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Swine Flu Symptoms

The symptoms of swine flu in people are expected to be similar to the symptoms of regular human seasonal influenza and include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing. Some people with swine flu also have reported runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Symptoms of Swine flu may including all or some of the following:

• Fever
• Muscle aches
• Lethargy
• Coughing
• Headache
• Sore throat
• Runny nose
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Lack of appetite

Complications Of Swine Flu

Those at higher risk of catching influenza in general include those with the following:

* Age of 65 years or older
* Chronic health problems (such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease)
* Pregnant women
* Young children

But the past epidemics and pandemics of flu have shown that during pandemics most people that are affected are healthy young adults.

Complications of Swine Flu can include:

* Pneumonia
* Bronchitis
* Sinus infections
* Ear infections
* Death

Transmission of Swine Flu (How is Swine Flu spread?)

As with other flu like illnesses, Swine flu is spread as follows:

• Coughing
• Sneezing
• Kissing
• Touching infected objects
• Touching nose, mouth and/or eyes with infected hands
• Swine flu does not spread by eating pork.

Treatment of Swine Flu

Swine Flu Vaccination / Swine Flu Shot

The protective ability of influenza vaccines depends primarily on the closeness of the match between the vaccine virus and the epidemic virus, so the presence of non reactive H3N2 SIV variants suggests that current commercial vaccines might not effectively protect pigs from infection with a majority of H3N2 viruses. The current vaccine against the seasonal influenza strain H1N1 is thought unlikely to provide protection. The director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases said that the United States’ cases were found to be made up of genetic elements from four different flu viruses?North American swine influenza, North American avian influenza, human influenza A virus subtype H1N1, and swine influenza virus typically found in Asia and Europe.

Gelsemium. [Gels]

This remedy corresponds to the commencement of the trouble, when the patient is weak, tired and aches throughout the body. It removes speedily the intense aching and muscular soreness. There is constant chilliness and the patient hugs the fire; the fever is less acute than that of Aconite, and the cough is hard and painful. There are paroxysms of sneezing with excoriating discharge, and great torpor and apathy. An extensive experience with this remedy in the great Epidemic of 1918 proved its usefulness. Simple cases were speedily cured. Aconite will sometimes prove the better remedy for children, but the drug will never be a prominent one in influenza. Still it may be prescribed when indicated; it will, perhaps, soothe and moderate the subsequent attack, but its action is not quick here as in simple fevers, as we have to do with a blood affection.

#Baptisia.
Influenza with marked gastro-intestinal symptoms may need this remedy, especially when there are present putrid diarrhoea stools. Clarke considers this remedy the nearest specific for the disease; he prefers the 30th potency. Hughes also praises it, but uses it in the 1x and 2x dilutions, which seem to have more extensive testimony as to their efficacy.

#Eupatorium perfoliatum.
This remedy has much soreness and aching of the entire body; hoarseness and cough, with great soreness of the larynx and upper respiratory tract. Coryza with thirst and drinking causes vomiting. The cough is a very shattering one, hurts the head and chest, and as in Drosera, the patient holds the chest with the hands. The breakbone pains are characteristic of the remedy. Add to these symptoms acute bilious derangements, and it is all the more indicated. Many physicians rely on this remedy in influenza / flu almost exclusively in the early stages.

#Sabadilla. [Sabad]
Sneezing is the great keynote of this remedy. Sneezing and lachrymation on going into the open air. The throat is swollen and the pain is worse on empty swallowing; the sneezing is excessive, shaking the whole body. Shudderings, with gooseflesh chills creeping upwards, are also prominent symptoms. Frontal headache, dryness of mouth, without thirst and cough, worse on lying down, are additional symptoms. It suits well many cases of the catarrhal form of flu; other remedies having sneezing are Cyclamen and Euphorbia.

#Arsenicum. [Ars]
This remedy covers more phases of flu than perhaps any other remedy. Hughes believes that it will cut short an attack, especially when there is a copious flow, prostration and paroxysmal coryza. Its periodicity makes it suitable to epidemics, and it suits the early symptoms when the affection is in the upper portion of the respiratory tract. The burning dryness and copious watery excoriating secretion and the involvement of the conjunctiva are unmistakable indications. Langour and prostration are prominent symptoms.

#Arsenicum iodide.
Chills, flushes of heat and severe fluent coryza, discharge irritating and corrosive, sneezing and prostration. It corresponds to true influenza and is highly recommended by Hale. Sanguinaria nitrate is especially valuable when the trachea and larynx are affected. Phytolacca. Specific when the throat is inflamed and spotty, with great hardness and tenderness of the glands.

