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H1N1 SWINE FLU SINE , SYSMPTOMS AND TREATMENT BY DR HARSHAD RAVAL MD (Hom.)

Now a day all over the world people are suffering from swine flu so this disease is declared as a pandemic disease. This flu can preventable and successfully treatable by homeopathy medicine. The 2009 flu outbreak in humans is due to a new strain of influenza A virus subtype H1N1 that derives in part from human influenza, avian influenza, and two separate strains of swine influenza. The origins of this new strain are unknown. It passes with apparent ease from human to human, an ability attributed to an as-yet unidentified mutation. The strain in most cases causes only mild symptoms and the infected person makes a full recovery without requiring medical attention and without the use of antiviral medicines.

What is H1N1 (swine) flu?

H1N1 (referred to as “swine flu” early on) is a new influenza virus causing illness in people. This new virus was first detected in people in the United States in April 2009. Other countries, including Mexico and Canada, have also reported people sick with this new virus. This virus is spreading from person-to-person, probably in much the same way that regular seasonal influenza viruses spread.

In late March and early April 2009, cases of human infection with swine influenza A (H1N1) viruses were first reported in Southern California and near San Antonio, Texas.

In the beginning it was difficult to predict the effect of this virus on general population. In seasonal flu, there are certain people who are at higher risk of serious flu-related complications. This includes people with 65 years of more age, children below five years, pregnant women, and people of any age with chronic medical conditions.

This virus is contagious but, at this time, it not known how easily the virus spreads between people. The symptoms of H1N1 swine flu in people are similar to the symptoms of regular human flu and include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Some people have reported diarrhoea and vomiting associated with H1N1 swine flu. Severe illness (pneumonia and respiratory failure) and even deaths have been reported with H1N1 swine flu infection. Like seasonal flu, H1N1 swine flu may cause a worsening of underlying chronic diseases.

Homeopaths are singularly confident about treating viral illness, including flu. There is a long history of successful management of serious acute infections with homeopathy, particularly the flu. Homeopathic medicine proved extremely effective in the management of the 1918 flu epidemic, and it will prove itself in any future flu pandemic, just as it does every winter in the treatment of that year’s flu cases. The Spanish flu pandemic was a plague that exceeded the ravages of the Bubonic Plague of 1347 that killed a third of the European population. Worldwide the Spanish flu killed an estimated 40 million people. In some primitive cultures the death rate was 100 percent.

 Fortunately, many patients in the United States had access to homeopathic medical care. A report to the American Institute of Homeopathy in 1921 documented the dramatic success of homeopathy in the worst flu pandemic in history. The death rate of 24,000 flu cases under conventional medical care in that study was 28.2 percent, while the death rate of 26,000 cases treated with homeopathy was a nearly miraculous 1.05 percent. Similarly, many homeopathic physicians each reported treating thousands of patients with very few deaths.

1The most significant flu pandemic occurred in 1918/1919. The global mortality rate from the 1918/1919 pandemic is not known, but is estimated at 2.5 to 5% of those who were infected died. With 20% or more of the world population suffering from the disease to some extent, a case-fatality ratio this high would mean that about 0.5-1% or 50 million to 100 million people worldwide were killed. In 1957, an Asian flu pandemic infected some 45 million Americans and killed 70,000. Eleven years later, lasting from 1968 to 1969, the Hong Kong flu pandemic afflicted 50 million Americans and caused 33,000 deaths, costing approximately $3.9 billion. In 1976, about 500 soldiers became infected with swine flu over a period of a few weeks.

Signs and Symptoms:

* Difficulty in breathing or shortness of breath
* Pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen
* Sudden dizziness, sneezing, coughing
* Confusion
* Severe or persistent vomiting
* Flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough

Coughing, Diarrhea, Fever, Headache, Lack of appetite, Lethargy

Muscle aches, Nausea, Runny nose, Sore throat, Vomiting

Complications of Swine Flu as seen by Homeopathy:

* Pneumonia

* Bronchitis

* Sinus infections

* Ear infections

children, emergency warning signs  and symptoms :            
* Bluish or gray skin colour
* Not drinking enough fluids
* Severe or persistent vomiting
* Not waking up or not interacting
* Being so irritable that the child does not want to be held
* Flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough

Which of these swine flu medicines to take with Homeopathy?

