Swine Flu and the suspicious behavior of the Media

Pandemics unlike diseases like cholera or malaria are not local and are not isolated to instances where an area suffers from poor hygiene. Pandemics are global. Anybody, anywhere can catch a disease that has reached true pandemic status. A disease like swine flu does not discriminate, rich or poor, young or old anyone can become a victim of its symptoms. Millions, even billions of people could potentially be infected with the disease. The potential devastation of a major pandemic is phenomenal. The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic infected one third of the world’s population and killed more than 50 million people. In the last century, pandemics killed more people than all the worlds natural disasters put together. The scales of death caused by pandemics were comparable to those of world wars.

The more skeptical among us will be quick to remind us that there is a major difference between diseases like malaria and cholera compared to a disease like swine flu.
Swine flu is a true pandemic, it can kill anyone… especially those in the industrialized world. As mentioned before diseases like malaria and cholera are localized to poorer regions of the world. The media could have focused on swine flu more intensely for the simple reason that it had the ability to affect the industrialized nations immensely. Disrupting the proper workings of governments and possibly crippling economies globally.

But does this make the media bad?

In view of the potential of pandemics the media had no option but to cover the swine flu situation the way they did. The more informed we are, the more prepared we are and we can’t be too informed when it comes to something as potentially dangerous as a new form of influenza.

For more information go to:
http://www.swine-flu-facts.info
http://www.swine-flu-facts.org

Media's involvement with Swine Flu

Possibly… but not likely.

Firstly, why would the media take such a course of action? Who would benefit the most? Surely not the media themselves, they’ve already taken some criticism for their over-exuberant coverage of the swine flu epidemic. The only ones that would benefit from such coverage are the major governments of the world, not necessarily the media themselves.

Secondly, what do we mean by the ‘media’? Are we talking about one interconnected, interrelated conglomerate that are seemingly separate but in reality are one united global organization? There is no evidence to substantiate this idea and it smells too much of a conspiracy theory.

Why the media covered the swine flu epidemic the way they did was because they had no choice. If we remember back to early 2004 when cases of avian flu just came to light we can see that the media coverage was just as intense. There are tragic historically reasons for not taking swine flu or any potential pandemic lightly.

For more information go to:
http://www.swine-flu-facts.info/
http://www.swine-flu-facts.org/

Why did the media make so much noise about the of the threat of swine flu? Over the same period of time thousands of people died of the normal seasonal flu as well as a number of other persistent human diseases. Why didn’t these diseases get as much coverage?

Swine flu was new; we had no protection against it. Its potential was unknown, its capacity to cause devastation was a real possibility. But was this reason enough for the over-exaggerated coverage of the disease by the media?

The more cynical among us will be quick to point out that we are in the middle of 2009 and are currently undergoing a global recession. What could distract the masses more than the threat of a killer disease? What could invoke the fear of God more than the prospect of facing one’s own mortality in light of a devastating, indiscriminate, rapidly transmitted disease?

Could the media have deliberately stoked up the dangers of swine for their own reasons?

For more information go to:
http://www.swine-flu-facts.org/
http://www.swine-flu-facts.info

Was the Media’s Swine Flu coverage justified?

For weeks, you couldn’t get away from H1N1 AKA swine flu. It was everywhere. There were deaths, Mexico was at a standstill and travel was restricted to parts of the Yucatán peninsular.

Everyone was worried.

There was an air of inevitability to the spread of swine flu… or so it seemed. But it soon became clear that the current swine flu epidemic was not the same as the 1918 Spanish flu. Of course it can still prove to be as devastating as its early 20th century counterpart, but for now its threat level has abated… substantially.

Did the media over-hype the swine flu situation? Was there a reason for the blanket coverage of swine flu during the early period of its spread?

