Important Facts About The Flu

by Ethan Miller

The flu is a respiratory infection, despite the fact that it causes full body pain, digestive upsets, and headaches. The flu can sweep through entire communities in a matter of days, moving through schools, work places, and shopping centers.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates 5 to 20 percent of Americans are infected with the flu during each flu season, typically from November to March. Children are two to three times more likely than adults to become ill.

The CDC estimates that 200,000 people are hospitalized each year and about 36,000 people die from the flu and its complication.

The danger of the flu is that it spreads to epidemic proportions within days, and it mutates, making it difficult to prevent. Each strain of flu reacts differently in the body, making it impossible to predict how the next epidemic will hit society.

The government is now encouraging people to cough into their upper arm, or sleeve, if they do not have a tissue. They should also wipe their hands after they cough. This prevents the spread of the disease between people working in close proximity of each other.

Hand washing needs to be done with a soap based, or alcohol based hand cleaner. The new bacterial cleaners may not work unless they are alcohol based.

The elderly, newborn babies, and people with certain chronic illnesses, however, the flu and its complications can be life-threatening. The danger caused by an out-break dependsd on the virus strain.

Flu is caused by a variety of influenza viruses. Researchers identified the first strains in the 1930s. They classify influenza viruses into types A, B, and C.

* Type A is the most common and causes the serious epidemics. * Type B outbreaks can cause epidemics, but the symptoms are milder than those in type A. * Type C viruses, has never been connected with an epidemic.

There is no cure for the flu. The only plan of action is plenty of bed rest, drinking fluids, and taking medications that alleviate the symptoms.

This is followed by careful attention to symptoms. The flu can turn into a bacterial infection, resulting in pneumonia, within hours. It is important to remember that complications can appear after the patient starts to feel better.

Complications include a high fever, shaking, chills, chest pains, and may include vomiting and diarrhea. A doctor should be consulted if coughing produces a yellow-green mucus, especially if it is expectorated from the body. This means, that it is coughed hard from the body with force, sending it several feet away - if the patient did not have a tissue.

It is important to remember that influenza A virus is resistant to Rimantadine and amantadine. The CDC recommends that you not take these medicines to treat the flu. Avoid giving aspirin to children and adolescents with the flu, and do not take antibiotics.

IF a pandemic breaks out, visit http://www.pandemicflu.gov/ to learn the news, and learn what you can do to protect yourself and your family. This site tracks the all forms of the flu, and has tutorials to help people protect themselves in case of a flu pandemic.

About the Author
Ethan Miller advises on health issues from his web site at http://asthmaroom.com He invites you to receive his FREE health information guide here http://www.lowcarbrescue.com

Influenza, also known as flu

by Sulamita Berrezi

Influenza, also known as flu, is the clinical condition that results from infection with influenza viruses. The main effects of the influenza viruses are on the upper respiratory tract, the nose and throat, with possible spread and involvement of the lungs and bronchi. The disease is highly contagious and it has potential to cause wide spread epidemics affecting sizeable portion of a population at any time. Although it is more common during winter it may strike at any time. It affects people of all ages.

Symptoms Influenza strikes suddenly.
It usually begins with a chill, fever, headache and severe muscular pains. The patient feels miserable and weak. There is an inflammation in the nose and throat, which may spread down the windpipe to the lungs, resulting in a sore throat, cough, running of the nose and eyes. In milder case of influenza the temperature rises to 102 o F and lasts for two or three days. In severe cases, it may go upto 104 o F and last for four or five days. The consequent weakness and fatigue may continue for several weeks. This may be followed by a deep chest cough due to irritation in the windpipe.

Causes Influenza is what is known as germ disease.
It is, however, not caused primarily by the action of the germs as is generally believed, but develops due to a toxic and run-down condition of the system of the affected person. This condition is brought about by dietetic errors and a faulty style of living such as worry, over work, lack of proper exercise , living in stuffy rooms and keeping late hours. No disease germs can find lodgment and become active in the system of a person who is perfectly healthy in the true sense of the term. Influenza is passed on with ease from one affected person to an other especially to those who are also in an equally low vital stage. That is how an epidemic starts.