If the patient has mild flu like symptoms (runny nose and watery eyes etc) but no other peculiar symptom but is anxious if it might be swine flu - think about  Aconitum napellus: This remedy is used for symptoms that come on very quickly and strongly especially at night along with fever and thirst alternating with chills.

If the flu patient is listless, prostrated, indifferent, has offensive diarrhoea and the parts rested upon feel sore and bruised - think about  Baptisia. Influenza with marked gastro-intestinal symptoms may need this remedy, especially when there are present putrid diarrhea stools.

Homeopathy swine Flu Prevention

For at least the past 125 years homeopathic practitioners have used the medicine Influenzinum as a flu preventive. Influenzinum is a homeopathic medicine made from flu viruses. A proprietary preparation is produced each year using the flu virus strains recommended by the World Health Organization for the year’s vaccine production. The typical dosage is once per week for four weeks beginning in October or later, followed by another dose three weeks later.

Between the years 1918 and 1957 the preparation of Influenzinum was derived from samples of blood or nasal secretions taken from patients who contracted the flu during the deadly 1918 flu pandemic. Subsequent to 1957 Influenzinum preparations come from a homeopathic preparation of the yearly flu viruses chosen for the flu vaccine.

Homeopathic Flu Medicines, Natural Remedies for the Swine flu:

The two most frequently indicated homeopathic flu medicines over the past 100 years have been Gelsemium and Bryonia. There are significant differences in the symptom pictures of these two medicines that make it easy to decide which is the better fit. They are not the only medicines used to treat the flu, but between them they will probably fit the majority of cases.

SWINE FLU Homeopathy remedies:

Arsenicum album: For exhaustion and chills as well as restlessness and anxiety, watery runny nose, frequent sneezing and dry cough. The head feels very warm while the body is chilled

Allium cepa. Profuse catarrhal coryza; the nose runs freely, there is sneezing, irritability cough, for when the eyes water and sting, along with frequent

 

Apis mellifica: For fever which alternates between sweating and dry periods, flushing of the face, sore throat and swollen tonsils in conjunction with low thirst, pain in the ears and swollen eyelids.

Antimonium tart: For late night feelings of suffocation, mucous rattling in the lungs, strong frequent cough.

Baryta carbonica: For runny nose, swollen lymph nodes, tonsils, adenoids and lips.

Belladonna: For sudden and strong symptoms which can include fever, hot skin, flushed face and hypersensitivity to light as well as an inflamed sore throat, strong migraine, frequent cough and feeling of cold to the extremities.

Bryonia: For muscle aches, headache, frequent strong cough, stomach pains and a dry mouth with constant thirst.

The trouble here is largely bronchial and going down. When a person is very grumpy and feels miserable with the flu, wanting only to lie still and be left alone, this remedy is likely to be useful. Headache, muscles, aches, and cough or stomach pain may be the major symptoms. Everything feels worse from even the slightest motion. The person’s mouth usually is dry, with a thirst for long cold drinks.

Carbo veg: For throat roughness and rawness accompained by pain, hoarseness, evening cough and mucous.

Causticum: For cough at night or caused by stooping and accompanied by hip pain, painful throat, rattling in the chest, feeling of lack of air when talking or walking.

Chamomilla: For tightness of breath, dry cough at night, wheezing and rattling in the chest, hoarseness and raw throat.

Dulcamara: For nasal congestion and facial pain especially if the individual has a history of allergies.This is one of our best remedies in the acute form; the eyes are suffused, the throat is sore and the cough hurts because of the muscular soreness. If brought on by damp, cold changes in the weather, so much the surer is Dulcamara indicated. 

Euphrasia: For inflamed teary eyes, bouts of sneezing, cough from phlegm collecting in the throat and clear nasal discharge.

Ferrum phosphoricum: For reddened cheeks, migraine, tiredness and fever along with frequent dry cough, powerful thirst and vomiting after meals.

Kali bichromicum: For the later stages when it is hard to clear the throat from viscous stringy phlegm, strong coughing, and pain at the base of the nose.

Kali carb: For middle of the night coughing, hoarseness, sharp jabbing pains on the sides of the chest when breathing deeply.

Lycopodium: For forcible cough, especially at night or when breathing deeply, pressure and constriction of the chest.

