Swine Flu Cases On the Rise

With over 400 schools closed in eighteen states up from eleven, the swine flu has many parents concerned.  The CDC has confirmed that cases rose from 109 on Thursday to 141 on Friday.  Children can be contagious from seven to ten days from when the got sick. New guidelines from the government are to close the school for at least fourteen days after a confimed case. Some major airlines have announced too that they will block flights into and out of Mexico where the CDC reported origination of the first case.

“We think the cases do continue to occur,” said CDC’s Dr. Anne Schuchat. The CDC has reported that it believes the new swine flu virus lacks the genes that made the pandemic in 1918 have so many fatalities.

There are other concerns that because it is a different strain, noone has developed an immunity to it.  The fear of the unknown is what is driving us all crazy.  For me, I will double up on hand sanitizer and try not to use public restrooms.  Why, you ask?  When you wash your hands and touch the door handle on the way out, some may have touched it too without washing their hands. And, as the saying goes, “It is better to be safe than sorry.”

Symptoms of swine flu are similar to the symptoms of the human flu including:

• fever
• cough
• sore throat
• muscle aches
• headache
• chills
• fatigue
• possible diarrhea
• possible vomiting

Also, like seasonal flu, severe illnesses and death has occurred as a result of illness associated with this virus.