From Health magazine
When the swine flu burst onto the scene in April, the bug arrived with a few particularly ominous signs: The flu was resistant to a class of drugs often used to fight flu in the past, and experts were surprised that a nonhuman virus could have such rapid human-to-human transmission. Why was Swine Flu resistant to current medicines, and was this strain a new supergerm?
Flu bugs develop drug resistance when a virus mutates in a way that makes medications ineffective. Overusing and misusing antiviral meds can cause the problem. But mutations can also crop up spontaneously, even when the drugs aren’t overprescribed, says Anne Moscona, MD, a flu expert and an infectious-diseases physician at Weill Medical College of Cornell University and New York Presbyterian Hospital.
“Swine flu seems to respond to Tamiflu, but we weren’t sure at first. And we’re seeing more strains of other types of flu, including some bird flu, that are resistant to it. That’s been sobering for lots of people in public health because Tamiflu is the drug the country has been stockpiling for a possible pandemic,” she says. “The issue we’re facing now is ‘What do we do if the drugs we’re counting on don’t work?’”
This question is being asked with increasing urgency these days, as more and more bugs, including some truly nasty bacteria, become impervious to the effects of our best drugs. Acne and some STDs aren’t clearing up the way they once did.
More worrisome, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)—bacteria that are resistant to methicillin, a common antibiotic—now kills more people in U.S. hospitals than HIV, AIDS, and tuberculosis combined. And, scarier still, the bug is becoming increasingly common outside of hospitals, affecting everyone from infants with ear infections to young, healthy athletes. And MRSA, experts warn, is just the tip of the drug-resistance iceberg.
“Drug-resistant bacteria have developed in large part because of our overuse and misuse of antibiotics—and it has led us to a crisis point,” says Helen W. Boucher, MD, a specialist in the division of infectious diseases at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. “We’re even seeing bugs today that are resistant to all antibiotics.”
But while some germs may be outpacing our ability to kill them, we’re not completely defenseless. In fact, there are plenty of things we can do to slow their spread. Here, five of the scariest threats right now, and what you can do to keep yourself—and future generations—safe.
Next: Scary strains of flu
Comments (7)
How many times have we all heard “wash you hands” since the swine flu news started? Even President Obama told the public to wash our hands. This seems to be the number one preventative. What’s really frightening is the fact that the chances are only 50-50 that the doctor treating you in the hospital has washed his or her hands. It’s hard to believe, but the odds are the same as flipping a coin. Actually, it’s worse. According to the National Quality Forum, hand-washing compliance rates at hospitals are generally LESS THAN 50 percent.
Hospitals are desperate to get doctors to simply wash their hands and are taking extraordinary means to try and influence them — including termination threats, loss of hospital priviledges and hidden cameras to see if the physicians are washing their hands. Ethic Soup has a good article on this at:
http://www.ethicsoup.com/2009/01/dont-kill-me-doctor-wash-your-hands.html
Doctors who won’t wash their hands were a problem BEFORE the current pandemic swine flu. I think it’s a good idea when seeing a doctor to ask if they’ve washed their hands before touching you or your children.
Influenza is more often than not caused by the respiratory tract infection virus. Normally, viruses merely communicate a disease to one particular genus; as a result inflectional viruses of human beings are dissimilar from those of pigs & birds. Nevertheless this extraordinary swine influenza virus is unlike in that it is the artifact of a muddle up of genes; human beings, birds & pigs.
A well known virus that is the health hazard nowadays is the Swine Flu. It is given name for a virus that pigs can acquire. In general the virus would extend from swine to swine & once in a while it would extend from pigs to human beings, more often than not by making contact with the pigs. This virus by and large is not capable of spreading efficiently amongst citizens & would not transmit this virus to more than 3 human beings.
Citizens do not in general acquire swine flu, nevertheless human contagions can & do take place. This virus is infectious & can multiply from one person to another person. Indications of swine flu in citizens are comparable to the indications of normal human influenza & comprise of cold & dry cough, sudden fever, painful esophagus, body pains, headache, shakes, low back ache, chills & exhaustion.
For offspring’s, teenagers & adolescent people aged in between three to twelve years the main bothersome indications are:
1. Conciseness of inhalation
2. Constant Nausea
3. Puzzlement
4. Lightheadedness
For kids younger than two years, the most bothersome indications are:
1. Extremely fast inhalation
2. Not intermingling usually, not drinking or consuming food as usual, being oddly bad-tempered, or appearing strangely drowsy.
3. Lips & skin tone turn out to be bluish in color
4. Sudden & high temperature.
To protect yourself from catching swine flu, take the same steps you would to prevent getting any cold or flu:
1. Wash your hands or use alcohol-based hand cleaners frequently.
2. When you greet people, don’t shake hands or exchange kisses.
3. Avoid contact with people with flu symptoms.
4. And to protect others, if you develop sneezing and coughing, be sure to use tissues to wipe your nose and cover your mouth, and to throw the tissues in the trash or toilet bowl.
There are defiant viral tablets you can consume to put off or take care of swine influenza. There is no vaccination accessible at the moment to save from harm against swine influenza.
One can help avoid the multiplication of microbes that source respiratory infections similar to flu by:-
1. Cover your mouth & nose by means of a handkerchief whenever you sneeze or cough and after that fling the handkerchief in the debris.
2. Whenever you sneeze or cough prefer to wash your hands with water & soap & as well you can make use of hand cleaners which are alcohol based.
3. Do not touch your mouth, nose & eyes continuously because this is the means for the germs to spread.
4. Try not maintaining close contact with ill health people.
5. Do not go to your work place or school or college whenever you are ill.
Even though it is unbelievable that one can hit upon the precedent year’s flu vaccine to be had, getting vaccinated in all probability will not help in shielding against the swine influenza. In an ideal world, the most excellent preclusion is to stay away from persons who are sick.
For more health tips:- http://www.easy16.com
That was before 2009. Now we use hope.
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These two stories give me hope:
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/feb/23/business/fi-magicwater23
http://www.ted.com/talks/kary_mullis_next_gen_cure_for_killer_infections.html
Wow, that is some good stuff dude!
RT
http://www.anon-web-tools.tk
My son came down with MRSA 2 years ago. He was hospitalized 3 times to have infections cut out. Unfortunately it has colonized on him. He had to be constantly on antibiotics for his frequent outbreaks. After doing some research, we found out that a regimen of daily curcumin suppressed the MRSA and on a rare outbreak we use Manuka honey which clears it up in 48 hours.
This is a very frightening issue to worry about. Interestingly enough, I read a book called Cold And Flu Fighter by Jane Brody and she said in that book that you should never overuse any kind of aspirin or antibiotic because not only will it tear your immune system down, but the potency of the drug will diminish because your body has built a tolerance for it.
Rahim
http://www.wellnessbymanymeans.com