Swine Flu (or more correct, H1N1 flu) is now spread all over the world, declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. It has been reported from countries all over the world, with people contracting the disease, and a majority of them recovering; for a small fraction of them, the disease worsens to the point that the afflicted person dies. One of the major factors that has helped prevent a higher number of deaths is the fact that the virus has not mutated into a virulent form. Currently, the virus is treated by the drug called oseltamivir or Tamiflu. However, like many other diseases, there will be a form of the virus that is resistant to this drug, and because they are more difficult to treat, this strain of the virus spreads.
Scientists are worried about a strain of the virus spreading that is resistant to the drug, and hence are tracking these cases. As an example, there are many forms of other bacteria caused diseases such as TB that have multi-drug resistant strains and which are of major concern to medical personnel the world over (link to article):

continue reading "Swine Flu resistance increasing"

For many years now, doctors and health specialists around the globe have been warning of a mass pandemic that could sweep the globe, involving the movement of bird flu to humans in a form that modern medicines cannot control and which become a huge health disaster over the world. From time to time, bird flu raises its head among poultry, mass culling happens, and the danger is declared over; as a result, the world has stopped responding to such kind of threats about future problems related to bird flu. Too much talk about it put out the feelings that this is another doomsday disaster, and if it has not happened till now, maybe it will never happen.
However, in the last couple of days, the world is starting to get a rude wake-up call from another disease that originates in animals and jumps to humans. In this modern inter-connected world. all such health disasters can spread quickly from region to region, country to country, and continent to continent. This is a disease called swine flu, that causes sickness in pigs, and has also spread to humans, causing a large number of deaths in Mexico, and illness in many other countries (link to article):

continue reading "Swine flu getting serious"