Swine Influenza and You

KEY FACTS


What is swine flu?
Swine Influenza (swine flu) is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza viruses that causes regular outbreaks in pigs. People do not normally get swine flu, but human infections can and do happen. Swine flu viruses have been reported to spread from person-to-person, but in the past, this transmission was limited and not sustained beyond three people.

Are there human infections with swine flu in the U.S.?
In late March and early April 2009, cases of human infection with swine influenza A (H1N1) viruses were first reported in Southern California and near San Antonio, Texas. Other U.S. states have reported cases of swine flu infection in humans and cases have been reported internationally as well.

An updated case count of confirmed swine flu infections in the United States is kept at http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/investigation.htm CDC and local and state health agencies are working together to investigate this situation.

Click onto this link for more information

Is this swine flu virus contagious?
CDC has determined that this swine influenza A (H1N1) virus is contagious and is spreading from human to human. However, at this time, it not known how easily the virus spreads between people.

What are the signs and symptoms of swine flu in people?
The symptoms of swine flu in people are similar to the symptoms of regular human flu and include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache,chills and fatigue. Some people have reported diarrhea and vomiting associated with swine flu. In the past, severe illness (pneumonia and respiratory failure) and deaths have been reported with swine flu infection in people. Like seasonal flu, swine flu may cause a worsening of underlying chronic medical conditions.

How does swine flu spread?
Spread of this swine influenza A (H1N1) virus is thought to be happening in the same way that seasonal flu spreads. Flu viruses are spread mainly from person to person through coughing or sneezing of people with influenza.

Sometimes people may become infected by touching something with flu viruses on it and then touching their mouth or nose.

How can someone with the flu infect someone else?
Infected people may be able to infect others beginning 1 day before symptoms develop and up to 7 or more days after becoming sick. That means that you may be able to pass on the flu to someone else before you know you are sick, as well as while you are sick.

What should I do to keep from getting the flu?
First and most important: wash your hands. Try to stay in good general health. Get plenty of sleep, be physically active, manage your stress, drink plenty of fluids, and eat nutritious food. Try not touch surfaces that may be contaminated with the flu virus. Avoid close contact with people who are sick.

Are there medicines to treat swine flu?
Yes. CDC recommends the use of oseltamivir or zanamivir for the treatment and/or prevention of infection with these swine influenza viruses. Antiviral drugs are prescription medicines (pills, liquid or an inhaler)that fight against the flu by keeping flu viruses from reproducing in your body. If you get sick, antiviral drugs can make your illness milder and make you feel better faster. They may also prevent serious flu complications. For treatment, antiviral drugs work best if started soon
after getting sick (within 2 days of symptoms).

How long can an infected person spread swine flu to others?
People with swine influenza virus infection should be considered potentially contagious as long as they are symptomatic and possible for up to 7 days following illness onset. Children, especially younger children, might potentially be contagious for longer periods.

What surfaces are most likely to be sources of contamination?
Germs can be spread when a person touches something that is contaminated with germs and then touches his or her eyes, nose, or mouth. Droplets from a cough or sneeze of an infected person move through the air. Germs can be spread when a person touches respiratory droplets from another person on a surface like a desk and then touches their own eyes, mouth or nose before washing their hands.

How long can viruses live outside the body?
We know that some viruses and bacteria can live 2 hours or longer on surfaces like cafeteria tables, doorknobs, and desks. Frequent handwashing will help you reduce the chance of getting contamination from these common surfaces.

What can I do to protect myself from getting sick?
There is no vaccine available right now to protect against swine flu. There are everyday actions that can help prevent the spread of germs that cause respiratory illnesses like influenza. Take these everyday steps to protect your health:

Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze.
Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or
sneeze. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also effective.
Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread this way.
Try to avoid close contact with sick people.
If you get sick with influenza, CDC recommends that you stay home
from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from
infecting them.

What is the best way to keep from spreading the virus through coughing or
sneezing?
If you are sick, limit your contact with other people as much as possible. Do not go to work or school if ill. Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing. It may prevent those around you from getting sick. Put your used tissue in the waste basket. Cover your cough or sneeze if you do not have a tissue. Then, clean your hands, and do so every time you cough or sneeze.