#Dulcamara. [Dulc]
This is one of our best remedies in the acute form; the eyes are suffused, the throat is sore and the cough hurts because of the muscular soreness. If brought on by damp, cold changes in the weather, so much the surer is Dulcamara indicated.

#Bryonia.
The trouble here is largely bronchial and going down. When a person is very grumpy and feels miserable with the flu, wanting only to lie still and be left alone, this remedy is likely to be useful. Headache, muscle aches, and cough or stomach pain may be the major symptoms. Everything feels worse from even the slightest motion. The person?s mouth usually is dry, with a thirst for long cold drinks.

#Phosphorus may be indicated, especially when the trouble moves towards the chest. It is a very useful remedy for the debility following la grippe, as it is usually of the pure nervous type. It is the great post-influenza “tonic.”

#Rhus toxicodendron. [Rhus-t]
Influenza, with severe aching in all the bones, sneezing and coughing. The cough is worse evenings and is caused by a tickling behind the upper part of the sternum. Especially is it useful in cases brought on by exposure to dampness. There is much prostration and depression, and the patient may have some symptoms which are suspicious as pointing towards typhoid fever, such as burning tongue, stupor and delirium. Aching pains, nightly restlessness are keynotes symptoms. Causticum, like both Rhus and Eupatorium, has a tired, sore, bruised sensation all over the body and soreness in the chest when coughing, but it has in addition involuntary urination when coughing.

#Allium cepa. [All-c]
Profuse catarrhal coryza; the nose runs freely, there is sneezing, irritability cough, the face is swollen and looks inflamed. Camphora. This remedy is often sufficient at the outset to cut short an attack, or at least modify the severity.

#Sticta. [Stict]
Nasal catarrh; headache, thirst, nightly expectoration, great watering of eyes,running at nose, hoarseness of voice, frontal headache and depression of whole system. Tuberculous subjects attacked by influenza. “There is no better remedy,” says Dr. Fornias,”for the incessant wearing, racking cough of this class of patients.” Tuberculinum is an excellent prevention of recurring attacks of influenza /flu in those who have annual attacks.

#Ipecac
Adapted to cases where the gastric symptoms predominate; tongue clean or slightly coated. Nausea: with profuse saliva; vomiting of white, glairy mucus in large quantities, without relief; sleepy afterwards; worse from stooping. Low thirst. Cough: dry spasmodic, constricted, asthmatic. Difficult breathing from least exercise; violent dyspnoea, with wheezing and anxiety about the stomach. Cough, with rattling of mucus in bronchi when inspiring; threatened suffocation from mucus. Pains as if bones were all torn to pieces.

#Veratrum album
Adapted to diseases with rapid sinking of the vital forces; complete prostration; collapse. Cold perspiration on the forehead (over entire body, Tab. ); with nearly all complaints. Thirst: intense, unquenchable, for large quantities of very cold water and acid drinks; wants everything cold. Diarrhoea: frequent, greenish, watery, gushing: mixed with flakes: cutting colic, with cramps commencing in hands and feet and spreading all over; prostrating, after fright; < least movement; with vomiting, cold sweat on forehead during and prostration after. Vomiting: excessive with nausea and great prostration: < by drinking ( Ars. ); by least motion ( Tab. ); great weakness after.

While it may sound like something out of a bad sci-fi movie, it has become our reality. US doctors, in accordance with WHO regulations, have drafted a document deciding who will live and who will be allowed to die when the Swine Flu Pandemic strikes the greater part of North America.

Once Swine Flu has America in its death grip, medical care — including everything from vaccines to respirators to doctors and nurses themselves — will become scarce. So a task force of members from prestigious universities, medical groups, and government agencies (the Department of Homeland Security, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Department of Health and Human Services, and World Health Organization) has compiled a list of people who would not be treated.

Those of us most affected by this decision can easily see this as an attempt to “play God” on the part of these doctors who so willingly ignore their Hippocratic oaths, but Dr. Asha Devereaux, a critical care specialist and lead writer of the task force report, called the guidelines a “blueprint for hospitals so that everybody will be thinking in the same way.”

It’s being recommended that every hospital choose a triage team to decide who will get lifesaving treatment and who will not, but the guidelines already spells out those who will be denied care. They include:

People older than 85

People with severe trauma, such as critical injuries from car crashes and shootings

Severely burned patients older than 60

People with severe mental impairment, such as advanced Alzheimer’s disease

People with severe chronic disease, such as advanced heart failure, lung disease or poorly controlled diabetes

Others who are at a high risk of death or have a low chance of long-term survival would also be unlikely to receive medical care.

