Swine Flu Symptoms: Pandemic A/H1N1 Infection Spread by Humans

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the virus in the United States was a never-before-seen mixture of viruses typical among pigs, birds, and humans, linked the desease in Mexico to a new kind of swine flu that struck seven people in California and Texas.

But it has been said, that all seven American patients have already recovered... 

Thank you! Tina' for the updates... :D 

So, IS the virus treatable or not? And with which meds? They've already stopped using Oseltamivir in Mexico City.

So here I am still blowing out my brains from my nostrils while my lungs cough up bits of possibly vital parts...  Well it's not that bad anymore but last weekend was brutal.  So was most of last week which passed in a haze of cough syrup overdoses and kleenex.  There's no doubt I had the flu and it echoed the same symptoms so many friends and acquaintances have been reporting all month.  Starting with a sore throat and before the day is out a terrible headache and all over unwellness.  Aches in my muscles I can't tell because I ache most of the time, have all my life.  It comes and goes and I pay it little attention.  What's novel is that I got sick, so did my husband, and yet we both almost never catch what's going around.  Furthermore I can usually banish any sign of illness overnight with a pile of garlic, chili, and extensive rest.  Not this time.  I got so sick I could understand how this thing kills.  I knew I had to control the cough or my lungs would be so ragged they'd be ripe for infection.  That's bronchitis. It leads to pneumonia.  So while cough syrup and decongestants make me feel worse than a cold I reasoned the rest on my chest merited the fuzz.

I haven't been to Mexico or even the states.  Neither has anyone I know lately.  So how does one know if a flu is just ordinary flu or "panic panic panic we're all gonna die" type flu?  Does it matter?  I didn't see a doctor.  By the time I realized it was going to be really awful I was too sick to see one and antivirals wouldn't have worked anyway.  Unless I did achieve infected lung status there was nothing medicine could have done for me that I wasn't doing.  Rest, plenty of fluids, analgesics for the pain (I prefer ASA but due to the occasional case of Reyes syndrome everyone thinks it's evil) and cold meds for the symptoms.  

Personally I think everyone's overreacting again.  Whether it's the newest flu pandemic or the common seasonal flu it always comes down to taking your health seriously and if you've got compromised health, get to the doctor for a little extra care.  What usually kills regular people is when they consider the chores or their job or other usual work more important than their health and they soldier on through the illness till they're worn out.  Your body needs your energy for your immune system.  It's making white blood cells like a little factory.  It's raising your temperature with metabolism to fight virii.  It has to produce mucus to encapsulate the invaders.  Do it a favour and feed it light nutritional things like fruit and broth while you rest and keep warm.  It's a great excuse to sit at the computer or tv all day.  Take the opportunity and you'll be here next week to tell us all how awful it was.

As a woman with late stage lyme this morphed virus is a bit scary. Heck, we lymies have endless days of over all aches and so many symptoms that I wonder if we would ever know we were sick with Swine flu! What disturbs me is the seemingly fast spread of Swine flu. Just since yesterday the cases have spread around the country....I just hope the CDC has a better handle on Swine Flu than it does Lyme Disease. Unfortunately I know too much about cover-ups, lack of information, and spin doctoring where real health threats to the population are concerned.

Thanks, Tina for your early report,    Updates from the CDC

The CDC downplayed the virus weeks ago, claimed the flu shot was effective against A H1N1 and now they are reacting only because of the deaths in Mexico.  Here's a report issued 04/08/2009.  People all over the US have already been suffering.  The CDC dropped the ball.

Flu strikes a milder blow this season

So far this flu season, 43 children have died from the flu compared with 68 during last year's flu season, according to the CDC. © iStockphoto.com/Shannon Drawe

By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, April 8 (HealthDay News) -- As the flu season winds down, experts say this has been the mildest season in years.

Less severe strains of influenza and a good vaccine match for the strains that were circulating combined to create a milder season this year than last, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"If we look at mortality and the rate of hospitalizations, it seems like this year is less severe compared to last year and more similar to the years prior to last year," said Dr. Alicia M. Fry, a CDC epidemiologist. "The flu did not reach an epidemic threshold this year."

Historically, she explained, in years where the influenza type A H3N2 subtype is the predominate virus, the season is more severe. "This year was not one of those years," she said. "It was a year where the influenza A H1N1 virus was the predominate virus, followed by the influenza type B viruses."

The CDC arrived at this conclusion using data from 122 cities on deaths from flu or pneumonia among adults and flu-related deaths among children. It appears that flu-related hospitalizations and deaths were significantly lower this year, Fry said

Typically, the flu causes 200,000 hospitalizations and 36,000 deaths a year, according CDC estimates. The old, the very young and people with chronic illnesses are at greatest risk.

So far this flu season, 43 children have died from the flu compared with 68 during last year's flu season, according to the CDC.

Flu vaccines are often 70 percent to 90 percent effective. Last flu season, the vaccine was only about 20 percent effective against the H3N2 strain and less than 2 percent effective against the B strains, according to the CDC.

But this year's flu vaccine was a very good match for influenza A H1N1 and H3N2, Fry said.

