Swine flu outbreak closes two schools

There was an interview on BBC website a couple of weeks ago...some bigshot medical guy, can't remember, but what I do remember is that he said if you catch the "mild version" now, you are immunue against the possibly "stronger version" of the flu later on in the year.

To answer and to clarify: if you catch a milder version, your are not automatically immune from stronger variants! The hope is that any new variants will not be so different and some, I repeat - some, immunity will carry over to at least lessen the symptoms of any new variants that you are not necessarily wholly immune to. There is however no guarantee on this or any scenario.

There have actually been cases of swine flu parties back home (same idea as the chicken pox parties our parents took us to a children). This is extremely dangerous and Canadian news media were all over it during the weekend. Yes, normally you would have immunity to mutated / possible more severe strains after having a mild infection... BUT there is no guarantee! Until labs are able to fully characterize this strain, and the human immune response to it, definitely better to continue with precautions.

Cheers,

Anti-flu vaccination is usually just a guess to which virus will attack the next year. I stopped taking it, because for me the side effects of the vaccine were higher than the flu I would have got.

HAL5000: it's not healthy to live in panic. You should know that when there's an accident, more people die of heart attack having witnessed the accident, than in the accidents themselves. The panic you're in will cause bigger damage to your health than the possible infection of swine flu, which is mild, by the way.

Here is a picture of my welcoming committee to Berlin yesterday. A passenger on my flight from NY was sick so it was considered to be swine flu. The plane was quarantined, the sick passenger removed, we were all asked embarrassing questions, etc. It is getting old. I went through the same thing in Mexico a few weeks back.

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Wow - for the second time today HAL9000, I kind of agree with you.

I think though, that even taking what we have been told at face value, I can understand the need for caution.

'Swine flu' is nasty but relatively harmless in most cases, however if people have an underlying condition (which they may not even be aware of) it can be aggravated by SF and the combination can prove lethal. SF is also extremely fast-spreading - the UK has now officially moved from a strategy of 'containment' to 'treatment' (ie all attempts to prevent the spread have proved useless).

No-one really knows how many are at risk because of underlying conditions, or even exactly what would/wouldn't constitute an underlying condition. I guess as usual the elderly and youngest are the most vulnerable.

In any case, when faced with a significant loss of human life, the most practical and compassionate course of action would seem to be to protect as many people as possible, through any sensible means available. Hence the quarantine...

I heard that wasn't the case also - that people who are getting hit the hardest are not the young and elderly... it could be people in the working age groups - this could have dire effects if huge numbers of people are out of work sick for 2 weeks at a time, especially if their co-workers get infected at the same time!! Here comes another economic crisis!!

I studied massage and part of my course was about health and nutrition and the number 1 reason for nearly all the illnesses you can get is... Stress! What stress does is it prevents your body from processing food correctly and you don't absorb all the vitamins and minerals your body needs. What I would further point out is that in the modern society's diet there is not a big enough emphasis on fresh organic fruit, vegetables and raw foods that our bodies would naturally have been used to if we were around even 100years ago. As a result many people are short on vitamins and minerals and their immune systems are low.

Vitamin supplements are usually not strong enough in their dosage as your body does not absorb well from these low-quality tablets - liquid supplements are better but they should be of a high quality and should 'supplement' fresh raw foods like fruit which is vital for good health! I recommend people take high quality liquid Vitamin B and Fish Oil supplements to help boost their immune systems - the best prevention of the flu is good health to begin with!

And if you happen to get the flu, dont drink any alcohol - it's the most draining thing for your body when your body is sick. Alcohol is highly toxic causes an instant release of Vitamin B to detox your body - it is the Vitamin B release that gives you the nice feeling when you drink! But this will drain your body's Vitamin B resources very quickly - it would be better to take Vitamin B shots! The best thing to make you feel better is Freshly Squeezed orange juice or Hot Water with lemon and honey.