Swine Flu Epidemic

With swine flu spreading like wild fire, researchers and scientists are fervently working on the swine flu vaccine. The swine flu is basically a condition caused by the influenza virus H1N1. This was first discovered in April 2009 somewhere in Mexico. The situation was declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in June 2009. This virus strain is a new mutated virus strain and involves specific strains from other viruses that relate to the swine, bird and human virus. It spreads typically through the air and therefore sneezing, cough and touch are the main means of transmission for this virus. The virus is also extremely tough and can survive up to 24 hours on cold hard surfaces.

The main symptoms of the swine influenza are similar to those of normal influenza and include fever, cough, cold, sneezes, headache, body pains and joint pains. However, one typical symptom that is different is the presence of nausea and vomiting. Due to the fact that the swine flu ha symptoms that are similar to those of the normal flu, diagnosis becomes difficult and is often delayed. Affected people consider their situation to be normal influenza and therefore resort to over the counter medicines without really going to a physician.

The swine flu epidemic has made people panic all over the world. Since the spread is through the air, the disease has spread extremely fast. Some countries have even quarantined travelers who have come from other infected areas so as to curb the spread of this disease. While there is a cure for the condition, the fact of the matter is that timely diagnosis is extremely important. If the diagnosis is done after 2 days of the symptoms manifesting themselves, there is a cause of concern.

There is a fair amount of effort that is underway to develop the vaccine for swine flu. However there is a certain procedure that needs to be followed and the same takes more than 9 months. The specific virus needs to be injected in animals and then developed so as to make sure that the vaccine works efficiently and well.

It is expected that the vaccine should be out by the month of September or October for public use this year. However, since these are initial stages of a much rushed project, the availability of the vaccine may be limited for a certain period of time. Needless to say there are other resources working towards a fast manufacture of the vaccine so that it can be made available to all. Even though this is being done there is a possibility that the vaccine will only be effective for this particular strain of virus. Given the rate at which the viruses mutate, there is no guarantee that viruses will not mutate again and come together to create an even newer virus that we may have to fight again. The swine flu vaccine, in that case will be ineffective and therefore we need to find new ways of developing vaccines faster.