And that's good news, because there had been concerns about antiviral resistance, she said. The drug Tamiflu (oseltamivir), routinely prescribed to people with the flu, is resistant to this year's H1N1 strain, and the H3N2 flu strain is resistant to two other antivirals, rimantadine (Flumadine) and amantadine (Symmetrel).

Although 146 million doses of flu vaccine were distributed this season, the number of people who were actually vaccinated is unknown, Fry said.

Cases of the flu started to increase in January and peaked in the middle of February, Fry said. "There has been decreasing activity since," she said. "However, we still have many states that are still seeing flu activity."

And what might occur next year remains a mystery. "Never predict the flu season," Fry said. "That's the secret."

Dr. Marc Siegel, an associate professor of medicine at New York University School of Medicine in New York City, said that several factors combined to make this year's flu season milder.

"The prevailing strains are not that virulent and are not particularly new," Siegel said. "The H1N1 strain is a distant descendant of the Spanish flu, but we have all built up a lot of immunity to it over the years."

In addition, he said, there was a lot of vaccine available this year, and there has been a high level of compliance. "Adding the 5- to 18-year-old age group to those who get vaccinated helped, since flu super-spreaders are generally children who don't take precautions, like washing their hands," he said.

"People are more aware of the flu because of recent media attention, but the former hysteria may have finally been converted into proper precaution-taking," Siegel added.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the flu.

I really worry about all of the different type of bad sicknesses who are coming up now. I think we will kill us by our self with all that different type of viruses in the future. We do not need any war any more to kill all the Humanbeeings.

Please, when reading information take the knowledge with a grain of salt and do not panic.  Do you need to be concerned? I think so.  Are you going to die from it?  Even if you get it, not likely.  Mainly use common sense and just be alert.  Do not let the media feed on your fear and shattered sense of security.  I have panic attacks or used too and was sick this weekend in Kentucky with flu like symptoms, but I do not have it and am not concerned enough to panic.  God bless and be well.

Exercise a little extra scrutiny when throwing around words like "pandemic". Sure, be skeptical of the CDC or WHO if you want. But right now? It's not a pandemic. It's not even an <b>epidemic</b>. And all panic does right now is make a situation worse than it need be.

I`d really like to know what they`re doing for people found ill.  What do we as a society do for them?  Do we send them off to airport hangars to suffer on mats on the floor?  Do we put them in clean wards with good care?   Do we just kick them out of the airport, office, etc. and wish them luck?  The people being screened and turned away in mexican airports?  What's being done for them?  Are they left alone in an 2nd world country to fend for themselves while sick with flu?  Are they buying a bus ticket across the american border so they can board a plane home without screening?

We're all talking about the media and fears here at home, but are sick people going to be pariahs or our loved ones being cared for?

Thanks for your story.

can i still eat pork???? i live in LA

I am a health care professional who has been in the front lines of this whole new flu outbreak. Today I fainted in the office with a fever, sore throat, aches, severe coughing. I wasnt sick yesterday, it just hit me within minutes. I havent been sick in over 8 yrs and we just sent out a specimen to be reviewed for this flu 3 days ago. If it is hitting this hard and fast then i think we as a population should be on out toes with eyes wide open. We as an advanced society should learn from the past and not ignore it or shy away from reality. I would rather safegaurd myself and family to the extreme extent of my ability then sit back and laugh and think oh it will all go away. Research history and learn from it instead of smirking and disregarding it. You never know what will happen to you or around you at any given moment. For the record i was given tamiflu and have yet to see it work.

im just kind of conjested and have a dry cough. i live in hawaii, do you think i should be worried im a little scarred but not baddly but i did get a flu from costco hot dog a while back when they changed meats. im not eating those again. im just taking vitamin c pills hopefully this will go away. god please help us . ill inform you if i get any worse, please pray for me i will be for everyone thats feeling sick

if someone has only a cough and a runny nose should someone be worried or do you need to have all the symptoms to have this thing??

You know what, this is just getting absolutely ridiculous. I'm 18, about to graduate high school, then this crap happens. If my school gets shut down because of this bull, I'm going to have to wait and graduate another time (if I survive the retarded flu).

Three days ago I started with ichy, watery eyes, then a sore thoat.

Day 2, running nose.

Day 3, coughing.

I don't think I have the flu.

Someone needs to get a vaccine and fix this scare to everyone!!

All i could think of was the movie THE STAND by Stephen King. Maybe the media should start playing that movie over the weekend 24/7 to scare people even more. Its scary yes, but what can anyone do to stop this? Not one damn thing. The Spanish flu of 1918 hit in May of 1918 with mild force, then in August of 1918 it slaughtered over 50 million people in 6 months. It came in two waves and I wouldnt doubt if this is going to do the same thing. And the spanish flu of 1918 was only a form of avian and human flu. It wasnt 3 put together like this one. I have been sick for 4 days now and its not getting any better, i have had all the symptoms and still do and I just might make the trip to the local ER if I get worse as the night goes on. Or i just might chalk it up to bronchitis or sinuse infection or whatever else i could think of. Have a great weekend everyone and hope monday shows up for human kind

Are you scared about the swine flu?

im scared of swine flu...

help me how to prevent it???

We are taking zero chances with this virus. So far the best info we have found is on this site http://www.h1n1virusfacts.com

Stay safe!

aah. this is so dangerous!
can we prevent this in any easy way?