Apr 30 2009
Is Swine Flu going to be worse then the Spanish Flu of 1918?
Swine Flu and the Spanish Flu of 1918“The incubation period of swine flue is just three days. The symptoms are the same as other flu-like respiratory diseases, and include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headaches, chills, and fatigue. Some victims of swine flu also experience diarrhea and vomiting. But it takes a laboratory test to make a positive identification - a test that takes three days for the result. Scientists in Hong Kong, a place previously stricken with other virulent forms of flu including SARS, Asian flu, and bird flu, is mobilizing as many as 10,000 people - anyone and everyone who ever worked in the medical field in other flu epidemics, to battle the new swine flu. More important to the rest of the world, in addition to trying to develop a specific vaccine for swine flu, they are working to develop a test that will take only a few hours to make a positive identification of what kind of flu is affecting a patient.” The Spanish Flu of 1918 The 1918 flu pandemic (commonly referred to as the Spanish flu) was an influenza pandemic that spread to nearly every part of the world. It was caused by an unusually virulent and deadly Influenza A virus strain of subtype H1N1. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin of the virus.[1] Most of its victims were healthy young adults, in contrast to most influenza outbreaks which predominantly affect juvenile, elderly, or otherwise weakened patients. The pandemic lasted from March 1918 to June 1920,[2] spreading even to the Arctic and remote Pacific islands. It is estimated that anywhere from 20 to 100 million people were killed worldwide,[3] or the approximate equivalent of one third of the population of Europe,[4][5][6] more than double the number killed in World War I.[7] This extraordinary toll resulted from the extremely high illness rate of up to 50% and the extreme severity of the symptoms, suspected to be caused by cytokine storms. The pandemic is estimated to have affected up to one billion people: half the world’s population at the time.[8 All of these diseases seem to have something in common “cytokine storm .” The body works against itself and kills the host cell causing death to the organs in the body.Pig Flu Symptoms, An H1N1 pandemic flu strain mutating with Avian Flu
Lessons from a pandemic - Swine Flu, cannot be contained
