Flu | Aldhafra Club

Archive for the ‘Flu’ Category

An Answer to All your Questions on Bird Flu

Saturday, July 31st, 2010

1. What is Bird Flu?

Bird flu is a virus infection that normally occurs in wild birds and pathologically in poultry, its forms causing mild symptoms or even death within 48 hours. It can also infect humans.

2. What virus is responsible for Bird flu?

There are many subtypes of influenza “A” virus, which affect in a different way poultry, causing mild or serious diseases to birds.

The most lethal subtype of influenza “A” virus is H5N1, also known to be very dangerous to humans.

3. How can birds get infected?

Wild birds are a reservoir of the virus and they spread the disease among the poultry which gets into close contact to contaminated dirt, water, food and wild bird excrements.

4. How can the infection spread within the country?

Contaminated vehicles, clothes, cages and shoes can carry the virus from place to place. Birds that roam freely and those sold in markets can also to that.

5. How can Bird flu infect humans?

Tips for When Your Kids Have The Flu

Friday, July 30th, 2010

The flu can be a dangerous illness, especially for children. Because of smaller body size, and developing systems, children are at an increased risk with regards to all the symptoms of the flu. Adults usually don’t get the stomach-related symptoms that deprive a child of nutrients when they need them most.

Treating the Flu Conventionally

If your children contract the flu, it is vital for them to get plenty of rest. Don’t allow them to engage in strenuous exercise or play. Even if they do not feel fatigued for the first few days, be firm. The body must be in a state of rest if it is to cope with the sickness brought by the virus.

Don’t forget to give your children plenty of fluids. Water is especially helpful, as are isotonic sport drinks. Because children with the flu can also get diarrhea, replacing lost salts and water soluble vitamins is crucial to their recovery. If your children use alcohol or tobacco, you will need to see to it that they stop. Both these substances cause damage to the immune system, thereby making the entire flu experience worse. Read more...

Cold and Flu Prevention Part III – With Herbs

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

The immune system, which is the set of cells and their activity against antigens, or infectious agents that comprises of the body’s defense system against diseases. The immune system does a great job of keeping people healthy and preventing infections. Cold and Flu are the most commonly occurring illnesses in the entire world, with more than 1 billion colds per year reported in the United States alone. The common cold is a self-limiting illness caused by any 1 of more than 200 viruses. If you have a weak immune system, you are at the greatest risk to get cold and flu.

Here are some herbs that might help to prevent cold and flu:

1.Echinacea
Echinacea boosts the immune system to help prevent cold, flu, allergies and minor upper respiratory infections therefore it has an effectiveness of treating cold, flu & sinus relief.

3.Greentea
Green tea contains antioxidants that can help to boost immune function, therefore with immune system strengthening substances green tea protects your body from getting cold or flu. A recent study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition showed that subjects taking a special preparation of green tea as a capsule experienced 23% less of getting cold and flu overall and 36% fewer sick days. Read more...

Does Your Health Insurance Cover Flu Shots?

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

The flue season is picking up, and if years past have been any indication it is going to be a very tough time on the bodies of many. Do you get a flu shot? If not you may want to consider it to avoid paying the prices that come with getting the flu.

Lost Time

The first thing that you have to keep in mind when it comes to getting the flu is that it will keep you out of work for a few days. If you work for someone else this may not be as big of a concern, but if you work for yourself that means you will not be able to be productive or make money.

Even if you don’t work for yourself, it’s not only work that loses in this case. Your personal life takes a hit too as you will be too ill to do the things you enjoy.

More Medication

The flu causes you to pick up a lot of things from the pharmacy in an attempt to get through it. From cough syrups to sleep aids and anti-nausea medication, you may rack up a pretty big bill trying to deal with the symptoms of this ailment. Read more...

Ever Heard of the Serious Bird Flu?

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

Many do not care to know more about diseases other than those that frequently affect them and those they love like the cold fevers, venereal infections and the like.

Nevertheless, it is important to learn about some of the serious ones like bird flu, which is not very common in many corners of the world.

I know one may ignore because they do not live somewhere near birds of any type, but another person who does may catch and spread it.
What is bird flu?

This is an infection caused by avian or bird, influenza or flu, viruses. These viruses are said to occur naturally among birds, but those of the wild carry them in their intestines without them experiencing any harm.

The problem is that this is very contagious among all birds, but if those domesticated like chicken, turkeys, ducks catch the virus, their health deteriorate very fast and soon dies.

The owner of these domestic birds may then be subjected to the risk as is to be mentioned later on this article.