Treatment Influenza.
Like all other acute diseases, is a natural attempt at self-cleansing and if rightly treated in a natural way, immense good can ensue so far as the future health of the patient is concerned.

In the acute stage of influenza, a patient should abstain from all solid foods and only drink fruit and vegetable juices diluted with water, 50 - 50 for first three to five days, depending on the severity of the disease. The juice fast should be continued till the temperature comes down to normal.

The warm water enema should be taken daily during this period to cleanse the bowels. After fever subsides the patient may adopt an all-fruit diet for two or three days. In this regimen, the patient should take three meals a day of fresh juicy fruits such as apples, pears, grapes, oranges, pineapple, peaches and melons at five-hourly intervals. Bananas or dried, stewed or tinned fruits however, should not be taken. No other food stuff should be added to the fruit meals, otherwise the value of the treatment will be lost. This may be followed by a further two or three days on fruits and milk diet.

Thereafter, the patient may adopt a well-balanced diet of three basic food groups namely, (i) seeds, nuts and grains, (ii) vegetables, and (iii) fruits. Spices and condiments , and pickles, which make food more palatal and lead to overeating, must be avoided. Lemon juice may be used in salad dressing. Alcohol, tobacco, strong tea and coffee, highly seasoned meats, over-boiled milk, pulses, potato, rice, cheese, refined, processed, stale and tinned foods should all be avoided.

Certain remedies have been found highly beneficial in the treatment of influenza. The most important of these is the use of long pepper. Half a teaspoonful of the powder of the long pepper with two teaspoonfuls of honey and half a teaspoonful of juice of ginger should be taken thrice a day. This will help greatly if taken in initial stages of the disease. It is especially useful in avoiding complications which follow the onset of the disease, namely, the involvement of the larynx and bronchial tube.

Another excellent remedy for influenza is the green leaves of basil or tulsi plant. About one gram of these leaves should be boiled along with some ginger n half a litre of water till about half the water is left. This decoction should be taken as tea. It gives immediate relief.

Garlic and turmeric are other effective food medicines for influenza. Garlic is useful as a general antiseptic and should be given as much as the patient can bear. Garlic juice may also be sucked up the nose. A teaspoonful of turmeric powder should be mixed in a cup of warm milk and taken three times in the day. It will prevent complications arising from influenza and also activate the liver which becomes sluggish during the attack.

About the Author
Sulamita work on le canzoni del festival di sanremo negli anni 80, and canzoni sanremo anni 80and festival canzone italiana anni 80

Panel Recommends All Kids Get Flu Shots

All children _ not just those under 5 _ should get vaccinated against the flu, a federal advisory panel said Wednesday. The panel voted to expand annual flu shots to virtually all children except infants younger than 6 months and those with serious egg allergies.

That means about 30 million more children could be getting vaccinated. If heeded, it would be one of the largest expansions in flu vaccination coverage in U.S. history. The flu vaccine has been available since the 1940s.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices said all children should start getting vaccinated as soon as possible, acknowledging that many doctors have already ordered their vaccine for the 2008-2009 season and may not be able to give the shots until 2009-2010. The flu season generally starts in the fall and continues through spring.

The panel's advice is routinely adopted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which issues vaccination guidelines to doctors and hospitals.

Flu shots were already recommended for those considered to be at highest risk of death or serious illness from the flu, including children ages 6 months to 5 years, adults 50 and older, and people with weakened immune systems

The panel said that should be expanded to include children up to age 18.

Children ages 5 to 18 get flu at higher rates than other age groups, but they don't tend to get as sick. Of the 36,000 estimated annual deaths attributed to the flu, only 25 to 50 occur in children in that age bracket, CDC officials said.

But children who stay home sick from school cause parents to stay home, so reducing the illness in this group should cut down days of lost work, some experts said.

Experts believe giving flu shots to more children may also prevent the illness from spreading to adults and the elderly, although studies haven't clearly established that will happen.

Shots are not the only option. A nasal spray vaccine, FluMist, is approved for healthy people ages 2 to 49.

Panel members waffled a bit on whether to make the recommendations kick in immediately. Some public health professionals pushed them to make the clearest endorsement possible of the flu vaccine, concerned that the public is losing faith in flu shots because this year's vaccine was not well matched to circulating viruses.