Swine Flu H1N1 - Facts and Figures

Swine flu is a serious infection but in most cases no more so than the regular seasonal flu which we experience every winter. Mortality resulting from H1N1 is less than one percent which is less than that for the regular flu. H1N1 does however tend to infect young healthy adults and children at a much higher rate than it infects those over 55 years of age. Infants and young children are also highly susceptible to infection. Many of those deaths resulting from swine flu are due to complications or underlying previously present conditions. Swine flu is not a killer disease when compared to the SARS epidemic of a few years ago which had a mortality rate as high as 15%.

In short the swine flu pandemic should not cause any panic since it is no more dangerous than the common seasonal flu. Did we mention the word pandemic? Many people have great fear of this word. Pandemic does not mean that it is going to be the end of the world. All it means is that the virus has spread widely around the world.

Symptoms of swine flu include fever, sore throat, running nose, cough and in some cases nausea and vomiting. This is going to make you and your family miserable if you are infected. However, it is not any different from having a cold or the common flu. The symptoms can be minimised by a doctor's guidance, analgesics and suitable antiviral drugs. When you compare this to the suffering caused by other diseases such as a stroke, cancer or malaria,it does not amount to much.

This illness is only going to last for a week in many cases. In other cases, it can be shorter. It is not going to haunt you for a couple of months as some diseases can. During this week, you are going to be in isolation and resting. No drips, no injections and no constant testing will be involved. Tamiflu will be there and in many studies, it reduces the duration of the flu by a couple of days.

When the fever goes away, you are going to feel weak for a few days, but you will very soon be back to normal. There will be no slow recovery or lingering effects. In fact, you will now have strengthened immunity to this flu. Panic is not at all necessary when you think you may have contracted H1N1 swine flu. In fact, it is no more dangerous than the regular sweasonal flu infection which of course is quite nasty but short lived and rarely fatal.