India is known as country of festivals and Indians are well known in all over the world because they have managed not only to preserve their traditions but also to absorb new customs and traditions from immigrants and invaders. Every Indian these days celebrates Diwali, Christmas, Eid, Pateti, Holi, Baisakhi etc. festivals with equal enthusiasm besides their cast or religion.

Current days are of Navaratri a hindu festival of carnival for nine nights followed by 10th day of Vijayadashami that is Dussehra. During these nine nights and 10 days, nine forms of female divinity (Durga/ Shakti) are worshiped by Puja and Dance. It is celebrated in different ways throughout the India. Mostly it is celebrated with the Garba and famous Dandiya Raas. Especially in Gujarat and Maharashtra these are performed with much fervor. Like every year, even this year the festival is celebrated with Dandiya and Graba competitions. Navaratri is social festival for which people gather together to celebrate nine nights.

All are aware that India is suffering by swine flu pandemic these days. Thus people are panicking and avoiding going out for celebrations as swine flu cautions. It is really good to take cautions against flu but there is no point in avoiding such festivals of social gatherings. Government officials are requesting public to not to link such bees with swine flu as the only purpose of such festivals is carrying out a communal task. By avoiding such bees, you would be hurting yourselves mentally and socially. Thus instead of sitting at home, come out and celebrate the festivals but with all precautions you can take.

Since in current flu pandemic, H1N1 is spreading from person to person, in early stages of flu pandemic government requested public to avoid overcrowded places to control flu pandemic. It was because during early stages of flu pandemic, Government had very less stock of antiviral tablets which work against H1N1 flu. It was taking lot of time for doctors to identify H1N1 as cause of illness and to treat the patient against it. Therefore chances of serious chronic diseases and even deaths were increased. Till mid September, 58 deaths because of swine flu took place in Pune because of above reasons. People are thinking that all these deaths took place during Ganesh Festival and thus they are panicking and started avoiding travelling or visiting overcrowded places like malls, multiplexes, stations, schools or colleges, social functions like Navaratri celebrations etc.

But very few know that Indian company Hetero Drugs from Hyderabad got a license to produce antiviral tablets Tamiflu that too 80 million doses in a month. Thus India has huge stock of drugs ready to fight against swine flu in order to make our country free from H1N1.

Experts from National Institute of Virology (NIV) told that in order to make country H1N1 free, immunity should be developed in people against the virus which will be possible only after 50% of population will get infected and thus Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Sharvari Gokhale has requested public to not to link overcrowding to swine flu and stop panicking. She also added that because of this people would be hurting themselves economically and also children would be suffering in school.

H1N1 vaccine is one of the ways to protect people from swine flu pandemic. Other ways of protection are anti-viral drugs, social distancing and personal hygiene. All these majors are harder to follow for longer duration. Thus Vaccination is considered as the most effective way.

Everyone is aware that till September, 2009 there were no vaccines available for H1N1 flu because H1N1 virus was identified as the root cause of current flu pandemic in April, 2009. After that production started and vaccines were produced.

Around 70% of the global flu vaccine production capacity is located in Europe, North America. Out of the remaining, significant capacity is located in Australia, Japan and China. From past 3 years, 6 manufacturing companies and from May, 2009 additional 5 companies from these countries have begun to acquire the technology to produce influenza A vaccine. Therefore developed countries have prior access to H1N1 vaccine. But some poor and developing countries like Mexico, South Africa, India, Pakistan etc. are also suffering by outbreak of current swine flu pandemic along with US and European countries. Considering this situation, WHO requested manufacturers to set aside some stock of vaccines for these country populations through donations or affordable pricing arrangements?

And thus countries like US, Australia, Brazil, France, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, and Britain have decided to make 10% of their vaccine supply available for such needy nations through WHO with the priority given to the countries deemed to be especially at risk from swine flu.

All are aware of the fact that there are only two types of anti-viral drugs are effective against swine flu, Tamiflu, also known as Oseltamivir and Relenza, also known as Zanamivir. These drugs are under patent and are manufactured by only three pharmaceutical companies all over the world. Tamiflu is manufactured by the Switzerland based Roche and US based Gilead whereas Relenza is manufactured by Britain based GlaxoSmithKline.

Till April, 2009 some 220 million doses of Tamiflu were available with governments across the world. Obviously rich countries held most of them. The recommended level of protection against flu pandemic for a country is to have enough doses to treat 10% of its population. Till May, 2009 India stocked these drugs well below the recommended levels. Thus these drugs were available at restricted government hospitals. But in May, 2009 Hetero Drugs from Hyderabad, got license from Swiss based Roche to produce Oseltamivir under the brand name Fluvir. Hetero can now produce 80 million doses of Tamiflu in a month.

Swine flu will show its genuine force during winter starting from October. The broaden occurrence of swine flu will increase death rate. Normally it is 1-3 per 1000 but it will be doubled that is 5-6 per 1000. Therefore Hetero has been approached by government and they created huge stock of oseltamivir.

