Swine Flu: What you Need to Know
Posted on Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 and is filed under Health, Political & General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
4. Is there medication for this?
Yes, TamiFlu or Relenza have shown to be effective against these recently reported strains of swine flu. Altogether, there are four anti-viral drugs that we commonly use to treat various strains of flu.
5. Can I start taking medicine for it now, just in case I get it later?
That is not presently advised. Preventative medication might be advised for very special circumstances where a person had to expose themselves to potentially ill people during an epidemic (which we do not yet have here). Such people might include ER workers. An outbreak in a nursing home, for instance, might lead to protecting all the other residents with a drug like TamiFlu.
For the public, the current answer is no to prophylactic (preventative) use with anti-viral medications. Its coverage time is limited.
Do not confuse over-the-counter “cold and flu” preparations for anti-flu medications that require a prescription.
6. Are the symptoms in children different from adult symptoms?
Though the basic symptoms are similar, the signs of potentially life-threatening complications differ. 
The CDC advises those with these symptoms to seek emergency care immediately:
Emergency warning signs in children are:
*Fast breathing or trouble breathing 
*Bluish skin color 

*Not drinking enough fluids 
*Not waking up or interacting
*Being very irritable 
*Fever with a rash
Emergency warning signs in adults are:
*Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath 
*Pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen 
*Sudden dizziness 

*Confusion 
*Severe or persistent vomiting
7. Is there a vaccine?
Not yet, but the CDC has this current strain of virus and will consider whether to add it to next year’s flu vaccine as time goes on.
8. If I took the swine flu vaccine in the swine flu scare during the 70s, would that cover me? What about this year’s flu shot I just took?
We don’t know yet. Previous vaccines could be expected to afford only partial, incomplete protection at best.
This new strain of the swine flu virus (H1N1) actually has a mixture of swine and avian components (not to be confused with the deadly avian flu of Southeast Asia).
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