The guidelines will clearly violate laws against age discrimination and disability discrimination, according to public health law expert Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University. Gostin also called the report “a political and legal minefield.”

Though most experts acknowledge that health care will, in fact, need to be rationed once Swine Flu infections begin, the current list will basically single out the poor blacks, Mexicans, homosexuals, non-English-speaking peoples and any others who are generally considered as undesirables in America. Because in addition to this list, the triage team will, at its discretion, decide on millions of others who will be arbitrarily denied medical treatment.

As for when the guidelines will be enforced, members of the task force said it’s only a matter of time. Phase Five Pandemic Alert means that a pandemic with millions infected, dead, and dying is imminent. It WILL happen!

According to Secretary Michael O. Leavitt, Department of Health and Human Services:

“Forty million people died when the last major influenza pandemic swept around the world in 1918. We have seen two less severe pandemics since then. We will no doubt see another sometime in the future.

We don’t know when, and we don’t know how bad it will be. But we know it will happen sooner or later and that what we do now will save lives – maybe millions of lives – in the future.”

How did this happen? How did we get to the point where we allowed an engineered virus to be released onto an unsuspecting population – then in the face of imminent death – we are being told that our job is to die.

Don’t allow this fate to happen to your family. The triage experience will not be just about the color of your skin. You may be denied treatment just because someone doesn’t like you or in your haste to get treatment for your loved one, you may become momentarily rude.

Any little thing can mean life or death for someone you love.

Protect your family today before it is too late.

The first step to good health is to acknowledge the presence of pain and that all is not well with the body. In many ways, the job of the turnaround manager is akin to that of the physician. The first step is to diagnose the corporate patient’s condition before even attempting to prescribe the right medication. For prescription without proper diagnosis is malpractice.

The starting point is crucial to ensure that you have the right footing. To learn any skill, one has to take that first step. If you want to learn to swim, you have to take the first step of plunging into the water. To learn to parachute, you have to take the first step of jumping out of the airplane. One can read about and rehearse all the knowledge about swimming and parachuting or any other skills. However, one will never learn the skills if the first step is not taken to do the ‘real’ thing. Ironically, it is found that the first step is always one of the most difficult steps to take in any venture, for it entails stepping into unknown territories and unchartered waters. Whether it is taking the first step to recognise that one is unwell or taking the first step to learn a new skill, the first step is also one of the most rewarding.

However, diagnosing the company’s health is not as straightforward since many qualitative factors are involved. Oftentimes, the management also plays the game of denial and deception. Usually there are ample warning signs or symptoms of impending trouble such as high attrition of good staff, declining brand value etc. However, the management may be in the state of self-denial or does not wish to let out the knowledge of the company’s predicament. Admission of the failure may expose them to criticism by the company’s board of directors, shareholders and their peers. Unfortunately, this may result in delays in implementing the vital remedial actions during the early stage of under-performance. Adoption of prompt actions may have significantly improved the company’s quandary and chances of survival.

Denial and deception remind us of the former Iraqi Information Minister, Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf who made comical and untruth remarks about the realities of the outcome of the US-Iraq war: “There are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never.They are coming to surrender or be burned in their tanks.Who are in control, they are not in control of anything. They don’t even control themselves. Be assured. Baghdad is safe, protected.” These statements were made despite the fact that the American forces have already landed at the Baghdad airport and within days Baghdad was captured by the allied forces.

Some sick companies play another game of ‘don’t know and ‘don’t care’. This is ignorance and apathy. Similar to taking care of physical health, these companies fell sick because of not knowing what to do as well as neglect. Their ‘cannot be bothered’ attitude was perhaps the result of having been distracted by politics, mesmerised by new acquisitions or focused on the wrong strategies. These have misled the management from doing what is right for the company. As a result the company falls into ruins and tatters. After recognising that the sick company needs treatment, sometimes the beleaguered management’s vision may be limited by the symptoms and not addressing the cause. At this juncture, it will be useful to probe further with broad questions such as:

Is the company in trouble with the law, bank, creditors, etc?

What is the cash flow position?

Is the company up for sale?

Can the company be turned around?

Should the company be closed?

Once these broad issues are determined, the turnaround manager then ventures into deeper issues relating to finance, marketing, operation, etc before deciding the appropriate treatment.

Proper medicine can only be administered after the acknowledgement that there is pain.