The swine flu or the virus “H1N1” is a new type of flu which first appeared in the USA in the year 2009. Since then it has spread throughout the world and is now a world-wide new disease.
Like most viral infections, this kind of flu is transferred from one person to another through the air, expelled from the infected person by sneezing, contracted by others when inhaled or by touching the areas covered by bacteria and then touching your mouth or eyes.
This virus occurs when the actual flu takes place as well. Most of their symptoms are also the same. High temperature, fever, running nose, exhaustion and cough are only some of them. So how is this virus different from the regular flu?
It is different since it has been known to get serious and even cause death or severe complications. Older people, young children and pregnant women are the ones who are of the population most endangered by this virus. Most of the serious infections and deaths are connected to this exact part of the human population and are usually quarantined and treated as high risk patients as soon as signs of this virus appear.
As many other mild diseases, this flu is not so dangerous by itself and most complications involved with it are connected with other illnesses it is known to cause. Some of them are bronchitis, pneumonia and sinus related infections. Also people suffering from any chronic diseases such as asthma, heart, lungs, kidney, liver, blood, nervous system and many other disorders, are likely to have those worsened by the flu virus, most often taken to the life-threatening extreme. Also, those suffering from immunity deficiency diseases such as HIV or AIDS along with various types of cancer add on to the severely endangered group.
People often do not realize it, but obese people tend to have many of the above mentioned underlying diseases and, being so, also present a group prone to serious risk if infected with H1N1.
Others, with strong immune systems and healthy people in general, often get over this virus like the regular flu, by resting and taking a lot of fluids.
An important fact is that a person who successfully fought the virus away once, develops antibodies which prevent the virus from ever appearing again.
All in all, those who should generally be threatened by the regular flu should pay even more attention to the swine flu as well, since, if not taken seriously, it can be painful and possibly lethal.
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