H1N1
Swine Flu: Why You Should Worry and Why You shouldn’t
Swine Flu, though much maligned as ‘deadly’ and ‘potentially fatal’, is far more benign than several other killers in India, and how it actually does turn fatal is when there are the added health complications that patients suffer from such as asthma and pneumonia. As of now the H1N1 Swine Flu virus is showing mild symptoms and in this form the virus binds the lungs only weakly. Consider these statistics that this report of the Hindustan Times put together:
- In India, less than three per cent of the 5,611 people who have tested positive for swine flu have died.
- Rain-related ailments and malaria have had far higher fatality rates.
- In Mumbai, 41 people died of rain-related ailments in just two weeks in July, while 18 people have died of swine flu so far.
When we should start to fear this virus is when it starts to undergo a mutation that will make it far more dangerous. When this happens the virus will bind the lungs more strongly, and there is nothing to predict if and when this will happen. In the 1918 global flu pandemic the virus mutated to become more virulent. But in two subsequent ones, it remained benign.
Other reports of how the virus is becoming resistant to Tamiflu do however trickle in from time to time; as this Reuters reports suggests. As experts have been suggesting, the more the drug is used the more likely it is that these isolated cases will be seen to report resistance to the drug. In such cases, it is suggested that doctors should watch patients closely for signs of illness and consider switching to a stronger, treatment-level dose if a patient actually becomes sick.
As of now however it is heartening to note that there have been observed no significant clusters of resistance, and no signs that a resistant strain is spreading in any one community.
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