About Swine Flu
By admin
What you can do to prevent Swine Flu:
The single best way to prevent seasonal flu is to get vaccinated each year, but good health habits like covering your cough and washing your hands often can help stop the spread of germs and prevent respiratory illnesses like the flu. There also are flu antiviral drugs that can be used to treat and prevent the flu.
Avoid close contact with people who are sick. When you are sick, keep your distance from others to protect them from getting sick too.
If possible, stay home from work, school, and errands when you are sick. You will help prevent others from catching your illness.
Q: Are swine flu symptoms different than seasonal flu symptoms? How can I tell which one I have? Are treatments different?
A: H1N1 symptoms are indistinguishable from seasonal flu symptoms. In both cases, symptoms include fever, sore throat, coughing, muscle aches, fatigue and sometimes headaches, diarrhea and vomiting.
Ninety-nine percent of the flu virus currently in circulation is H1N1, so most people with flu symptoms probably have H1N1. Public health officials recommend testing only hospitalized patients for the virus.
For H1N1 or seasonal flu, rest, drink fluids and take non-prescription medicine to alleviate symptoms.
Q: How long is a swine flu sufferer contagious?
A: The contagious period begins 24 hours before symptoms appear. People are most contagious when they have a fever, but individuals can spread the virus for several days after their fever is gone.
Q: Is swine flu more dangerous than seasonal flu?
A: As with seasonal flu, most people who come down with H1N1 are expected to recover uneventfully at home. A small percentage of people with the flu need to be hospitalized, and some 36,000 people in the Unites States die each year from the flu. H1N1 is expected to be similar, though the sufferers tend to be younger.
Q: Why are young people included in the at-risk category?
A: Older people are more immune apparently because the H1N1 virus is a distant relative to strains that circulated in the last century.
The swine flu virus spreads quickly among the young in schools. Of the 292 confirmed deaths in the United States since Aug. 30, 43 have been under the age of 18, according to the Centers for Disease Control.