Friday, May 1, 2009

Swine flu....ohh no not again

Surprisingly, I have not flinched when someone coughed next to me on the train. It just so happens once one disease ends its deadly onslaught, another takes its place. What I do not get is the abnormally slow reaction to the deadly contagion. The health ministry in Mexico and America were saying how it was under control and everything was gonna be fine and before you know it, its made its way to Australia! Folks, get your flu vaccine now before you get infected too, you do not need a PhD in biological sciences to realise that!

According to wikipedia,

"Swine flu is rare in humans. People who work with swine, especially people with intense exposures, are at risk of catching swine influenza if the swine carry a strain able to infect humans. However, these strains infrequently circulate between humans as SIV rarely mutates into a form able to pass easily from human to human. In humans, the symptoms of swine flu are similar to those of influenza and of influenza-like illness in general, namely chills, fever, sore throat, muscle pains, severe headache, coughing, weakness and general discomfort. The World Health Organization has stated that Swine flu symptoms may even be less severe than any seasonal flu symptoms."

Apparently, the virus can also mutatate quickly into different forms a.k.a has a very flexible protein structure. hmm...evolution at work.

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