Swine Flu Outbreak

The Hub : Miscellaneous Topics

Hello Guest, Login to post.

Swine Flu Outbreak

Topic started by NOV on Thu Apr 30 9:34:33 2009. [Full View]

The 2009 swine flu outbreak is an epidemic that began in April 2009 with a new strain of influenza virus. The new strain is commonly called swine flu, but some authorities object to the name and it is also called Mexican flu, swine-origin influenza, North American influenza, and 2009 H1N1 flu.

The outbreak is believed to have started in March 2009 and was classified as meeting the criteria for the World Health Organization pandemic Phase 5 status on 29 April. Local outbreaks of an influenza-like illness were first detected in three areas of Mexico, but the virus responsible was not clinically identified as a new strain until April 24, 2009. Following the identification, its presence was soon confirmed in various Mexican states and in Mexico City. Within days, isolated cases (and suspected cases) were identified elsewhere in Mexico, the U.S., and several other Northern Hemisphere countries.

By April 28, the new strain was confirmed to have spread to Spain, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Israel, and the virus was suspected in many other nations, with a total of over 3,000 candidate cases, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to change its pandemic alert phase to "Phase 5", which denotes "widespread human infection". Despite the scale of the alert, the WHO stated on April 29 that the majority of people infected with the virus have made a full recovery without need of medical attention or antiviral drugs.

The new strain is an apparent reassessment of four strains of influenza A virus subtype H1N1. Analysis at the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified the four component strains as one endemic in humans, one endemic in birds, and two endemic in pigs (swine). One swine strain was widespread in the United States, the other in Eurasia.

In late April both the United Nations WHO and the U.S. CDC expressed serious concern about the situation, as it had the potential to become a flu pandemic due to the novelty of the influenza strain, its transmission from human to human, and the unusually high mortality rate in Mexico.

On April 25, 2009, the WHO formally determined the situation to be a "public health emergency of international concern", with knowledge lacking in regard to "the clinical features, epidemiology, and virology of reported cases and the appropriate responses". Government health agencies around the world also expressed concerns over the outbreak and are monitoring the situation closely.

Mexico's schools, universities, and all public events will be closed from April 24, 2009 to May 6, 2009. On April 27, 2009, a few schools in the U.S. closed due to confirmed cases in students. Two days later the action extended to 18 more U.S. schools as the disease became more widespread in the U.S., the same day WHO Director General Margaret Chan said "It really is the whole of humanity that is under threat in a pandemic," and the Mexican government ordered a shutdown of all non-essential activities in the government and private sector, amounting to a shutdown of most of the country's economy.

According to the WHO, "In annual influenza epidemics 5-15% of the population are affected with upper respiratory tract infections. Hospitalization and deaths mainly occur in high-risk groups (elderly, chronically ill). Although difficult to assess, these annual epidemics are thought to result in between three and five million cases of severe illness and between 250 000 and 500 000 deaths every year around the world. Most deaths currently associated with influenza in industrialized countries occur among the elderly over 65 years of age.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_swine_flu_outbreak

| RSS Feed | Email me when a reply is posted

Responses:

Full Thread
From: ksen on Mon Sep 28 5:54:29 2009. [Full View]

It is not just diluting, - the substance gets processed at each stage.

Well, I don't see the need for all this explanation - nobody is trying to convert anybody. Like Dev said, you can try all you like We are enjoying the entertainment. It was fun reading PR's and app-engine's posts
From: r_kk on Mon Sep 28 8:27:36 2009. [Full View]

Thanks for clarifying Ksen.

If you still feel like explaining, please explain about the “substance getting processed” (vigorous shaking) and where we get 100% pure water without any memory effect.

Then, I don’t write any thing just for fun, because in India, many people take these really serious; consider pseudoscience as real and loose health and wealth. I had written just to put an alternative view to the readers, those who read this forum, based on the available scientific approaches. In fact I very well know that it is not easy to change any one. But if any one of you can prove, I will change. The challenges to Homeopathy by James Randi are always available to any one who thinks they have some proof.

I hope you all might have read about the recent bursting of frauds like P Vijayakumar of Travancore Raja Vaidhya Salai in Mylapore, who was running a successful hospital and TV show about his treatment in Vijay TV. Unfortunately many people fall victim (heavy metal poisoning) and lost not only their lakhs of rupees but also their loved one’s health.

As some one said science is also evolving. It is true, for example, we evolved from Newtonian to Quantum, but it doesn’t mean we need to agree to all pseudoscience hoping that it will become true oneday. As on today, based on current scientific theories, homeopathy is not falling under SCIENCE.
From: P_R on Mon Sep 28 9:18:45 2009. [Full View]

r_kk, is your claim that no-one gets any cure from homoepathy ? And that any reported cure was a mere fluke ? i.e. that homeopathic drugs will/have failed to be statistically more significant than not having any medication at all (which to me is the logical extension of questioning basic tenets of the system, right ?) . If so, then I think I have just seen too many cases of it working to consider this line of argument any further.

OTOH if your claim is that in most cases allopathic drugs 'outperform' homeopathic ones, then that is a different question altogether.
From: app_engine on Mon Sep 28 9:31:53 2009. [Full View]

Now, r_kk, you've raised another point, of people "losing wealth".

