The US and the Northern countries are getting ready for a second wave of the H1N1 (Swine Flu) infections that could affect many people and lead to many more being hospitalized, thousands dead and closure of businesses and schools. This is according to a report by Rob Stein (2009) in the Washington Post that the flu virus is very notorious and any efforts to make firm predictions are impossible. Swine flu affects the respiratory system, and it infects pigs. The causal agent is influenza type A and seems to spread widely in winter and autumn but can flow all year round. It occurs mostly in humans who have had close contact with pigs, and cases, where humans pass the disease to others, have also been documented. Swine flu has been reported to be associated with Severe Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a bird’s flu that has caused many deaths in South East Asia in recent. It is a different strain of the influenza virus from that of swine flu. Swine flu is a type of H1N1 strain while the bird’s flu strain is H5N1 (Mancilla, 2009). H5N1 can lead to being a virulent disease because it can transform rapidly but to date, it has been more of a bird’s disease than a human disease. H1N5 is transmitted from birds to humans who work closely with them. However, the flu has since gained the ability to be passed from humans to humans (Mancilla, 2009).
The death toll from influenza varies with different strains and the times the strains appeared. The Spanish flu infected 40% of the global population and killed more than 50 million people in 1918 (Fischer &Irving, 1933). The young adults were the most affected group. It is caused by a strain of flu in the form of HN1. In 1957, 2 million people were killed by the Asian flu of the human form of H2N2 of the flu strain which was combined with a mutated train of ducks (WHO Guidance, 1957). The most vulnerable age group at that time was elderly. An outbreak that was initially detected in Hong Kong in 1968 killed approximately 1,000,000 people worldwide (Pappas, et al, 1970). The strain which was known as H3N2 mostly affected people over 65 years of age (Pappas, et al, 1970). The WHO has warned that the Swine flu could generate a global virulent disease.
However, it is too early to correctly judge the death toll from the swine flu with certainty. The flu epidemic is being experienced in the world at a higher rate since 1968, rated at 3 on 6 point scale (Rob, 2009). Up to now, the H1N1 virus has spread to over 168 countries with over 162, 000 cases confirmed (Public Services International 2009), and 1,154 deaths with 436 of these deaths occurring in the US (Rob, 2009). The potential pandemic impact of swine flu is not known but researchers and health experts predict that it could cause loss of lives to millions globally (Mancilla, 2009).
The signs and symptoms of an infection from swine flu are similar to those of common seasonal flu and include headaches fever, sore throat, chills, diarrhea, cough, fatigue, and body aches (Romelia, 1992). Severe illnesses like pneumonia and respiratory diseases are associated with the flu (Spink, 1996), and deaths reported from H1N1 were associated with such diseases (WHO, 2009.
The treatment of influenza is normally through antibiotics. For instance, H1N1 is treated using Tamiflu and Relenza (Rupert, 2009), which have been known to be effective when used to treat the confirmed cases that have so far occurred. The use of antibiotics to treat viral diseases is however ineffective since antibiotics always target apart on the pathogen that is not similar to the host cells, like the cell wall in bacteria. The biochemistry and the cellular makeup of viruses are similar to that of the human host cell (Berkow, 1997). Therefore, if the antibiotics are toxic to viruses, they might also harm the human host cell. Antibiotics are also known to have several side effects like nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, itchiness, fatigue, and those that are the sedative cause, someone, to sleep. This problem is usually caused by the overuse of antibiotics when people use them for the wrong reasons. The use of antiseptic soaps, detergents, and protective lotions has no known benefits (Webbe, 1999). However, the continued use of antibiotics exposes the disease-causing agents to them, develops a resistance to them hence when one is infected by a disease caused by that particular pathogen, the drugs become ineffective since they cannot be killed by them (Blobel, 1992). Antibiotics of the class Beta lactams have a lactam that is strongly reducing and they use this to attack the cell wall of the bacteria. Bacteria develop a group of enzymes called beta-lactamases that destroy the beta-lactam ring of the antibiotic such that it is no longer effective against the bacteria. Antibiotic-resistant strains emerge due to the overuse of antibiotics (Spectre, 1997). This causes another problem; the emergence of more virulent viruses that become hard to treat. A good example is an H1N1 virus that is known to mutate rapidly. This is usually to evade the toxicity of the antibiotics used for the treatment. The vaccines being produced against H1N1 for instance may prove useless since flu viruses mutate rapidly and within a very short period (Berkow, 1997). Swine flu is already showing signs to change and the antiviral drug Tamiflu is becoming ineffective in some people. The WHO (2009) reported that H1H1 influenza viruses were detected to be resistant to Tamiflu in Hong Kong, Denmark, Canada, and Japan. This is what makes the treatment of viral diseases like influenza hard to treat because of the rapid mutations they undergo.
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