A source from health ministry said that because of all factors stated above, Government is going to allow retail sale of these drugs in order to prevent further harm.

Although H1N1 virus is quite old, no vaccine was ready to protect people against pandemic flu till last year. Everyone knows that vaccine against H1N1 virus needs at least 6-12 months to be produced. Current H1N1 strain has been declared a pandemic and it requires production of vaccine in order to prevent further harm from it.

By September end, World Health Organization (WHO) is going to approve first H1N1 vaccine. Earlier there were false rumors about H1N1 vaccine that it has several side effects. But now it cleared that H1N1 vaccine is highly effective and it doesn’t have any adverse effects. In fact New England Journal of Medicine has stated that H1N1 vaccines are really working in large number of adults.

During a time when this virus was actually spreading all over the world, the study on Swine flu vaccine was conducted in Australia. It showed that a single dose of H1N1 vaccine contains the usual 15 µg of hem agglutinin (HA) antigen which causes immunity in younger and middle aged adults.

In this study around 240 adults between 18-50 years of age were taken as subject to test H1N1 vaccine. They underwent under observation after receiving either 15 µg or 30 µg of HA antigen. Only mild discomforts like headache were reported fro them which is worthier than deaths and other serious adverse effects.

Thus there is absolutely no need to panic because of swine flu. Stay worry free and breathe happily.

Swine Flu is spreading among human rapidly. Here are some swine flu preventive majors and treatment.

Precautions against Swine Flu:
Here are some preventive majors should be taken in order to prevent it from spreading it or protecting yourself from swine flu.

As everyone knows that swine flu is spreading among human through coughing and sneezing, thus cover your mouth and nose while you cough or sneeze. Throw tissue in dustbin after using it.
Avoid direct contacts with infected people. In unavoidable conditions, use masks to cover your mouth and nose.

Wash your hands very often with soap and warm water or with alcohol based sanitizing gel. Maintain high level of hygiene.

Get seasonal flu vaccinations. Even if they won’t provide full protection but they won’t harm you either. And contact doctor immediately if you feel like you are developing swine flu symptoms.

Treatment for swine flu:
Once you have suspected swine flu infected by doctors, they will give you a course of treatment depending on diagnosis. But still person who is sick with H1N1 flu are advised to follow the given instructions for caring for it at Home.

Drink plenty fluids and eat healthy food. Avoid alcohol, tobacco etc.
Take antiviral drugs in order to relieve from fever and body aches caused by flu.

Some of you may think that like CHIKV viruses of Chikungunya or H5N1 viruses Birds Flu, even swine flu (H1N1) viruses are new. But swine flu viruses are very old than you think.

Discovered in 1918:
Swine Influenza was first found in 1918 and that time it was noted as new disease in pigs. But at the same time, human became seek due to Influenza pandemic. Thus it is uncertain that whether human acquired H1N1 viruses from pigs or it is other way round. But about 50-100 million people were killed worldwide because of this disease.

Identified in 1930:
About 10 years later, the first identification of H1N1 viruses as a cause of disease in swine was in 1930. Later for 60 years H1N1 remain a cause of swine influenza but during 1997-2002, 3 different subtypes/ genotypes that are H1N2, H3N2 and H4N6 were identified.

Outbreak in 1976 and 1988 in human:
In February, 1976 in US one of the army recruits died and four of his fellow members were hospitalized because of new strain of Swine flu. To prevent a pandemic like 1918, US government had every person vaccinated. Later 1n 1988 in Zoonosis, a lady died because of swine flu and other 20 people found infected.
Outbreak in 1998 and 2007 in pigs:

In 1998, flu was found in pigs in 4 US states, and later it spread all over the US. Similarly in 2007, it was found in Philippines.

Outbreak in 2009 till date in human:
In March, 2009 more than 1000 people found infected and about 80 people died because of H1N1 viruses in Mexico. Later it spread worldwide from human to human.

Fro, several days more and more people are getting infected by H1N1 viruses even after so much media hype about it. So I thought of writing a post about it.

What is Swine Flu:
Swine influenza also called as pig flu or H1N1 flu is respiratory disease of pigs caused by Type A influenza (H1N1) viruses.
These are originally referred as swine flu as laboratory testing showed that many of genes of these viruses are similar to those found in pigs.
Various international agencies have determined that H1N1 virus is contagious and now is spreading from human to human

How does it spread:
Spread of H1N1 viruses is thought to be happening in the same way that seasonal flu (viral infection) spreads.
It is spreading mainly from person to person through coughing and sneezing. Sometime it spreads due to touching something which has live H1n1 viruses on it and afterwards touching mouth or nose.

Symptoms:
Symptoms are similar to regular human flu and include fever, cough, sore throat, body/ head aches, fatigue, and chills.

People may suffer by diarrhea and vomiting in past several illnesses like pneumonia and respiratory failure.
Like normal flu, swine flu may cause worsening chronic medical conditions and even deaths have been reported with swine flu infection in human because of lack of immunity power.