Mercurius solubilis: For swollen lymph nodes, bad breath, tonsil or ear infection, sensitivity to temperature changes and sweating and drooling at night.

Natrum muriaticum: For migraine, attenuated sense of taste and smell, cold sores around the mouth, chapped or cracked lips and clear nasal mucous.

Nux vomica: For strong chills and nausea, digestive cramping, painful cough and forced breathing along with high fever, hypersensitivity to light, odors and sound.

Oscillococcinum (also called Anas barbariae): This one is generally regarded to be the number one product utilized for homeopathic flu remedies. It is widely used in Continental Europe, especially in France.

Phytolacca: For roughness and inflammation of the throat with dryness and soreness.

Phosphorus: For reddened face, dizzyness, weakness, migraine, sore throat with cough and a strong thirst followed by vomiting.

Pulsatilla: For thick, greenish yellow mucous, congestion and fever especially in the late evening and night.

Rumex: For throat irriation, inability to cough up mucous, pains in the centre of the lung which may be accompanied by rawness and burning.

Sabadilla. Sneezing is the great keynote of this remedy. Sneezing and lachrymation on going into the open air. The throat is swollen and the pain is worse on empty swallowing; the sneezing is excessive, shaking the whole body. Shudderings, with gooseflesh chills creeping upwards, are also prominent symptoms. Frontal headache, dryness of mouth, without thirst and cough, worse on lying down, are additional symptoms. It suits well many cases of the catarrhal form of flu; other remedies having sneezing are Cyclamen and E Sanguinaria nitrate is especially valuable when the trachea and larynx are affected. Phytolacca. Specific when the throat is inflamed and spotty, with great hardness and tenderness of the glands.

Spongia. For hoarseness with a feeling of burning or constriction in the throat, dry, frequent coughing, difficulty, and chest weakness.

Sticta pulmonaria. General confusion of ideas ; inability to concentrate them. Dull sensation in the head, with sharp, darting pains through the vertex, side of face, and lower jaw. Dull, heavy pressure in forehead, and root of nose. Catarrhal headache before the discharge sets in. Burning in eyelids, -with soreness of the ball in closing the lids or turning the eyes.

Sulphur: For long lasting or ongoing symptoms of a searing, hot origin with sweating.

Homeopathy Dosage Directions
Select the remedy that most closely matches the symptoms. In conditions where self-treatment is appropriate, unless otherwise directed by a physician, a lower potency (6X, 6C, 12X, 12C, 30X, or 30C) should be used

Links : www.drharshadraval.com

 

 

 

About the Author

Dr Harshad Raval MD[hom]
Honorary consultant homeopathy physician to his Excellency governors of Gujarat India. Qualified MD consultant homeopath ,International Homeopathy adviser, books writer and columnist. Specialist in kidney, cancer, psoriasis, leucoderma and other chronic disease,. www.homeopathyonline.in email : info@homeopathyonline.in

Symptoms of H1N1 (Swine Flu)

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Industrial Lighting

Industrial lighting brings innumerable, indispensable benefits to any organization. First and foremost among these benefits are energy efficiency and safety. Proper illumination of factories, warehouses, docks, and parking lots provides employees with carefully calculated levels of light optimized to help them work and move about without injury. This light should be sourced from the most energy saving industrial light fixtures possible, and ideally, these fixtures should be American made, built to last, and warranted in writing to cover all possible contingencies related to maintenance and replacements down the line.

If workers stand or move in dark spots or shadows, it’s time to invest in new industrial lights to make sure they can see what they are doing. This will have the immediate, secondary effect of improving overall site security. Well-positioned outdoor industrial lighting with motion sensors can build a perimeter of light that maintains the security of your facility. RLLD Commercial Lighting has a wide selection of industrial floodlights, wall packs and spotlights that integrate seamlessly into all of the major security systems in today’s manufacturing environment.

To know which industrial lights your clients need, you have to first perform (or have performed for you) a very systematic and thorough photometric analysis of the facility and surrounding acreage. Walkways, parking lots, shipping docks, storage space, building exteriors, and landscapes all require different levels of light. Only with a point-by-point schematic of the site can you determine the exact number of fixtures to install, where to position them, and what types to propose.