For more information go to:
http://www.swine-flu-facts.org/
http://www.swine-flu-facts.info/

Demand for Swine Flu vaccine

Manufacturers will be stretched to meet levels of demand that will very likely reach global proportions. Glaxo Smithkline have already admitted they will need to cut some corners to satisfy demands. They will be adding chemical agents called adjuvants to their vaccines to make them stretch a bit further. Adjuvants work by stimulating the immune system enabling them to make antibodies in the presence of reduced amounts of vaccine. It is risky because adjuvants may not be enough to prevent the need for a second dose of vaccine which may be needed to provide full immunity.

How the Swine Flu vaccines are made

The amount of viral particles obtained from incubated eggs is crucial. If pharmaceutical companies like Glaxo-Smithkline who manufacture the vaccines find that they get less than expected from each egg, this could drastically effect the amount available to the public. So far no one is sure how much swine flu vaccine can be grown in each egg.

After the viruses are extracted from the eggs they are broken up into pieces. Splitting them ensures that the protein coat of the viruses is on display so that it can induce an immune response in humans. Antibodies are normally formed in the blood as a direct response to foreign protein particles. These protein particles will be similar to those present on a real live swine flu virus. Therefore a vaccine prepares the immune system for a possible invasion. Enabling the immune system to prepare is what makes a vaccine so powerful.

For more information look at:
http://www.swine-flu-facts.org
http://www.swine-flu-facts.info

The Swine Flu Vaccine

There are now 30,000 cases worldwide and 145 deaths caused by swine flu. The growing swine flu epidemic is gradually becoming serious. The disease is spreading freely across the world and has now achieved pandemic status, the first for influenza for 41 years.

As the possibility of a real swine flu vaccines dawns, we need to be aware of what it really is. And we need to know if there is any serious danger from the vaccine itself.

Now more than ever we need a vaccine for swine flu. But the development of a vaccine is a long arduous process that involves a number of complex intricate steps. But what are the steps needed to make a vaccine for swine flu? The US, Australian and British developmental swine flu vaccines all use different bits of several flu viruses. These are then used to construct a vaccine which specifically stimulates the immune system against swine flu.

The reasons why several pieces of various viruses are used is because only such a mixture can be grown in sufficient quantities in hens eggs to enable industrial production.

Patterns of Influenza Pandemics (Part 2)

Over the last few decades there has been a number of global pandemics these are;

1957 Asian Flu is à Similar to 1889 Influenza virus
1968 Hong Kong Flu is à Similar to the 1900 Influenza virus

The 11 and 50 year hypothesis works reasonably well with the dates above but it quickly breaks down when we use it to predict what has happened since. According to this idea the next pandemic should have occurred in 1979 and the one after that in 1990. But there hasn’t been anything global since 1968.

There has, however, been many localized incidence of influenza like diseases. But these have often been contained within small geographic locations and often disappeared as quickly as they arrived.

It seems that influenza is truly random in its characteristics and random in its behavior. No one can really predict how virulent the next global influenza outbreak will be and no one can be predict when exactly it will strike.

For more information look at:
http://www.swine-flu-facts.org
http://www.swine-flu-facts.info

Swine flu becomes a pandemic

Swine flu has officially become a pandemic. With 29,000 people infected worldwide and 144 deaths, it has grown to a level where its spread cannot be stopped. The spread of the virus is now truly global covering every continent and any possibility of containing the disease is now deemed impossible.

The WHO director-general Dr. Margaret Chan added, ‘we are now satisfied that this virus is spreading to a number of countries and is not stoppable.’
Even though its pandemic level has changed, it doesn’t mean that the virus is any more virulent. It only reflects the extent of its transmission.

Patterns of Influenza Pandemics (Part 1)

The real danger of influenza virus is their capacity to change… seemingly at random. This unique and perplexing characteristic makes it near impossible to make a universal influenza vaccine. New vaccines have to be made annually for seasonally flu and periodically for influenza pandemics.

But some have postulated that there could be a pattern to the periodic occurrences of influenza pandemics. Looking at the occurrences of pandemics over the last century an 11 year cycle can be glimpsed between major pandemics. It can also be seen that there is a larger cycle that occurs every 50 or so. Possibly reflecting the period of time taken for the various influenza strains to pass through the population and the time taken for all the immunities within the population to die out.

