Biology: Swine Flu

For the past few months, many people have been freaking out over the dangers of Swine Flu. These people had very good reasons to do so because Swine Flu, which is formally known as H1N1, is a mutation of the 1918 Spanish Flu. The 1918 Spanish Flu was devastating as it took 50 million to 100 million lives around the world. The fear is that Swine Flu will act as the Spanish Flu did. You may be thinking to yourself, Swine flu hasn’t been any worse than the regular flu has been, has it? What scares scientists studying this mutated form of the Spanish Flu is that it still has a lot of potential. The Spanish flu came through in the spring and was rather mild, but then came back in the fall and was absolutely deadly; Swine flu could do just that. Another surprising fact about Swine flu is that is that is does not matter what age you are, it can infect and kill you. With the regular flu, usually the only people to be concerned with complications are infants and the elderly. Swine flu can infect and kill anybody, despite their age, although pregnant women, infants, and the elderly are the group most likely to die from the Swine flu.

Luckily, we have some time to prepare for the potential of this flu. In September, 5 pharmaceutical companies promised to create 250 million doses of the Swine flu vaccine. These vaccinations have been tested and are proven to be safe. After the first week in November, 26 million doses had been distributed. The first of these doses are not open to just anybody. The target groups are: pregnant women, people in close contact with any children under 6 months of age, healthcare and emergency medical services personnel, all people from 6 months to 24 years of age, and anybody from 25 to 64 years of age who have health conditions that could lead to complications with influenza. People 6 months through 18 years of age are a target group because they are in close contact with each other during the school days which increase the likelihood that the disease will spread. Adults 19 years through 24 years of age are at risk because this age group often works, lives and studies in a close proximity to each other according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Eventually the entire population will be able to be vaccinated and most hospitals have made the vaccination open for all at this point in time. The best way to prevent the spread of the disease is to make sure that every member of the population possible gets vaccinated and to have sick people stay home from school or work.

This is a link to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention Website for H1N1.