Being methodical in these early planning stages will pay off when you get to the negotiating table, because your streamlined proposal will stand out from those of your competitors who did not take the time to weigh all of these factors and proposed either too many fixtures, or industrial fixtures that are bright, but do not offer the very best possible LPW rating. With RLLD Commercial Lighting as your design services support, domestic lighting equipment vendor, you can propose the best and brightest options to any application you encounter in the marketplace. These applications include, but are not limited to:

· Sports Lighting

· Industrial Parking Garage Lights

· Industrial Parking Lot Lighting

· Automobile Dealership Lighting

· Mall Parking Lights and Lighting Poles

· Equestrian centers and Racetracks

· Industrial Parks

· Interior Office Lighting

· Municipal Park Lighting

· Industrial Warehouse and Factory Lights (Both indoor and outdoor)

· Security Lighting

· Roadway & Street Lighting

· Architectural Area Lighting

Finding the best energy saving options for your client means determining which lamping option saves your client the most money on power costs without sacrificing vertical or foot candle levels. The key to accurately determining this lies in calculating the necessary level of lumens versus the amount of energy the lamp you have in mind consumes. The location, size, and purpose of your client’s facility will provide the critical data you need for these calculations. Halogen lamps produce a wide, intense beam spread and work very well in parking lots, building loading docks, and exterior walkways. Fluorescent lamps proliferate the ceilings of warehouses and factories, utilizing gas vapor, electronic ballasts, and energy saving engineering designs that help companies reduce power costs. Rapidly evolving LED technology is rapidly overtaking both, and may soon rival, if not out compete all together, even the brightest of HID in the near future.

Once you have pinpointed a lamping option, it is now much easier to select from any number of fixture designs we have available. Industrial lighting manufacturers make fixtures for all indoor and outdoor environments, and they design these fixtures to mount on the sides of walls, below overhangs, on poles, on ceilings, and even on hand-held mounts for portable industrial lighting uses. Interior, exterior, and portable industrial lighting fixtures vary considerably in size according to the specific tasks they support and general environment they are meant to illuminate. Some industrial lights work best when networked in a series, while others work better as standalone fixtures.

Of course, performing all the necessary photometric calculations for an indoor/outdoor industrial lighting system, and developing a point-by-point installation plan, can be a laborious task to work out manually even for a large organization with substantial human resources. Smaller contractors and sole proprietor electrical design and lighting specialists have little, if any time, to do all this math and run their businesses at the same time. This is why most RLLD Commercial Lighting as spent the money on the world’s most advanced industrial lighting design software so local businesses and family owned companies can call us and avail themselves of the same sophisticated tools that only their largest rivals can afford. Working with an RLLD Commercial Lighting specialist helps a small company think big and operate big, and it levels the playing field between corporations and entrepreneurs like few other competitive advantages do.

About the Author

rlldesign.com
. For more information on
Industrial Lighting
and
Commercial Lighting
visit us online.

DANGER! The (Compact Fluorescent Bulb) and (mercury) at home

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Avian Influenza Prevention and Treatments

Avian influenza affects chickens and the poultry industry, recombined with the human influenza viruses form a totally new influenza virus to which people do not have protection that spreads in the population and that causes serious illness and death in humans. Bird Flu is an infectious disease of birds that can also affect people. It can present mild or severe forms of illness. The only subtype that can cause severe illness to people is Influenza A /H5N1 virus, initially it affects chickens, ducks and other birds by the process of mutation they can become highly pathogenic. If the bird flu virus recombines with a human flu virus and mutate it may become possible the transmission from human to human as happened in Asia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia Thailand, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Eygpt, China, and Iraq where people died. Bird flu affected Australia in 1997 but, was eradicated.

Water birds are supposed to carry the avian influenza type A virus inside their intestines and to distribute it in the environment through bird faeces.

Infection determines many symptoms in wild and domesticated birds from mild illnesses to highly contagious and severe epidemics. Among them a decline in activity and in egg production, facial swelling and bluish-violet colored combs and wattles, diarrhea, hemorrhages, paralysis, sudden deaths. Signes and symptoms of bird flu in humans are similar to other influenza viruses: sore throat and cough, fever, muscle weakness and/or pain with complications such as: severe viral pneumonia, respiratory distress syndrome, multi- organ failure, eye infections, pneumonia, inflammation of the brain and heart. Health experts have made research into tests and vaccines, and rigorous quarantine practices. Spanish flu was the worst influenza pandemic and occurred in 1918–19. There have been adopted governmental federal plans Australian Action Plan for Pandemic Influenza, to prevent an outbreak among poultry farms. Treatments of bird flu are antiviral drugs, Relenza and Tamiflu, but some of these drugs are expensive and supplies are limited. To prevent recombination of avian with the human influenza virus: is recommended a vaccine used against circulating strains in humans to those exposed to bird flu. A vaccine against bird flu is in development.

