PANIC vs WISDOM
No panic. Get facts. Here are some of the most salient:

STAYING UP TO DATE ABOUT SWINE FLU and HEALTH ISSUES
Rather than placing here materials about Swine Flu that are being updated by the moment, Google is your friend for most up-to-date info… go to the general news-sites you trust, and especially, go to the pages of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention…which carries constant updates on the Swine Flu issue.

TO PROTECT ONE’S HEALTH
SYMPTOMS
…follow prudent procedures: see a doctor if you think you have symptoms. The symptoms of Swine Flu are similar to regular human seasonal influenza and include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing. Some people with swine flu may also have runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

DIAGNOSIS
There are different levels of any flu, some very mild, some moderate, some severe. Most important: tend to protecting your lungs by seeing a doctor sooner rather than later if you have coughing that hurts, or will not cease, or sounds like you have broken glass deep in your chest when you cough. There are medicines that will not cure flu, but will calm the coughing reflex so the lungs are not constantly being blown out. Swine flu is diagnosed by taking a swab of your throat in the first five days when the virus is active.

ANOTHER THING TO KEEP YOUR EYES ON
If one comes down with this flu (any flu, really) one may have to force drinking of fluids to ward against the ill effects of diarrhea — which causes the body to lose much water, and thereby disturbs the body’s most critical systems. This can be deadly. Adequate hydration will keep this from occuring. Even though we most often dont feel like eating and drinking fluids when we are ill, ingestion of adequate water is absolutely essential.

WHO IS MOST AT RISK, NOT IN CONTRACTING THE FLU, BUT FROM HAVING SERIOUS ADVERSE EFFECTS FROM IT
It is not an age group exactly that is most at risk. The elderly, the young and people of all ages can be harmed by deep infection to lungs, and also those of all ages can weaken and also die if electrolytes, normally carried in the body through water especially, are disturbed or running on empty… electrolytes amongst other matters, regulate heart beat.

Little babies and children, and those of any age who already do not hydrate their bodies well, and daily, are at greater risk. Persons already run down in health are at greater risk.

MEDICINES AVAILIBLE
One familiar medicine is called by brandname: Tamiflu. (The following from the CDCP: There are four different antiviral drugs that are licensed for use in the US for the treatment of influenza: amantadine, rimantadine, oseltamivir and zanamivir. While most swine influenza viruses have been susceptible to all four drugs, the most recent swine influenza viruses isolated from humans are resistant to amantadine and rimantadine. At this time, CDC recommends the use of oseltamivir or zanamivir for the treatment and/or prevention of infection with swine influenza viruses.)

PREVENTION HELPS
Consider wearing a mask. Use anti-bacterial hand wash. Avoid crowds. Delay visits to Mexico for the time being. Cover your mouth if you sneeze or cough. Stay home from school, work, gatherings if you are ill.

MYTH-BUSTING
Swine flu is not contracted by eating pork. It comes from humans being around infected pigs as on farms or livestock trade fairs. It is then spread like the common cold, through human to human contact.

VACCINE?
At this time, there is no Swine Flu vaccine for humans. There is a vaccine for pigs to ward off the disease in them. I’d say, likely, THAT is what the public’s greatest concern ought to be… the proper care of livestock so that humans are not put at pandemic risk from poor (in more ways than one) husbandry.

Here too, an excerpt from the New York Times, dateline April 26, Sunday 20009

Swine Flu Prompts U.S. to Declare Public Health Emergency

American health officials on Sunday declared a public health
emergency over increasing cases of swine flu, saying that
they had confirmed 20 cases of the disease in the United
States and expected to see more as investigators fan out to
track down the path of the outbreak.

Although officials said that most of the cases had been mild
and urged Americans not to panic, the emergency declaration
frees resources to be used toward diagnosing or preventing
additional cases and releases money for more antiviral drugs.