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In The News
Swine Flu in The Upcoming Flu Season
President Barack Obama has reminded the Americans that Swine flu has a big chance of resurgence during the upcoming flu season. The vaccines for the flu would be available from October 2009. Since the vaccines would not be available in bulk, these would be administered first to the vulnerable groups like the elderly and school going children. People with asthma and other diseases that make contracting flu easier, would also be given the flu vaccine on a priority basis, regardless of the age.
The good news is the swine flu has not proved itself more dangerous than the normal yearly flu that millions of people contract every year. The concern at present is because of the lack of a tested vaccine and secondly the fact that viruses mutate and become drug resistant very quickly.
The WHO has already raised the pandemic level to the highest as enough number of people all over the globe have fallen sick due to this disease and the spread of it in the upcoming flu season could become a major health issue for the world to deal with.
H1N1 Flu
H1N1 Flu
Influenza A (H1N1) is a virus that originated from pigs but have strains of human as well as avian virus. The spread of H1N1 that started in April this year has been found to be not very life threatening in majority of the cases.
The concern in the medical community as well as the administration is from the fact that this is a new virus with multiple strains and there is no vaccine to prevent its spread. If the virus mutates to a more severe form, it can cause severe loss of human life.
However, the spread of SARs a few years ago, and then the scare of the avian flu and now the spread of the H1N1 has taught mankind some important lessons on how to contain a rapidly expanding disease and prevent it from becoming a pandemic. The governments have now shared data and put in place emergency plans and funds to fight with any situation.
The responsibility of the people to prevent the spread of any diseases is still very important. Cleanliness and maintaining proper hygiene is vital to everyone's health.