Suggestions for people travelling to affected countries:

Wash eggs thoroughly before breaking and wash your hands thoroughly after handling eggs. Don’t go to farms or market places. Wash hands, utensils thoroughly after handling raw poultry. Cook poultry at high temperatures.

You may get help from: a doctor, Avian Influenza Hotline, Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Communicable Diseases Section.

Remember: Although bird flu is spread between birds it affects humans through bird faeces and discharges.

If you seem to get flu symptoms see immediately a doctor and explain him how exposed you have been to avian influenza.

For more information about bird flu or even about bird flu treatment please review this page http://www.bird-flu-info-center.com/bird-flu-treatment.htm

About the Author

For more information about bird flu or even about bird flu treatment please review this page http://www.bird-flu-info-center.com/bird-flu-treatment.htm

Dr. Samir Mani Dixit talks about current diarrhea and Flu attack ( HQ )

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Native Remedies Ultra Pack (Stomach Flu Fighter 50 ml, Queasex Anti-Nausea Drops 50 ml, Immunityplus 50ml) $72.37 A three-product ultra pack with homeopathic remedies for diarrhea, vomiting and cramps as well as support for fast-acting nausea relief, plus herbal drops for long-term immune system support….

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Licht van de lazer partysquad Van Sandkiller

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what foods are high in protein and have zero or very low sodium which would help with pitting edema?

i do not use salt and have not for many years; one of my medications causes fluid retention; i find it difficult to establish a healthy diet that is made up of foods that have no sodium or very little; i also need high protein foods…

I’m just shooting from the hip here but there are plenty of protein supplements that promote low to very low sodium. You can order in bulk from trueprotein com. Aside from that, Chicken breasts (boiled), nuts (unsalted of course) and I think Tofu (check the label). Of course, when eating plant proteins, keep in mind they are incomplete and you’ll need to supplement and amino with them. Also, do some research into raw/organic foods such as Kashi (sp?) you’ll have to match your blood type but trust me, you will be in the best shape of your life!

Good luck, I wish I had a disease that made me stick to a healthy diet. (I’m only halfway kidding:)

Ban On Salt In Food At Restaurants?

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Is the story of the cheerleader who got dystonia after getting a flu shot a hoax?

is this real?
and should you be scared?
watch it if you haven’t seen it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNuExNQ7WJo&feature=related

Desiree Jennings decided it would be a good idea to get the seasonal flu shot, but ten days after her shot she got sick and was finally diagnosed with Dystonia. Read more on her Desiree’s heartbreaking story below. Do you think the flu girl is a hoax?

There are many that wonder if the flu girl video is a hoax? But sadly it appears to be all too real, especially for Desiree Jennings.

Jennings went to her local Safeway and got the flu shot as a precaution so she wouldn’t be out sick with the flu, but soon she became very ill.

“I got flu-like symptoms — nausea, vomiting, body aches, fever — then was lethargic for a week and started blacking out,” said Jennings, an AOL employee and Washington Redskins ambassador hoping to become a cheerleader.

Doctors were baffled as to why Desiree’s speech and walking were so affected. So Desiree saw neurologists, physical therapists and psychologists.

Hot Cheerleader Hoax: Disorder After Flu Shot? (Video)

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Drugstore Clinics Widespread, Despite Criticisms: Texas May See More Walk-In Options

Basic healthcare may have just gotten easier, albeit controversially. The number of walk-in clinics at drugstores like Walgreens, CVS, Wal-Mart, and Duane Reade has been increasing over the last two years, and very little is slowing down plans to add hundreds more across the country. Recent studies cite shorter waiting periods, lower costs, and instant prescription fills for the clinics, in contrast to more expensive and time-consuming trips to doctors’ offices. The majority of these clinics also accept most health insurance plans, leaving little incentive for on-the-go Americans to wait days or weeks for non-specialized appointments in conventional offices.