For more information look at:
http://www.swine-flu-facts.org/
http://www.swine-flu-facts.info/

The structure of Swine Flu

Swine flu is an example of such a change. But what are these changes and what parts of the virus causes the damage that destroys normal healthy cells?

The H1N1 designation of the swine flu virus gives us a clue to the inner workings of the virus. It represents the major functional proteins on its surface.

The ‘H’ stands for hemagglutinin which is a protein that binds the swine flu virus to the cell and injects its content into it.

The ‘N’ stands for neuraminidase which possesses a number of specialized enzymes that causes the infected cells to release the newly formed viruses.

All these aspects of swine flu make it potentially very dangerous. Even though the form that is currently spreading is relatively mild it could still change into a virulent strain in the next few months before winter arrives. The fact that it’s also a new disease means that there is no current vaccine for swine flu. So if it becomes more deadly, we will have no protection against it except for those provided by generic anti-viral drugs like Tamiflu and Relenza.

For more information look at:
http://www.swine-flu-facts.org
http://www.swine-flu-facts.info

What makes Swine Flu so dangerous?

What makes swine flu so dangerous is that like all influenza viruses it undergoes the process of antigenic drift. This is when spot mutations occur on the genetic material that causes slight changes in the physical make-up of the virus.

These slight changes are what frustrate scientist’s attempts to create the ultimate vaccination for influenza. Due to constant changes to the protein particles of the outer coats of viruses (which the immune system is targeted for during vaccination) new vaccines are always needed to combat ever new versions of the viruses.

For more information look at:
http://www.swine-flu-facts.org
http://www.swine-flu-facts.info

What is Swine Flu?

Swine flu is caused by a virus. Viruses are incredibly small particles of organic matter that has the capacity to interact with various components of life systems. What they essentially do is hijack parts of the genetic machinery of a living cell and use it to replicate aspects of themselves often taking it over and destroying it in the process.

Till this day nobody knows what viruses really are. What are their true origins? How did they evolve? Are they living or are they just dead particles? Even though they haven’t got the machinery to reproduce and haven’t got the apparatus to metabolize materials to create energy, they still strangely have the ability to integrate themselves with life systems.

The swine flu virus itself is globular in shape. Its outer coat is composed of the plasma membrane that it ‘steals’ from the cells it attacks. Within its core is its genetic blueprint that is composed of RNA. This blueprint contains all the information that makes the bits and pieces (which are mostly proteins) that causes all the damage.

For more information:
http://www.swine-flu-facts.org/
http://www.swine-flu-facts.info/

The Potential of Swine Flu

What are the facts and what are the half-truths and lies? Swine flu has now become global. It has spread from its epicenter in Mexico to every corner of the world. Its neighbor the United States now has the most reported cases of the disease with a total of about 11,500 probable and confirmed cases of swine flu (Reuters 4th June). The emphasis of the disease has now shifted from Mexico to the United States.
From the numbers coming out the United States we can begin to estimate the virulence of the disease.
So far 770 of those who have caught the disease have been hospitalized. That’s about 2.5 per cent of all the cases so far in the United States and there has been 21 swine flu related deaths.
Swine flu’s infection to mortality rate isn’t very high, been comparable to that of normal season flu. But this could all change if it mutates before the highly anticipated second wave hits later on in the year…

Its potential is immense. It could remain in its current mild form but just spread little faster during the colder winter months of the year. Or it could emulate the devastation caused by the Spanish flu, which incidentally was also caused by a H1N1 influenza virus. It infected approximately one third of the World’s population in 1918 and killed more than 50 million people. Its effect was more damaging because the virus seemed to target young adults, using the cytokine storm mechanism which triggers an overreaction of the immune system. It was those that had the strongest immune systems that were the most vulnerable, the most productive members of society, the most able…

The Spanish flu was the worst type of pandemic and swine flu has the potential to follow in steps.
For more information look at:
http://www.swine-flu-facts.org/
http://www.swine-flu-facts.info/