What is the best way to keep from spreading the virus through coughing or
sneezing?
If you are sick, limit your contact with other people as much as possible. Do not go to work or school if ill. Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing. It may prevent those around you from getting sick. Put your used tissue in the waste basket. Cover your cough or sneeze if you do not have a tissue. Then, clean your hands, and do so every time you cough or sneeze.

What is the best technique for washing my hands to avoid getting the flu?
Washing your hands often will help protect you from germs. Wash with soap and water. or clean with alcohol-based hand cleaner. we recommend that when you wash your hands -- with soap and warm water -- that you wash for 15 to 20 seconds. When soap and water are not available, alcohol-based disposable hand wipes or gel sanitizers may be used. You can find them in most supermarkets and drugstores. If using gel, rub your hands until the gel is dry. The gel doesn't need water to work; the alcohol in it kills the germs on your hands.

What should I do if I get sick?
If you live in areas where swine influenza cases have been identified and become ill with influenza-like symptoms, including fever, body aches, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, or vomiting or diarrhea, you may want to contact their health care provider, particularly if you are worried about your symptoms. Your health care provider will determine whether influenza testing or treatment is needed.

If you are sick, you should stay home and avoid contact with other people as much as possible to keep from spreading your illness to others.

If you become ill and experience any of the following warning signs, seek emergency medical care.

In children emergency warning signs that need urgent medical attention
include:
Fast breathing or trouble breathing
Bluish skin color
Not drinking enough fluids
Not waking up or not interacting
Being so irritable that the child does not want to be held
Flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough
Fever with a rash

In adults, emergency warning signs that need urgent medical attention
include:
Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
Pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen
Sudden dizziness
Confusion
Severe or persistent vomiting

How serious is swine flu infection?

Like seasonal flu, swine flu in humans can vary in severity from mild to severe. Between 2005 until January 2009, 12 human cases of swine flu were detected in the U.S. with no deaths occurring. However, swine flu infection can be serious. In September 1988, a previously healthy 32-year-old pregnant woman in Wisconsin was hospitalized for pneumonia after being infected with swine flu and died 8 days later. A swine flu outbreak in Fort Dix, New Jersey occurred in 1976 that caused more than 200 cases with serious illness in several people and one death.

Can I get swine influenza from eating or preparing pork?

No. Swine influenza viruses are not spread by food. You cannot get swine influenza from eating pork or pork products. Eating properly handled and cooked pork products is safe.

Click onto this link to read What is Swine Flu

What is swine flu?

Like humans, pigs get the flu. They develop a sudden fever, a barking cough, sneezing, lethargy and typically lose their appetite.
Humans can catch a swine flu usually when people have direct contact with pigs; historically, there's such a case every year or two in the U.S.

What is this swine flu outbreak?
The virus responsible for this outbreak is a subtype of Influenza A/H1N1 that has never been detected in swine or humans.The new virus appears to be made up of four different flu viruses: North American swine influenza; a swine influenza virus typically found in Asia and Europe; human influenza A; and a North American avian influenza. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control's Dr. Anne Schuchat calls it "an unusually mongrelized mix of genetic sequences."
What makes this new virus worrisome is how easily it appears to be able to pass from person to person. With cases popping up across the globe every day, how far this virus has already spread has yet to be fully assessed.

Why are we calling this outbreak 'swine flu'?
Technically, this influenza virus is no longer a swine flu. This new strain does not appear to be infecting pigs; it's infecting humans.
The CDC was the first to use the term "swine flu" to describe this virus after initial analysis suggested the virus had many of the characteristics of a swine flu. Further tests revealed it also contained genetic material from a human flu virus and avian flu virus.

How did this new strain develop?
No one yet knows. That investigation could took a long time and the answer might never be found.
Even though this new strain of influenza A H1N1 contains some elements of swine influenza virus, it may not have started in pigs. It could as well have been bred in birds or even another mammal.
Whatever the origin of the current outbreak, it is likely the "swine flu" name is going to stick.

Why is a new strain worrisome?
If an influenza virus changes and becomes a new strain against which people have little or no immunity -- and if this new strain can easily spread from person to person and cause severe illness in a high percentage of people that it infects -- the seeds would be sown for a pandemic that could sicken and kill many people around the world.
Epidemiologists have been warning for years that it's just a matter of time before a new strain of the flu emerges that has the potential to kill millions. Flu pandemics have historically occurred about three times per century and the world hasn't seen one in more than 40 years.
The World Health Organization estimates that in the best case scenario, the next pandemic could kill two to seven million people and send tens of millions to hospital.

