Swine Flu More Likely to Kill Healthy People, Virus Killing Tips

by Tina Kells | April 28, 2009 at 02:13 pm

5704 views | 51 Recommendations | 5 comments

Swine Flu hysteria is in full swing and adding fuel to the fire is the fact, announced today, that Swine Flu appears to kill healthy people. As was the case in the last flu pandemic, the 1918 Spanish Flu Outbreak, the new Swine Flu outbreak appears to target people who normally would not die from the flu.

The flu normally kills the very young, the elderly, or people with compromised immune systems. In healthy individuals the flu is rarely fatal. Swine Flu is killing mostly healthy people while those with weaker immune systems appear to recover without reaching the stage of respiratory failure.

Like the fatal 1918 Spanish Flu, this new strain of Swine Flu includes the A/H1N1 strain. A/H1N1 has also been seen in other modern era flu pandemics; 1946, 1957, 1968, and the Russian flu outbreak of 1977.

We now know, thanks to sequence analysis, that the 1946 virus was the same strain that had been in existence since 1918 -- a strain called H1N1. The H stands for hemagglutinin, the N for neuraminidase; these are the two antigens of the influenza virus. It is against them that antibodies are formed during a primary infection.

Just as the 1946 virus was the same H1N1 type that caused the 1918 epidemic, so also, it turns out, was the so-called Russian flu of 1977. When the virus from that year's outbreak was examined genetically, not only did it prove to be another H1N1 variety, but it also was genetically identical to a type of influenza virus that had last been seen in the early 1950's, more than 25 years before. "You can anticipate certain rates of change in each gene per year, even if the hemagglutinin and neuraminidase stay the same," Murphy says. "But this virus looked as if it was in a genetically frozen state."

Only three hemagglutinin types and three neuraminidase types seem to be capable of infecting human beings. (These are hemagglutinin types H1, H2 and H3, and neuraminidase types N1, N2 and N8.) But there are many other antigen types circulating, a total of 14 H types and nine N types; most of them are limited to avian or swine influenza.

So far the majority of deaths from Swine Flu have been in the 7-34 age group. Speculation is that these healthier individuals have more robust immune systems that try harder to fight the virus. The fatal pneumonia-like respiratory failure is thought to be a by-product of this antibody battle.

Ironically people with weaker immune systems are not at greater risk of death, as is the case with normal human strains of influenza. Since weaker immune systems don't produce as many antibodies to fight the A/H1N1 Swine Flu virus their bodies don't act as aggressively when combating the virus.

Symptoms of Swine Flu

How Swine Flu Treatments Work

People have no defenses built up and when infected the body's own defensive systems are triggered to a powerful extent.

Babies and older adults have weak immune systems which is why they are vulnerable to complications from the usual yearly flu - they tend to get pneumonia and other opportunistic infections after being weakened further by the yearly flu, but don't have systems which really react strongly to the flu itself either because they are young and have weak immune systems or are older and have many past flu infections to strengthen the specific immunity factors which are the same for many flu strains.

What happens with young and healthy patients is that their immune systems react so strongly that they can triggers something known as a "cytokine storm".

http://www.fluwikie.com/...ce.PrimerCytokineStorm

When this happens the person's immune system overreacts to the totally new flu virus and actually attacks the body's healthy organs and systems - that makes the healthy approximately 15 to 60 year old individual the most likely to actually succumb to the flu.

To avoid exposure to Swine Flu people can take certain certain precautions:

Wash your hands frequently, especially when in public places
Cough into your arm and not your hands
Avoid touching surfaces in public areas
See a doctor if you feel fluish; there is a test for Swine Flu and treatments are most effective when given early
If you have been exposed to a person who has traveled in Mexico, or any area with a confirmed outbreak, and start to feel ill, seek immediate attention

If you become ill with Swine Flu and are not admitted to hospital you should take the following measures:

Do not go out at all except in an emergency
Take any and all anti-viral medication exactly as prescribed and do not take herbal supplements at the same time without a doctor's expressed permission
Wear a medically approved face mask if you are ill to protect others; or to avoid exposure if you know an outbreak is in your area (true effectiveness of masks is not known)
Isolate yourself from uninfected family members
Family members who do not appear ill should also stay home until the incubation period of 2-7 days has passed to avoid carrying the virus outside the home
Do not send apparently healthy family members to stay with other people, this could spread your virus outside the home
If even one child has a confirmed case schools and child care facilities should be closed and proper sanitization should begin

More tips from the CDC to mitigate the spread of the Swine Flu virus.

7 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend This comment thread is now closed

Barbara McPherson

at 15:45 on April 28th, 2009

Good comprehensive post. It was the young and healthy that succumbed in the outbreak of Hantavirus at the Four Corners Reserve for the same reason. Oh Boy! a reason to be glad I'm old.