Swine flu

What is Swine Flu infection?

Everyone knows about and may have suffered with influenza or flu infection. Flu is an infection caused by certain virus, which comes, stays for a few days and goes away. Similarly, Swine Flu is also a kind influenza virus. Here, the difference is that it can be more severe than regular flu infection.

Why is it called H1N1?

All virus have been named. H1N1 is a name given to the Swine flu virus. In the same group, there are some related virus-named as H1N2, H2N3, etc.

What are the symptoms of Swine flu?

The symptoms are similar to regular flu:

Fever

Cold

Cough

Runny nose

Body ache 

Sore throat 

Chilliness

Backache

Pain in joints 

Nausea and vomiting

Diarrhea

Lack of appetite

Low energy

Where do you get it from?

Swine flu being a viral disease, it spreads from a person suffering with the same virus. It spreads through air, by sneezing and coughing, and touch of the affected patient. A sneeze or a cough of a patient can through millions of Swine flu virus in the air.

Congested places such as closes room, classroom, office, train, bus, mall, etc are sources of infection, as one infected person could spread it to many healthy patients.

Who is at higher risk?

Those who are already suffering with poor resistance.

Children having tuberculosis

Elderly people above 65 years

Children below five years

Patients with diabetes or other disease which lowers vitality

Pregnant female

HIV positive patients

Patients with heart, lung, liver or kidney disease

Patients who are on immunosuppressive medicines for other diseases

People with tremendous physical or mental stress

Patients on cortisone or chemotherapy

Why is so much of Panic about Swine flu?

Well, swine flu is now an pandemic, which means the entire world is at risk. Since the disease spread rapidly and it can have serious consequences, there is obviously threat to life. 

It is important to get alert and extremely careful about:

Controlling the spread

Timely treatment

What happens to Swine flu patient, finally?

Swine flu infection, like most other viral infections, is likely to subside eventually; whether treated or not. However, some of the patients are at risk of turning into a serious medical condition called ARD (Acute Respiratory Distress syndrome), which may turn even fatal.

How to diagnose Swine flu?

The diagnosis test is done using nose and throat swab at the laboratory. Many labs are able to conduct this test for the cost of about USD 30. Some countries have control over the test. In India, as on today, only the government run hospitals are allowed to conduct the test.

Treatment for Swine Flu: 

For conventional treatment, please consult your local doctor.

Homeopathic treatment for Swine Flu

The doctors, conventional as well a the homeopathic, have limited experience so far about the treatment of Swine flu, as the infection is new to the humans.

However, on the basis of the nature of the disease and its pathophysiology, we can opine that homeopathic is likely to work well in the cases of Swine flu, since homeopathy has well established role in the treatment of many viral diseases.

We can recommend homeopathic medicines which are likely to help cases of Swine flu, which may work by enhancing the immune system. The medicines are also likely to work as preventive in some cases. However, such statements would always go with the disclaimer that no claims are being made for its cure or prevention.

Commonly indicated homeopathic medicines:

Depending on the individual symptoms of the patients, one or more of the medicines could be prescribed: Influenzinum, Gelsemium, Arsenic albub, Rhus toxicodendron, Occilococcinum, etc are some of the common medicines. They can also be used as a part of probable preventive measure.

Precaution:

If you have recently visited a country or place/city under Swine flu attack or have met a person suffering from the infection, it is advisable to get a test done.

What to Do for Avoiding Swine Flu:

• Always cover your mouth and nose while coughing and sneezing
• Do not touch your eyes, nose and mouth frequently as there is always some virus on tabletops, telephones and computers
• Wash your hands frequently
• Alcohol-based gel or foam hand sanitizers
• Wear a well-fitted mask in public places
• Drink loads of water and get enough sleep
• Try to avoid close contact with sick people
• Stay away (3-feet distance) from people who have a respiratory infection
• Use disposable tissues

Swine flu is not a food borne illness so there is no restriction on food and drinks.

Special Note:

Swine flu is most contagious in the initial five days. In the case of children, it can be contagious up to 10 days. If you have already got it: Please confine yourself to a room. Wearing a mask is a must and Keep yourself away from social gathering, your work place and other public places, to avoid spreading the infection to others.

What is Homeopathy?


Homeopathy is a system of natural medicine developed by Samuel Hahnemann, a German physician in the early 1800s.  He discovered that the same substance that could cause a reaction in a healthy person could also be a remedy for someone suffering from similar symptoms.

That is the basic premise of homeopathy: “like cures like.”  It may seem hard to believe, yet the approach to vaccination used in Western medicine is a similar one, albeit one that is fraught with potential side effects, unlike homeopathy which is completely safe.

Homeopathy is a natural, holistic, approach to healing a person, using minute doses of specific remedies, rather than simply eliminating a particular symptom using a Band-Aid approach.  Unlike many health models, the model for homeopathy is one of individualization.  No two people are alike, so just because two people suffer from headaches, the homeopathic remedies provided for them may be completely different.

MYTHS N  FACTS

1. It is slow to act
This myth is popular, because most of the people approaching a Homoeopath after they have tried all treatments and by that time their acute complaints have become chronic. Homoeopathy is, in fact, FAST AND RAPID IN ACTION in conditions like acute infections, fever, diarrhea, etc. while in cases of chronic diseases as the disease has been there since a long time it does take time to cure but recognizable improvement starts within two to three weeks time.

 2. All medicines are same, small and white 
Homoeopathic medicines are prepared in an alcohol base. The white sugar globules or pills are only a medium or vehicle for the transport of the medicine into the body. The liquid medicine is dispensed in the sugar globules that are made from lactose.

 3. Homeopathy is only good for chronic cases
The notion that homoeopathy works well in chronic cases is true but it works equally well in acute cases too with the additional advantage that the recurrence of acute problems like that of tonsillitis, recurrent cold and coughs, frequent skin allergies is markedly reduced by the use of constitutional homoeopathic medications. Homoeopathy has excellent medicines to treat colic, diarrhoea, headache, cough, toothache, viral fevers etc.

4. Homoeopathy first aggravates the disease and then improves
It is a myth. It does not happen to all cases. But if medicine is repeated more than the need, or the potency chosen is higher than required by the patient then there is a medicinal aggravation or increase in the complaints, but these symptoms would subside on its own as soon as that medicine is withdrawn and the right potency medicine is to be administrated for getting the curative action.

 5. Dietic restrictions 
It is a myth regarding restriction in diet like onion, garlic, perfume, paan and tobacco. These medicines have been used on patients who are habituated to coffee and betel. IT ALWAYS ACTS. But yes, certain homoeopathic medicines when given, can be inactivated by certain substances so only in those medicines these restrictions are required and not in all the medicines.

6. Homeopathy and Allopathy cannot be taken together 


 In patients suffering from drug-dependant diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure, allopathic drugs cannot be suddenly withdrawn; hence, homeopathic medicines may be taken with allopathic medicines. However, allopathic medicine is often palliative or suppressive. For example, if a patient with headache takes a painkiller, his symptoms would get masked and therefore a good prescription by a homeopath could become difficult. Similarly, some medicines in Allopathy tend to suppress rather than cure while homeopathic medicines may expel toxins. In such cases, it is better to take Homeopathy alone.