So What Makes Swine Flu Illness Different From Seasonal Flu?

So What Makes Swine Flu Illness Different From Seasonal Flu?
By Kirsten Whittaker
The swine flu illness, or A (H1N1) was given pandemic status by the World Health Organization (a mark of its ability to spread, rather than the severity of the illness) on June 11, 2009. So far the illness has struck more than a million in the U.S. alone, yet scientists are still learning some very basic things about this organism, unknown in humans until April 2009 in Mexico.

It seems that this newest flu virus affects the lungs and stomach, while seasonal flu viruses tend to leave these organs untouched. The intriguing research reports appear in the July 2, 2009 online edition of Science.

In experiments with ferrets (because flu effects them in the same way as humans), teams in the U.S. and the Netherlands found that the new strain of flu virus replicated more extensively in the respiratory tract. The seasonal flu virus remained mostly in the animals' nasal cavities. The A (H1N1) virus also found its way into the ferret's intestinal tract, again unlike its seasonal counterpart.

When it comes to the new virus' ability to spread, the research teams differ.

The Dutch scientists found that swine flu is just as easy to transmit as the regular flu, while the U.S. team found A (H1N1) less likely to be spread when compared to seasonal flu. They believe that the respiratory droplets don't seem to transmit A (H1N1) viruses as well as they do the regular flu virus.

"Findings from the study demonstrate that, in ferrets, the novel 2009 H1N1 influenza virus leads to increased morbidity and increased respiratory disease when compared to contemporary seasonal human influenza viruses," explains researcher Terrence M. Tumpey, a senior microbiologist in the influenza branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But just because this flu might not be as easily spread does not mean that H1N1 can't cause trouble, serious trouble, once in the human body.

Health officials are convinced they will be able to create a vaccine for A (H1N1)... but the challenge is vaccine making isn't an exact science or a quick process. As it is scientists take a calculated risk every year in choosing which strains of flu virus to protect against.

These latest findings are helpful according to U.S. researchers as they suggest to authorities what the appropriate public health response might be.

Only two weeks ago, U.S. health officials mentioned that they were thinking about a swine flu immunization campaign that might involve an amazing 600 million doses of the vaccine.

Seasonal flu, by contrast, calls for the administration of about 115 million vaccinations per year; childhood vaccines total 150 million doses annually.

Still to be worked out is finding the health care professionals to administer all those shots, and a way to keep track of side effects from the vaccinations.

"One thing we know for sure about influenza viruses is that they are unpredictable," Tumpey cautioned. "The characteristics that the virus is displaying today might not hold true in the upcoming months."

So what can you do to protect yourself and your family until a vaccine is ready?

Here are five common sense suggestions from the experts.

1. Wash your hands as much as possible - use the warmest water you can, lather up with soap and rub your fingers, palms, and even under your nails and up your wrists for two choruses of "Happy Birthday". If you're without soap and water, hand sanitizers serve very well.

2. Cover up when you cough or sneeze - using your shoulder, or the crook of your elbow to capture the droplets that are sent into the air and contain the infectious organisms. Wash your hands right away.

3. If you're sick, stay home - if you develop aches, fatigue, fever, coughing or sneezing - don't push yourself... stay home. Call your doctor for advice or an appointment, especially if you have an underlying health condition.

4. Don't touch your face - it's such a natural impulse, but it's also a direct route to the bloodstream for unwanted germs, flu viruses included. Keep your hands away from those mucous membranes - eyes, nose and mouth - as much as possible.

5. Stay away from sick people - not easy, if you're a parent (or spouse) of someone struggling with A (H1N1) flu... or the coworker of someone who refuses to call in sick. Limit time with this person as much as possible. Up your hand washing after whatever contact you have. Use a face mask if you must be very close or the patient is coughing or sneezing quite a bit.

If you do come down with A (H1N1) the good news is that the illness is generally mild you're your recovery will likely be fairly quick. And though the virus is spreading around the world, it has shown no signs, as yet, of mutating to a more dangerous form.

Your best bet in the face of the unpredictableness of swine flu illness is to stay informed, keep up your hand washing and follow all other infection control procedures faithfully, even when it seems the worst has passed.

Next just head on over to the Daily Health Bulletin for more information on how to protect your family from swine flu illness, plus get 5 free fantastic health reports to keep you in tip top condition.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kirsten_Whittaker

Etiology of bird flu

This acute, highly contagious respiratory infection usually occurs in colder months and in infrequent epidemics. It is an acute highly infectious of the upper and lower respiratory tracts that occurs in isolated cases or in epidemics.

The disease is directly transmitted by droplets inhaled from an infected personals sneezing or coughing or by indirect contact with contaminated objects, such as drinking glass.

The virus resists host antiviral cytokines, inducing excessive host pro-inflammatory responses. It may cause death by ‘cytokine storm’ rather than by inherent pathogenicity.

One type of bird flu is caused by the avian influenza A virus which can cause infection in birds and humans. Type A is the most virulent and usually affects young adults first and then spreads to the very young and very old in community.

The natural reservoirs of influenza A viruses – the etiologic agents of avian flu - are the aquatic birds of the world, particularly ducks, in which the viruses appear to be in evolutionary stasis or equilibrium with their natural host causing no disease.
Etiology of bird flu

Flu Viral Infection

Influenza viruses have special features that can over power a body’s immune system. It affects respiratory tract – nose, throat, bronchial tubes and lungs.

