Swine Flu...So Much Panic, Now The Facts!

Ive been doing a lot of digging on the subject, mostly because i have kids of my own and that's the first priority.

I've heard so much in the media about this "swine flu" aka H1N1, that i wanted to know the TRUTH of what it is and if i should start thinking of the movie "The Stand". I know, that's a little drastic, but i'm sure all of you were going through the same thing if you have been watching the news.

Every day you see the red on the screen to show confirmed cases in each state, you see people walking around with face masks and you wonder if you should run out and get a huge supply for you and your family. People, panic can also be a cause of death. So before locking yourself in your basements let's educate ourselves a little shall we?


(BUSINESS WIRE)--Flu: With so much media attention, it is hard to distinguish the facts from the hype in the current spread of H1N1 flu. Critical readers want reliable information about such viruses and their risks. One such recognized expert is Arnold S. Monto, MD, a leading educator, researcher, and the author of a compact, evidence-based handbook, Contemporary Diagnosis, Prevention, and Management of Influenza®.
Dr. Monto, Professor of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, is an international authority in epidemiology who is currently serving as a primary consultant for the United Nations World Health Organization to assist with the flu pandemic.

Here are five interesting facts adapted from Dr. Monto’s book:

(1) Influenza Outbreaks Aren’t New. Influenza outbreaks have occurred periodically over the last century, with varying degrees of severity. Here’s a brief history:

Virus

Year


Type


Name of outbreak


1900 H3 Pandemic not confirmed

1918 H1 Spanish or swine influenza

1957 H2 Asian influenza

1968 H3 Hong Kong influenza

1977 H1 Russian influenza, age limited

2009 H1N1 Type A H1N1 (Swine flu)


(2) All-in-One Vaccine. For a flu vaccine to be effective, it must include inactivated strains of the Type A H1N1 virus now in the news, as well as strains of the other two main viruses circulating in the world, Type A H3N2 and Type B.

(3) Pandemics Don’t Discriminate. When the impact of the 1918 A(H1N1) influenza pandemic was tallied, an estimated 500,000 individuals had died in the United States and 20 million worldwide. More recent studies have doubled that estimate because most of what we now consider the developing world was omitted in the count. Pandemics of influenza do not skip any part of the world.

(4) Pigs Don’t Fly. Unlike birds, pigs don’t fly, so they cannot rapidly carry viruses geographically. But in 1983-1984, before a flu outbreak could be controlled, more than 17 million birds had to be destroyed.

(5) WHO’s Alert. The World Health Organization (WHO) has produced a pandemic plan with these stages of alert:
Interpandemic Period

Phase 1 No new type A influenza subtypes detected in humans.
Phase 2
No new type A subtypes in humans, subtypes in animals pose substantial risk of human disease.

Pandemic Alert Period

Phase 3 Human infectious with new subtype, but no human to human spread.
Phase 4 Small clusters of human-to-human transmission, but spread highly localized.
Phase 5 Large clusters of human-to-human transmission, but geographically limited.
Pandemic Period

Phase 6 Increased and sustained transmission in the general population.
Post-Pandemic Period

Return to the interpandemic period.

For more credible facts and science-based information on influenza, consult Dr. Monto’s handbook, Contemporary Diagnosis, Prevention, and Management of Influenza®, published by Handbooks in Health Care (HHC). The book examines prevention and treatment options and discusses how potentially lethal strains are spread—essential information for clinicians and educators throughout the world.

I hope this helps a little, i'm still going to look for more credible information and i will continue to post my finding until this scare is over.