An Email I recieved about the Swine Flu.

The swine flu continues to spread, and the world is on high alert. The disease has been confirmed in Mexico, United States, Canada, Spain, Israel, New Zealand, Scotland, and health officials across the world are working to keep it from spreading further.

Swine influenza is a common respiratory disease that affects pigs. Humans can catch the swine flu, but usually only through contact with infected pigs. However, the current strain – a variation of an H1N1 virus – is a mixture of human and swine flu viruses, and is spreading from human to human. Because the virus is a new development, the human population has no immunity built up against it yet. It can therefore be very dangerous, but so far the cases that have appeared around the world have been milder than the cases in Mexico.

The symptoms of the new virus are the same as general human flu symptoms – runny nose, fever, cough, weakness, vomiting and diarrhea. The virus can be passed along by water droplets in the air after infected people cough or sneeze, and can be contracted by touching contaminated surfaces and then touching eyes, noses or mouths. The disease is not spread by eating pork products. People can be contagious for one to four days before showing any symptoms, and may remain contagious for up to a week afterwards. Children may remain contagious even longer.

A variety of countries have either confirmed cases of the swine flu or are concerned that their citizens may have been infected.

Mexico:
The swine flu made its jump to humanity in Mexico, where over 2000 cases have been reported and at least 150 people have died. A four-year-old boy living near a large pig farm in Veracruz state seems to be the first case in this 2009 outbreak. Neighbors complained about the clouds of flies drawn to the pig manure lagoons on the mega-farm, and many locals were hospitalized from a respiratory infection earlier this month. Mexico City has been hit hard by the virus, and over 770 people remained hospitalized Monday. The disease is even killing young, healthy people, which has health officials deeply concerned. Mexico authorities have closed all schools until May 6 at the earliest.

The United States:
As of Tuesday, at least 68 cases had been confirmed in the US, primarily in New York City and California. On Sunday the US government declared a public health emergency in order to free up money to control spread of the disease.

* Texas: Governor Perry requested 37,430 courses of antiviral drugs on Saturday in anticipation of an outbreak there. The state has closed 14 schools near San Antonio after three area students were confirmed to have the swine flu. Another three people in Dallas have the virus, and officials are tracking four possible cases near Corpus Christi.
* California: A Claremont school cancelled school for Tuesday after it was known a student had contracted the virus while on a trip to Mexico. As of Tuesday, 13 cases of the swine flu had been confirmed in the state, mostly in counties bordering Mexico. More cases are expected to surface as the week progresses. On Tuesday, the California Department of Public Health labs in Richmond started testing for the virus. Previously, only labs in Atlanta had the necessary chemical agents. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta is shipping stockpiles of antiviral medication to California so that the drugs are available to anybody who needs them.
* New York: At least 45 students at St. Francis Preparatory School in NYC have been confirmed to have the swine flu. Over 100 students at and their relatives have complained of flu-like symptoms. Those with confirmed cases of the swine flu seem to have a milder strain of the disease than what has been found in Mexico. All are recovering.

Two cases have also been confirmed in Kansas, one in Ohio and, most recently, Indiana has confirmed one instance of the illness.

To the relief of many, the cases in the US do not seem as vicious as those in Mexico. “Scientists can’t tell us right now why this is presenting so severely in Mexico City and not as severely up here,” said US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. People experiencing flu-like symptoms in a variety of other states have tested negative for the virus, but most states are taking precautions in case the swine flu pops up in their areas.

New Zealand:
Three cases of swine flu have been confirmed in New Zealand, and another eight people in the same group are believed to have the virus. Those who are ill recently returned home from a school trip to Mexico, but like in America, the cases seem relatively mild. In all 11 cases, the patients are responding to treatment and recovering at home. Forty-three more people are under observation.

Canada, Israel, Scotland, and Spain all have citizens who tested positive for the swine flu. Many countries are tightening their borders to protect their citizens. The World Health Organization raised its warning level from 3 to 4 on Monday, which means there are sustained human-to-human transmissions of the virus, and containment is no longer possible.

Fear of a pandemic has affected the markets. Oil dropped $1.41 a barrel on Monday, and the Dow Jones fell to 7,987. Investors have turned to currencies, causing the US dollar and Japanese yen to rise in value. Mexico’s peso is down, along with the New Zealand and Australian dollars, and pharmaceutical and healthcare stocks are up. The Australian company Biota, maker of the Relenza flu vaccine, leaped up 72 percent in the wake of the swine flu scare.

The swine flu is making the news because it’s a strain that can now be transmitted from human to human, but the flu is nothing new. According to the CDC, 36,000 people in the US die each year from the flu and related complications.

While the virus seems to be most deadly in Mexico, the swine flu demonstrates how easily a contagious disease can spread across the globe. In this day of speedy travel, when a flu bug can spring from Mexico to Europe, the Middle East and Asia in just a few weeks, the whole world could be infected in only a few weeks more. While future diseases might not be so kind, the swine flu seen today seems to have mushroomed out in milder forms.

Nobody wants to catch any form of influenza. There are preventative measures people can take to avoid catching this or other bugs;

– Wash hands frequently;
– Avoid touching one’s eyes, nose or mouth;
– Get plenty of restful sleep;
– Drink a lot of water and eat nutritious food;
– Avoid infected people;
– If necessary, wear a face mask;
– Get outside in the fresh air and sunshine. (Illnesses spread faster when people are in closed, confined spaces.)