from the
strains of the flu viruse, usually our immune systems can
respond strongly enough to beat off the virus. At this point it
is a good idea for people everywhere to exercise caution—wash
your hands, stay home from work or school if you feel sick, go
to the doctor if you have flu symptoms—etc. but do not panic.

Time magazine recently reported that researchers at Northwestern
University "estimated that even if nothing were done to slow the
spread of the disease from now on, by the end of May the U.S.
would have only about 1,700 cases." Furthermore, the good news
is the H1N1 flu virus is hitting North America at the end of flu
season; it may very well phase itself out and re-appear in the
fall, but that gives health officials months to prepare. At the
end of April President Barack Obama asked Congress for $1.5
billion in supplementary monies to prepare for and help lead the
fight against a possible swine-flu pandemic. To stay up-to-date
on how President Obama and the World Health Organization are
responding to swine flu read news magazines like Time, Newsweek
and The Economist.

About the author:
For more, visit http://www.magazines.com/category/news

Jessica Vandelay is a freelance writer in New York City.