Types of domestic bird flu

The birds you have domesticated can either catch low pathogenic or high pathogenic forms of bird flu. Read more...

Cold And Flu Prevention

Monday, July 26th, 2010

It’s one of those days, isn’t it? Those days when you’re busier than words could describe (preparing for exams, working overtime for a client, catching a myriad of deadlines). Sure, it’s really no big, you’ve done this before. Except that this time, you happened to have caught a cold or a flu or some other bug and now you’re so disoriented that you can’t work right. Your nose is stuffed, your head is aching, your throat is bothering you, and you feel like crawling under a rock and just sleeping it off without other people checking up and asking what had happened to some requirement or other that you were supposed to complete by such a time. All of this could be summed up in two words: “This sucks”. And we have to agree it does. Read more...

H5N1 Bird Flu

Sunday, July 25th, 2010

The H5N1 Bird Flu is apparently an epidemic in the making, if you go by the U.S. Governments informational website birdflu.gov they don’t seem optimistic of us escaping the wrath of this incubating monster.One of the problems in combating the H5N1 Bird Flu is the lack of reporting by authorities in many of the countries of Asia.

Many politicians in the affected regions don’t want to anger the poultry farmers by having to wipe-out all their inventory and the inventory of every other farmer in the region. The worst of the worst is Vietnam. Not only do local officials refuse to report regional outbreaks, they refuse to compensate any farmers for their loses. This, in turn, causes whole regions to stay at risk for long periods of time, improving the odds of a successful Human to Human transmission. That’s when we see a global pandemic occur.

Computer model estimates built around the propagation rate of previous epidemics suggest that this one, if it comes, will be much faster & more deadly than the 1918 outbreak that killed between 50 to 100 million people in 12 months. According to John Peterson, founder of the think tank The Arlington Institute, its projected that between 300 million to 1 billion people will actually die this time around. Read more...

A Cold, The Flu Or Something More Serious

Saturday, July 24th, 2010

Getting a cold or the flu is a common problem. We often go to extremes to ensure that we don’t get sick; but the inevitable will happen, and life will be unpleasant for a few days. You can’t catch the same cold or flu virus twice, but they are constantly mutating and each new strain may feel slightly different. When you get sick they all feel bad, but you may not know if you have a cold, the flu or something more sinister right away. There are many illnesses that can display similar symptoms, but almost all of them aren’t dangerous unless you have a compromised immune system. Some people go to the doctor with the slightest sniffle, and others won’t go to the doctor even on their deathbed.

How the Swine Flu is Affecting the Dollar, Peso, and Yen!

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

On Monday, as I watched the media breed fear into the public, I also saw my charts going nuts. The “Swine Flu fear” was spreading from people, to the financial markets.

Fist I heard about hog and pork belly futures taking a blood bath in the trading pits due to the swine flu. (Commodity traders were scared that while this is all going on that the public would eat less pork than they otherwise would.)

Then later on, the stock market cranked up and I saw Smithfield Foods (SFD) gap down and lose over 12% in a single day. Tyson Foods (TSN) gapped down too and traded down almost 9% on the day too.

It was then that I switched over to my currency screens and brought up the Mexican peso (USD/MXN). The peso was getting slaughtered over the swine flu.

It not only broke the downtrend line as the peso dove, but it gapped noticeably higher on the daily chart and soared over 5.25% on the day.

But why? What’s the big deal about this flu and why should it affect a currency?

Here’s how the peso gets punished for the “Swine Flu”! Read more...

What is Swine Flu?

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Swine flu or swine influenza is a disease common in swine, with normal flu-like symptoms, but caused by any strain of the swine influenza virus (SIV – virus endemic in pigs). Though rare in humans, individuals with greater exposure to swine could contract swine influenza if the swine are carrying the particular rare strain of the SIV that is capable of affecting humans. Even then, it is a rare occurrence for the strain to be able to pass from human to human. This could occur if the SIV is able to mutate into a form that can be easily transmitted among humans.

The swine flu outbreak of 2009 is believed to be caused by such a mutated strain of the SIV. The current outbreak is called swine flu only because one of the surface proteins of the tested virus is similar to the one which infects pigs. It is still unknown if this is currently infecting pigs though it’s clearly spreading among people, leading the World Health Organization to raise the Phase 4 pandemic alert. This new strain responsible for the outbreak has been found to be a re-assortment of strains of the influenza A virus subtype H1N1. These strains are separately endemic in humans and in swine. Read more...