The rise in healthcare costs, the decrease in the number able to afford private health insurance, and the inadequate number of primary care physicians across the country have all been building up to this — perhaps inevitable — solution. One can now walk in to any number of seven hundred clinics located in several nationwide drug and discount store chains and be seen, on average, in under twenty-five minutes. While the clinics are not recommended for anything but basic care — such as treating a cold, flu, or mild infection — that’s just fine for many, especially those going back to school, who are often bombarded by common, acute illnesses in those first, returning months.

Texas, a state in which twenty-five percent of the populace is without health insurance, may particularly stand to benefit from increased healthcare options. A visit to a MinuteClinic, a wholly owned subsidiary of CVS Caremark, costs an average of eighteen dollars less than other primary-care clinics, according to HealthPartners, a Minnesota health maintenance organization. Emergency rooms across Dallas, Houston, Austin, and the rest of the state are overloaded with the uninsured seeking basic, non-emergency care simply because they have nowhere else to go. Offering easier, cheaper access to basic diagnostic care and treatments may alleviate some of the burden on both individuals and local facilities overwhelmed by too many people and not enough funding.

Twenty percent of people in the United States have no or inadequate access to a primary care physician, with few indications that statistic will improve in the near future. In 2004, seventy-five percent of the counties in Texas lacked sufficient numbers of primary care physicians to meet local needs, and twenty-four counties had none at all. Drugstore clinics often employ more cost-effective nurse practitioners and physician assistants — healthcare workers with the ability to diagnose and treat everyday conditions, but who are under the supervision of a licensed medical doctor. These workers are growing more and more popular within the industry, partially as a result of the shortage of family practitioners.

But doctors’ groups are protesting, and some with good cause. Many of these groups stand to lose substantial business, and are arguing that such facilities may be unable to provide the proper standards of care, including hygiene and safety. “We’ve got big problems in healthcare, and this is not the answer,” said Rick Kellerman, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Many state officials agree, at least to a certain extent. The walk-in clinics are currently being monitored by a confusing mix of agencies applying a wide and inconsistent range of regulations and enforcement principles. After Massachusetts doctors’ groups issued loud protests to the proposed opening of a MinuteClinic, the Health Department issued guidelines for the state, calling for the facilities to clearly specify that they are “limited service clinics.” The American Medical Association is pushing for similar national requirements on the drugstore facilities, urging local and federal governments to require them to be “well-defined and limited [in] scope.” Two public hearings on the issue are scheduled in Massachusetts in September.

Conflicts of interest between the clinics and the drugstores cannot be ignored, either. New York state regulators are investigating possible inappropriate relationships between drug companies and medical providers. The risk, they say, is of healthcare facilities being used improperly to increase business or to funnel patients into their adjacent pharmacies. In certain states, like New York, it is also necessary for clinics to operate as independent practices or professional corporations; i.e., they must not be a part of the drugstore chains themselves.

“If we determine the business corporations [like CVS] are practicing medicine, then they are illegally practicing the profession and we have the authority to investigate,” said Frank Munoz, associate commissioner of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Professions.

Duane Reade, a pharmacy chain located primarily on the East coast, is attempting to limit possible complications by partnering up with well-known hospitals, such as New York City’s Beth Israel Medical Center and St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center. Duane Reade clinics will be staffed by medical doctors, versus nurse practitioners or physician assistants, and have admitting privileges to partnering facilities. Such agreements will give the doctors the ability to send those in need of emergency care straight to the hospital, and streamline patients’ procedures to see specialists. Additionally, the clinics will function as private medical practices, run by the physicians themselves, who will lease the space from the corporation.

Michael C. Howe, chief executive of MinuteClinic, which runs over two hundred clinics nationwide, defends CVS’s practices as they are, however. “We are transparent with regulators,” he said, and concerns “are being raised by people who have not really studied the model.”

Being aware of current events and issues affecting your health is an important part of taking care of yourself. Minding your health will certainly affect you as you age, and eventually your wallet.

About the Author

Pat Carpenter writes for Precedent Insurance Company. Precedent puts a new spin on health insurance. Learn more at Precedent.com

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Swine H1N1 Flu:2009

Swine H1N1 Flu:2009

Dr.Kedar Karki

 

Swine flu , now known as the 2009 H1N1 flu, is caused by the orthomyxovirus which usually affects pigs but viral mutations allows the virus to cross species to other hosts like humans. The swine influenza virus (SIV) is another example of cross species viral infection which was previously seen with other Zoonotic infections like in civets to humans SARS or Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome and from birds to humans as seen with avian (bird) flu.

