The Swine is Spreading!

The article by the New York Times about the Swine Flu had got me thinking about what a serious problem this has become for the world. The outbreak of the Swine Flu or H191 virus was declared as a global pandemic on June 11 2009. Mexican authorities had noticed a spike in the number of hospitalizations and deaths among healthy adults. In the United States over one million people have been infected, causing more than 600 deaths and over 6,000 hospitalizations. The Pandemic has now reached 168 countries and citizens are becoming more aware of what a big deal this has become. Many Patients have been put on Tamiflu or other antiviral medications. Some people aren’t very sure of what the swine flu is, According to the BBC the swine flu is a respitory disease caused by influenza, the symptoms include fever, coughing, sore throat, body aches, chills and fatigue, shortness of breath, low immunity, loss of appetite, vomiting, limb and joint pain and runny nose and sneezing. The swine flu is spread from person to person by sneezing or coughing.

Schools have been shutdown due to this situation and in my opinion I dont think it's necessary, if not in school kid's will be outdoing other things like going to the mall, going to the movies, going to a friends house where they will all either way be exposed to some type of germ wherever they go, depending on how long schools are shutdown for the students and teachers will most likely have to makeup for it in the summer.

The World Health Organization has stated that the pandemic is developing at such a high speed that there is no point to document each case of it. Even though a majority of the people affected with it usually recover with in a week of becoming sick, even without medical treatment. The rates of the number of people that are infected each day continue to rise but now that the cool weather is here we need to be more aware, and keep ourselves from getting sick.

There are many different obvious habits that people all over the world can be doing to prevent themselves and others around them from getting this swine flu. For example we should get our flu shots for those of us at high risk - we are around teachers and kids all day some who may be sick and others who arent but that gives us a high chance of becoming infected. Wash your hands whenever possible,this should be common sense to most people. If you have to sneeze, sneeze into your sleeve instead of your hand because once you touch things like doors, desks, other people you spread your germs onto them as well. Avoid close contact with those who are sick, Stay at home when you are sick, and be sure to follow good health habits like getting the amount of sleep you need, be physically active, eat healthy, and drink plenty of fluids.