I don't think this applies to Homeopathy at all From what I've seen in Kerala (where this practice has flourished), it's one of the least expensive treatments available.

And for people with certain chronic sickness with absolutely no improvement after spending tons of money with allopathy (except temporary calming down and in some cases progressive worsening of the situation even - like certain docs resorting to steroids), that was one of the incentives to switch to homeo.

So, when we discuss purely on moola, homeo will outscore most other systems with ROI - i.e. for whichever cases it got proved to work

Disclaimer : My this post is not to recommend delaying the "correct" treatment for a specific ailment that CANNOT be cured by homeo, simply because it's cheap and affordable. Rush to emergency where needed
From: app_engine on Mon Sep 28 9:45:29 2009. [Full View]

Want to post another important personal experience where homeo helped tremendously.

As you could've guessed from my posts in this thread, homeo is obviously not the FIRST choice for my family as I take them to regular hospitals (now in U.S., I haven't even located any homeo doc - except that I've seen some of those medicine in vitamin shoppe). And for me as an individual, I take treatment only when it's absolutely necessary - otherwise "தூய காற்றும் நன்னீரும், சுண்டப்பசித்த பின் உணவும்" technology only

When nothing worked for my wife's nausea during first pregnancy in India - she could hardly eat any and had to be even administered drips often - a caring friend suggested homeo and though utterly sceptical, I had no other way but to give it a try. And it worked miraculously.

The 2nd pregnancy is here in U.S. and the situation was worse. Tried all kinds of medicines the hospital recommended (one of the top names in U.S.) and it was a struggle. Guess what - I phoned up my friend in Palakkad and requested to him to go to the same doc, get the miracle medicine and air mail. It DID work and she could start eating and regained most of the lost strength and delivered normally:-) (She visited the homeopath in his 70's during a subsequent India trip with the baby and thanked him for the timely help).

It's not that we didn't try the "scientifically proven glorious allopathy" p is in the p
From: r_kk on Tue Sep 29 10:41:18 2009. [Full View]

app_engine,
next time, in case if you are going for another child (!), just give sugar globes soaked in the solvent generally used for homeopathy without any homeopathic dilution and see (without telling to your wife!).

Then till now I haven't talked about allopathy (first time I am using this word in this thread). I also like you (தூய காற்றும் நன்னீரும், சுண்டப்பசித்த பின் உணவும்" technology only) and allow body to recover as much as possible and then go to doctor when it is really necessary.

There a plenty of demerits with Allopathy and so called vaccination. Hundreds of article can be written against misuse of antibiotics, vaccines and commercialising medical profession. But still we have to accept that it had doubled the average Indian life expectance (1930: 32 years, 2009: 64 years) and prevented world children mortality in large extend.
From: app_engine on Tue Sep 29 12:04:09 2009. [Full View]

I completely agree with the effect vaccinations & antibiotics had / have on prevention of mortality and increase of average life expectancy.

I'm certainly not against that neither do I question the treatment methods as all of us are beneficieries

It's just that I don't dismiss any form of treatment simply based on campaign by competitors.

Ofcourse main aspects of the treatment should be possible to explain "as far as possible" with the current proven science. However, given the fact that science cannot explain EVERYTHING, we'll have to give it to certain treatments the benefit of "future discoveries", as long as they alleviate sicknesses at present

About the Avogadro thingy, I didn't invest time to study. While that approach may disprove certain parts of the homeo philosophy, it may not disprove as a whole. For example, what if there is "no or minimal dilution" for a specific drug / chemical and it works fine for a set of illnesses at that potency level?

We don't have to take the extreme dilution levels (a drop in ganga kind) for every case / sickness. That way, the system needn't stray from science upto a point at least
From: r_kk on Wed Sep 30 1:13:36 2009. [Full View]

Avogadro’s constant is very simple and clear. Number of molecules in a same size container of two different gases is same, at same temperature and pressure.

If dilution principle has to be true, just to trace the medical substance in 12C and 13C homeopathic remedy, we need the following quantity of ideal water (no impurities, water without any trace of so called water memory).

12C: equivalent to adding pinch of salt in entire South and North Atlantic Ocean
13C: One third of a drop of original substance diluted into all the water on earth

So, my comment in adding 1 drop of substance in Gangodri and taking a drop at Haridwar is not enough to create even 10C!

Unfortunately Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843) was published his “Organon der Rationellen Heilkunde” in 1810, just one year before the publication of hypothesis by Physicist Amadeo Avogadro (1776-1856)
From: app_engine on Fri Oct 2 13:00:58 2009. [Full View]

http://www.dinamalar.com/Pothunewsdetail.asp?News_id=17495#

Cow colostrum (சீம்பால்) seems to be building up resistance against swine flu, as per this news.
From: app_engine on Fri Oct 2 13:22:41 2009. [Full View]

On homeopathy :
http://www.kulisz.com/how_does_homeopathy_work.htm

This article seems to agree with my observation on avogadro thingy (i.e. for relatively higher concentrations / low potency, there's explanation. For the controversial one (drop in ganga stuff), though there's no explanation as of the time of this article, similar is the condition for many other traditional drugs as well it seems)

| RSS Feed | Email me when a reply is posted

Want to post a response?

(Hello Guest, you need to Login to post a response. Are you a New User? Register first.)

Back to Miscellaneous Topics forum