First, influenza virus are efficient travelers.

Second, they have an amazing ability to copy themselves.

And third, flu viruses are unique in that once a strain has spread in a population, its structure changes and it then is capable of causing a new form of flu because the antibodies produces to combat the original virus are not effective against the new form.

An entirely new strain appears about every 10 years.

Not only do influenza viruses travel easily from person to person, they do so secretly for part of the time.

A person with the flu may be contagious for several days before he or she know it.

When an infected person coughs or sneezes, he or she releases tiny droplets of water from the mouth and nose.

The most common way to catch the flu is by inhaling that tiny droplets. Less often it is spread when the person touch a surface such as a faucet handle or phone that has the virus on it and then touch his own mouth, nose, or eyes.

The virus’s ability to turn normal human or animal host cells into flu-copying machines is another reason influenza can take over immune systems.

After an incubation period of 1 to 4 days, people infected with influenza virus develop an abrupt fever, headache, sore throat and dry cough that can in some cases progress to viral pneumonia, respiratory failure and death.
Flu Viral Infection

History of Influenza

History of Influenza
Hippocrates recorded an epidemic of a flu-like infection in 412 B.C that wiped out the Athenian army.

The sixteenth century saw two flu pandemics that spread throughout Europe. The first, in 1510, infected nearly the entire population of Europe, but claimed few lives.

The second, in 1580, devastated cities and spread through the whole of Western Europe. The city of Rome, for example, had 9,000 fatalities.

At least pandemics of flu spread throughout Europe in the seventeenth century. In the past of 200 years eight great flu pandemics seized the world prior to the devastation wrought by the 1918 flu.

During a period of fourteen months beginning in the spring of 1918, half of the entire world’s population was infected with the influenza virus and nearly 41 million people died.

Every country in the world was affected, no matter how remote, and this occurred in an era before air travel and a global community existed.

Victims who died during the 1918 flu were typically healthy young adults. Among the 20 to 40 year old age group, the fatality rate from the 1918 flu was 50 percent.

The virus of 1918 was so effective at killing its host that within a short period of time it rendered itself extinct, people either immune to the virus or dead.

Since that time several other lesser pandemics have occurred across the globe, but health officials anxiously await the next deadly flu pandemic, which they predict as inevitable.

When it occurs, experts foresee millions of death, hospitals quickly flooded with cases of pneumonia, and every health care system in the world over whelmed by the volume of flu victims.
History of Influenza

The word of Influenza

The word of Influenza
The word influenza is Italian for influence, as in the astral or occult influence of a visitation or outbreak that affects many people at the same time. First used in 1504, the word signified any disease epidemics.

In a severe flu outbreak of 1743 the word influenza was applied to the epidemic that began in Italy and spread throughout Europe.

Since then, the influenza, shortened to flu, means a serious infectious disease characterized by muscle and joint aching, prostration, and respiratory congestion with fever and headache.

It was not until 1931 that an influenza virus was identified in pigs, and finally in 1933 a human influenza virus was discovered by three researchers: Smith, Andrewes, and Laidlaw.

Both of these viruses were closely related to the Spanish flu virus of 1918. During the time of the 1918 flu pandemic, however, the suspected culprit was a bacterium named Hemophilus influenza. Viruses had not yet been discovered.

Although most people consider the flu simply and annoyance, and possibly a danger to seniors in poor health, influenza has been responsible for repeated, devastating worldwide pandemics capable of bringing entire nations to their knees.

It is hard to imagine today, but in 1918 the entire world was in the clutches of a deadly flu virus. The 1918 flu still remains the greatest plague the world has ever seen.
The word of Influenza

Bird Flu: Indonesia Latest News

A 20 yrs. old Indonesian woman died from the avian influenza virus - H5N1 bird flu virus, in west Java on Saturday night after undergoing a two-day treatment for bird flu symptoms.

The latest mortality was Indonesia's 64th from 84 cases of the H5N1 avian influenza virus, and was the sixth death in 2007.

Indonesia has the world's highest fatality tally from the disease. Vietnam has had 42 human deaths from the virus, but none in more than a year. With the flu spreading around the world, the virus has turned up in birds in Asia and Europe, and, most recently, Africa. So far, bird flu has mostly been passed from birds either to other birds or, in isolated cases, to humans.

In June 2006, WHO reported the first case of human transference of the disease, when an Indonesian man died after catching the flu from his 10-year-old son. If the flu mutates into a strain that can pass more readily from human to human, people will have no immunity and the flu will probably pass rapidly from person to person, creating a pandemic.

Flu vaccines can only be made to protect against a particular virus, and, since the virus had yet to be passed from human to human, no vaccine has been developed.Indonesia will not share bird flu virus samples with foreign laboratories until the World Health Organisation has rules in place to ensure they are not used commercially, a senior Indonesian health official said on Friday.Indonesia on Wednesday said it would only share its H5N1 samples with those agreeing not to use them commercially.

The announcement came as it signed a preliminary agreement with a unit of pharmaceutical firm Baxter International Inc. Under the pact the health ministry's research and development institute will supply the U.S. firm specimens of H5N1; Baxter will provide technology to help develop a vaccine. Indonesia would have the right to produce and market the bird flu vaccine domestically. It is negotiating to export it to a number of countries.Bird Flu :: Indonesia Latest News