 

Unlike SARS and bird flu, swine flu has mutated to the point where the virus can now spread from human-to-human. This current mutation is the cause of the global scare of the recent 2009 outbreak which is feared to become a pandemic. With the popularity of air travel, infected passengers from one region can easily travel to other nations and result in new outbreaks occurring in regions that were not prone to swine flu.

 

The current human-to-human transmission of swine flu is caused by droplet spread through the contact with infected body fluids as in saliva or mucus when sneezing.

 

How is Swine Flu H1N1 Spread?

 

 

The incubation period (time between exposure and onset of symptoms) is still uncertain, but it appears to be 3-4 days.

All flus are spread by droplets that spray out as a person sneezes or coughs. You can catch Swine Flu H1N1 or any flu virus if:

1. You are standing within three feet of an uncovered cough or sneeze and droplets make contact with you or if you inhale them.
2. The droplets land on hard surfaces, like a desk top or keyboard. Even after the droplet dries a flu virus could live for over an hour. You can catch the virus by touching an infected surface then touching your eyes, nose, or mouth.
3. You can give to the flu to somebody else by touching their eyes, nose, or mouth if the virus is on your hand.
4. Somebody coughs sneezes or blows their nose into a tissue, and the wet tissue makes contact with their hand or the tissue tears and the contents make contact with their hand. If they touch hard surfaces or shake hands before they wash their hands then they could spread a virus. Flu viruses can also be spread by handling a contaminated cloth handkerchief then touching people or surfaces.
5. An infected person touches their eyes, nose or mouth then touches other surfaces, objects or people before washing their hands.

 

This is not the same Swine Flu virus people were immunized against in the 1970’s. There is a vaccine for the 2009 Swine Flu Influenza A H1N1 virus under development but even with fast tracking it will take months before it is ready for human trial.

Swine Flu H1N1 is not spread by pigs and you cannot catch Swine Flu H1N1 by eating pork or using medications that are derived from pigs (porcine).

 

Symptoms of Swine Flu

 

Swine flu infection causes symptoms that are similar to the symptoms of influenza infection as seen during the annual ‘flu’ season. This may result in many cases of swine flu being misdiagnosed as a common cold or the ‘flu’ and if infected persons do not seek professional medical treatment, the infection can spread further in the general population.

 

The general symptoms of swine flu include:

 

1. Fever with or without chills.
2. Sore throat.
3. Respiratory symptoms, usually a cough or less frequently as dyspnoea (difficulty breathing) or pneumonia.
4. Fatigue and lethargy
5. Myalgia (general body aches)
6. Headaches
7. Diarrhea
8. Vomiting

The current swine flu epidemic has seen gastrointestinal symptoms like diarrhea and vomiting that are more severe than previous swine flu outbreaks. Unfortunately these gastrointestinal symptoms may often be misdiagnosed as a ‘gastric flu’ and it is important to consult with your medical practitioner if your symptoms persist.

 

 

 

 

 

Preventing the Spread of Swine Flu H1N1

 

 

According to the CDC, proper hand washing is the most effective means of preventing the spread of disease.

1. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are also considered effective.
2. Use disposable tissues, clean your hands after every use.
3. Cough into your elbow or shoulder if you do not have a tissue.
4. Preventative treatments (such as Tamiflu) are not recommended for healthy people as this could potentially lead to resistance. Only seek treatment if you have symptoms.
5. People with flu- like symptoms should avoid public places. If your child’s school is closed do not place your child in group settings such as daycare.
6. If there are confirmed cases in your area, limit exposure by avoiding public places and clean your hands often while out and upon returning home.
7. An infected person is contagious about 1 day before they have symptoms so follow proper hand washing guidelines or use alcohol based hand sanitizers often to prevent the accidental spread of the flu.
8. The contagious period lasts for about 7 days after symptoms start, probably longer in children.

About the Author

Senior Vet.Officer,Central Veterinary Laboratory Kathmandu Nepal M.V.St. Preventive Veterinary Mrdicine

Swine Flu / Information Video

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