Swine Flu (H1N1): Some Critical Facts!

Swine Flu (H1N1): Some Critical Facts!

Swine flu fear has grasped us like hell. Declaration of one of the major cities of India, Pune, as swine flu affected area has aroused fear even among medical circles. Huge information is being circulated by fellow citizens and doctors on World Wide Web. No doubt, there is need of widespread awareness about the swine flu, its causes, symptomatology, and the treatment. But it should also be emphasized that swine flu should be handled with care without creating panic. No doubt, the epidemic and pandemic is severe enough to take stringent action of quarantine but there are certain facts that you might not know. Here is an effort to give you some facts about swine flu or H1N1 infection:

(1) If you are thinking to get yourself vaccinated against the flu virus, you will be protected against the human H1N1 infection that is dissimilar from swine H1N1 infection. Till date, we have not discovered anything positive on swine flu vaccination. So, seasonal flu vaccine is ineffective against swine flu. However, vaccine is available for pigs to prevent swine influenza. If you get a mail in your inbox saying they have swine flu vaccine for sale, do not believe it. There are many such spam mails circulating these days.

(2) About safety of eating pork: Handling of animal products may transmit swine flu virus. However, the pork that is cooked to 160 degrees is absolutely harmless and will never lead to swine flu.

(3) Face masks: If you think that face masks that are available in the market are absolutely safe, you may be wrong. Specially designed N-95 or N-99 masks protect people but still cannot be called perfect for prevention of swine flu. Couple your masks with regular hand washing and results will be better. Also keep a safe distance of 3 to 4 feet from other people, especially if they have symptoms similar to swine flu.

(4) One more thing we all should remember is that the complications that may occur in swine flu can be similar to those occurring in seasonal flu and so is the mortality. Rather, the cases of seasonal flu deaths reported are much more than those with swine flu. So, do not equate swine flu with death. It is not true.

(5) Like seasonal flu, swine flu is also a self-limiting disorder. Well the virus no doubt is known to replicate itself faster and so is the need for quarantine and apt treatment. But if you treat it symptomatically, it responds readily to treatment within 4 to 5 days.

I would therefore earnestly suggest all the people to go through trustworthy links like http://www.cdc.gov/flu/swineflu/key_facts.htm and not believe any and all mails that crowd in your mailbox. They may spread myths and misinformation among you. We definitely do not want such rumors at such critical times! Beware!