Pregnant women risk of Swine flu confirmed

Pregnant women are to be given priority when it comes to swine flu treatment after a study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that they are four times more likely to need hospital treatment than the general population.

Without anti-viral drugs like Tamiflu or Relenza pregnant women are likely to develop complications. In study that looked at 34 confirmed cases of swine flu infection among pregnant women, 11 had to be admitted to hospital. This was more than four times the rate seen in the general population. Six of the eleven women eventually died. Which on reflection is a shocking statistic. None of the women were given anti-viral drugs during the first 48 hours of getting the infection.

It seems that we do indeed need to worry for a small yet incredibly significant section of the population. Tamiflu needs to given out to women that are at various stages of their pregnancies so that they are prepared for the worse. We need to do all we can to protect the carriers of our young from the growing impact of swine flu.

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

Swine Flu vaccine still months away

The World Health Organization has confirmed that vaccines will not be available until the end of September-early October. Dr Margaret Chan, WHO director-general, confirmed that a vaccine will be available soon but not one that has been proven safe. Clinical trial data (that is needed before the vaccine can be distributed for general) use will not be available until another two to three months.

The vaccine still needs to be studied to find out if one or two doses are required to ensure immunity and to find out if there are any unforeseen side-effects.

The U.S may have as many as 160m doses of vaccine by October but they still don't know how far these doses will go. If more vaccine is required in each dose and two doses are required to ensure immunity then the 160m will only serve a fraction of the population.

However, swine flu is spreading faster in some countries than the experts predicted. So far it has infected more than a million people in the U.S and has killed more than 700 people globally.

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

Swine Flu panic and pregnant women

Some specialist organizations (like the UKs National Childbirth Trust) is advising women to consider postponing trying to become pregnant until the swine flu pandemic is over.

Expectant mothers seem to be at a greater risk from swine flu because their immune systems are slightly suppressed to make sure the baby isn't rejected. Also from evidence gathered so far it seems that pregnant women have more severe symptoms and take longer to fight off the disease.

This advice is seen by many to be scaremongering even though there is some truth in the claim. From the hospital figures so far the pregnant women and very young children are the most at risk groups.

But the likelihood of swine flu complications occurring to the majority of pregnant women is still incredibly remote.

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

Whose at most risk from Swine Flu?

In some countries, the disease is spreading faster than the scientists anticipated. And with such high numbers of people suffering from swine flu, health-care specialists are now in a position to start assessing the behaviour of the disease.

It is now generally accepted that swine flu seems to affect young children more than the elderly. Even though the mortality rate is still quite low, a disproportionate number of children seem to be catching the disease and they seem to show the worst symptoms.

This is a worrying fact. Some sources say that more than one-third of all children will be infected with the swine flu virus. With a mortality rate of about 0.5%, that could result in a lot of swine flu related childhood deaths.

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

Mortality Rate of Swine Flu is still too difficult to Predict

Scientists have had difficulty in predicting the mortality rate of swine flu because they say they don't have enough accurate information. Apparently, they need more information concerning the true numbers of deaths related to swine flu and not deaths that could be attributed to other underlying medical issues.

From the limited information gathered so far it seems that swine flu has a mortality rate similar to that of normal seasonal flu, giving us a figure of 0.5% or 1 in 200. This is much lower than the mortality rate of one of the worst pandemics of last century, the Spanish Flu pandemic, which killed about 2% of the people it infected.

However, this is the first phase of swine flu. It is very likely to get more virulent later as the disease continues to spread and develop.

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

New Swine Flu Deaths in the UK

In the last few days there has been two deaths of otherwise healthy individuals in the United Kingdom caused by swine flu. These deaths are in complete contrast to the other swine flu related deaths that had previously affected people with underlying health problems.

The recent death is of a six year old girl who is rumoured to have only had tonsillitis before she died. It seems that the young are more seriously affected by swine flu than the old. And some are beginning to wonder if the swine flu virus isn't starting to mutate.

Scientists have responded by stating that there is no evidence that the virus has changed significantly in the last few weeks. However, the increased number of swine flu related deaths is worrying a sign of the speed of its spread and the random nature of its capacity to cause serious illness.

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

Swine Flu Deaths and the Media

The official explanation for this unusual disparity is that the initial reports were only suspected cases. But what made these cases suspect in the first place? Did these 159 unfortunate Mexicans die of respiratory disease or not? Apparently, Mexico doesn’t have the facilities to isolate and confirm cases of swine flu. Samples have to be sent to the United States to be verified and confirmed.

If that’s the case how could such a furor have been stirred up about something that wasn’t real at the time? Before the media got on the swine flu bandwagon shouldn’t someone have verified the numbers?

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

What happened to the number of Swine Flu deaths?

If I remember correctly wasn’t the number of deaths due to swine flu in Mexico something close to 150 people? No, in fact on the 29th of April 2009 a number of media agencies stated that the official death toll was in fact 159. From the BBC to CNN it seemed that the numbers that were succumbing to swine flu were growing rapidly.

Now the number of deaths is less than half that amount, what happened? Is there something going on the background that we should be privy to?

This strikes of a swine flu cover up.

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

Swine Flu has just got Serious

It seems that the swine flu situation isn’t going to just go away and disappear like some previous instances of new contagious diseases. It has become a world-wide phase six pandemic, that is spreading faster than it can monitored. It can no longer be contained the virus is now truly… wild.

Now health experts are in agreement that the infection rate in most northern industrialized countries could surge to an unbelievable 100,000 cases a day by the beginning of September. There could also be further spikes in new cases in the autumn and winter.

Luckily the disease is still relatively mild.

But from the statistics it seems very likely that a vast majority of people will eventually contract the disease.

What can we do to make sure that we are protected? Is there a way to avoid getting swine flu?

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