Educating Yourself About the Swine Flu and Shot Part I

This article (written for the Brentwood Press) is to help give insight into the controversial health topic of swine flu through a review of current literature, so that you can make an informed decision about what is best for your own health. Do the risks involved with the vaccine outweigh its promoted benefits? For example, you may be concerned about how the vaccine was made, how effective and safe it is, and what can you do alternately to protect you and your family this flu season by boosting your immunity.

What is the swine flu?

On April 26, 2009, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) declared a national public health emergency: identification of a new influenza (H1N1) that contained a combination of human, swine, and bird viruses. It was making people sick and causing deaths in Mexico. By mid-June the World Health Organization raised this alert to the highest level possible, a pandemic (an infectious disease epidemic that is geographically widespread but not necessarily deadly).
Regular swine flu is a contagious respiratory disease that affects pigs; the current strain, A(H1N1), causes symptoms similar to regular flu like coughing, a fever of more than 100, chills, joint aches, severe headache, vomiting and/or diarrhea, lethargy, and sore throat. (1) About 5 to 9 percent of confirmed cases have been hospitalized for more severe symptoms like pneumonia.

Nearly all suspected new cases have been reported as mild, which suggests that this virus is not as potent as surmised. Virologists are saying that this year’s swine flu is no more dangerous than the seasonal virus, and actually seems to be much weaker. Data from the CDC do not support any reason to panic.

However, researchers working out of the Imperial College in London have confirmed the results of an earlier study on the behaviors of the H1N1 swine flu virus that found the virus attacks deeper in the lungs than seasonal flu. Their findings explain why the bug is more dangerous for some victims - and why it may be particularly deadly should it mutate into a more aggressive strain. (14)


Who is at risk?

According to the National Vaccine Information Center (www.NVIC.org), an advocacy group that questions the safety of vaccines, about half the patients hospitalized in the U.S. and about half the fatal cases in Mexico were people between ages 20 and 59. The majority of swine flu-related hospitalizations and deaths also occurred in people who were obese or suffering from chronic inflammatory diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and asthma. Most confirmed cases in all countries have been young adults under 30 and adolescents. A third of adults born before 1950 have been found to have protective antibodies already because of swine influenza epidemics in past decades. (2)

The CDC issued a report this fall saying that 129 children had died from swine flu complications since April 2009. About two-thirds of them had other health conditions like asthma, or neurological diseases like muscular dystrophy. According to newer figures released Nov. 12, swine flu has sickened about 22 million Americans and killed nearly 4,000, including 540 children. However most cases don’t require a doctor’s care and the flu hasn’t suddenly worsened; the CDC says the higher figures are a better accounting.

“So, the vast majority of children who are dying have one of a number of chronic health conditions, yet the media gives us the impression that perfectly healthy children are dying,” says neuroscientist and researcher Dr. Blaylock, M.D. (5)

A recent study of why so many died during the 1918 flu pandemic found that most of the deaths were secondary to bacterial pneumonia and not the flu virus itself. In 1918 hospitals had little to offer a sick patient -- there were no antibiotics other than sulfur drugs, no IV fluids and no respirators -- all they could offer was a warm bed and aspirin. This is the same group who would be most heavily affected by the current flu strain.

(Part I of III)