Symptoms of Swine Flu

If you were one of the lucky people to both catch and survive the Swine Flu during the 2009-2010 pandemic, the according to a new study, your immune system may have become supercharged. It seems that the Swine Flu virus was totally unknown to many that caught it and the body did not know how to cure it.

Somewhere in the vicinity of 60 million people came down with the Swine Flu last year, and even though death by flu was much lighter than in prior years, there were still around 18,000 deaths from the disease. What is surprising is what comes to the survivors is a type of super immunity. They seem to have antibodies that are capable to kill any type of flu virus and not just the swine flu.

Research has shown that survivors of the H1N1 virus have an amazing immune response. The researchers say that five of the antibodies they have identified are capable of fighting off all known seasonal flu’s, the Spanish flu virus that killed around 50 million people in the 1918 pandemic and even the bird flu variant H5N1.

The researchers feel that it is how unique the Swine Flu was that triggered that kind of reaction from the immune system. Since the body did not know what the exact invasion was, it began to create antibodies for everything taking hints from every flu virus it had encountered to date. By the time a person had completely recovered they seemed to be immune to every type of flu around. Researchers are unsure if the H1N1 vaccine will give the same type of immunity that actually having the swine flu will give. More research is needed.

Now onto the really interesting part, An Oxford University Virus expert Dr. Sarah Gilbert is feeling that this immunity from swine flu survivors in the relatively near future could lead to a super vaccine. This vaccine could give you immunity to every type of flu, a universal influenza vaccine.

Image via Wikipedia

A version of last years H1N1 flu strain is circulating in a South Carolina prison. As a precaution the prison has shut the doors to all visitors for the moment. The outbreak has so far hit about 140 of the inmates. The facility currently holds just under 750 inmates.

The outbreak began on January 17^th and moved rather swiftly through the prison population.

For 2011 most of the US seems to have bypassed the Swine flu for the year. The United Kingdom on the other hand, has seen a lot of H1N1 this year including 112 deaths to date. Hospitals are also rapidly filling up with flu vaccine in short supply. A few of the other countries in northern Europe have been hard hit with swine flu as well. So far few cases have been seen in the US but that could change. Air travel makes it easy for a virus to move from country to country.

You can read more about this subject at CIDRAP.

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If you are in the United Kingdom right now there is no way to miss all the Horrible cases of swine flu going around. The number of people that are hospitalized with the H1N1 virus is up 60 percent since last week. That is a number that is of serious concern to anyone.

Also Swine flu targets those that are younger as they have not been exposed to the virus in the past. Those that are older generally have been exposed and are resistant to the virus.

The death toll has also risen sharply with 36 deaths for those under the age of 65. Again this is rightly a cause of concern for many.

What Can You do to Protect Your Family?

First, wash your hands in plain soap and water often. Steer clear of those anti bacterial products as they will actually make you more susceptible to catching something. Plain soap is all you need to stay healthy and get your hands clean.

Next, be sure you are getting plenty of Vitamin D3. If you can get enough from free Natural Sunshine that is best. That can sometimes be difficult during the winter months depending on where you live. IF it is a challenge for you just get your self a good quality Vitamin D3 supplement.

Finally, avoid crowds. If at all possible avoid going to places like doctors and hospitals where there are a lot of people that have the flu, making it far more likely that you also could catch it from them.

I sincerely hope that you and your family are safe and healthy and stay that way!