Do we have a pandemic strain of influenza virus here?
We're not yet sure. It's clear the virus can spread easily from person to person. But its virulence is being debated. The good news is that so far, the number of deaths from this virus is relatively low. In countries where the virus is just being found, such as Canada, it's causing such mild illness, it's running its course in two to three days, in some cases without treatment.

Is there a vaccine?
There is no vaccine as the genetic makeup of this virus is still being
analyzed. The CDC has not announced that they're developing a vaccine. But if they do, it would likely take weeks if not months before it were widely available. For swine influenzas that affect pigs, there is a vaccine available that can be given to pigs; there is no vaccine to protect humans from swine flu.

I got the flu shot this year. Am I protected?
Not likely. This is a virus that has never been seen before; therefore,vaccines for human flu would not provide adequate protection from the swine flu material contained in this virus. It may offer some protection though against the human flu genetic elements.

Can people catch swine flu from eating pork?
No. Swine influenza viruses are not transmitted by food; you cannot get swine influenza from eating pork or pork products.

What are the symptoms of swine flu in humans?
Symptoms of swine flu are similar to those of our regular flu, with sudden onset of:
• fever
• lethargy
• lack of appetite
• coughing

Some people with swine flu have also reported:
• runny nose
• sore throat
• nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

How is the virus transmitted?
Human-to-human transmission of swine flu is believed to occur the same way as seasonal flu, mainly through coughing or sneezing of people infected with the influenza virus. People also can become infected by touching something with flu viruses on it and then touching their mouth or nose.

How can I protect myself from this virus?
Since influenza spreads through spit and spray as well as contact with contaminated surfaces, the usual good personal hygiene habits are the best defence.

Wash your hands repeatedly through the day with soap and water or with alcohol-based hand sanitizers. Avoid touching you mouth, nose or eyes with your hands unless they've been washed. When coughing, cough into a tissue and throw it in the garbage. If you cough into your hand, wash your hands immediately. Sanitize surfaces that may have come into contact with the virus.

With human flu, the virus is most contagious between the second and third days after infection, but the virus is still contagious for about 10 days.

Can we treat swine flu in humans?
Yes. Most of the infections have been treated successfully, though there have been deaths in Mexico. In most cases, patients with this swine flu have recovered on their own. In those who have had to be hospitalized, this virus has been treated with antiviral medications.
The virus appears to be resistant to amantadine and rimantadine but has been susceptible to zanamivir and oseltamivir (Tamiflu).

Have there been swine flu outbreaks before?
Yes. Most famously, there was an outbreak in 1976 at Fort Dix, N.J., among military recruits that grabbed big headlines at the time. Worried that they had the beginning of a pandemic on their hands, U.S. officials ordered the manufacture of swine flu vaccine and the country launched a mass immunization program that saw about 40 million people vaccinated. But the outbreak didn't turn into a pandemic and went away as mysteriously as it appeared.

Sources: The Canadian Press, Public Health Agency of Canada and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control


COMMON SENSE PRECAUTIONS :

As reports of swine flu continue around the world, the average person is probably asking; ‘ How should I protect myself”. Just want to share with everyone some common-sense precautions suggested by health officials:

Wash your hands – very frequent handwashing is an effective way to reduce transmission of the disease.

Stay at Home – If you are sick and have flu like symptoms, it is very important that you stay at home. If your children are sick ie if they have a fever or flu-like symptoms, they should not go to school. Similarly, if you are ill and have similar symptoms – you should not get on an airplane or another public transport to travel (these things are part of personal responsibility in trying to reduce impact)

Cover your mouth – cover your mouth when coughing and sneezing and avoid touching eyes & nose in case virus is on your hands.

It sounds simple but it helps….

Click onto this link to read Influenza and You

Iluma Shopping Centre

Just to share with all of you, a new shopping centre, Iluma recently opened just beside Bugis Village.

"A picture is worth a thousands words", so view more pictures instead.........


Clip onto to the picture to view more photos (42 photos).

JUSCO & TESCO at Johor Bahru

These are 2 latest superstore in Johor. You can take bus service 188 from OLD Johor Bahru railway station bus-stop to TESCO and JUSCO. TESCO is just one stop before JUSCO. The bus fare is RM2.50 each.

Alternatively is by cab, the taxi fare is RM20.00 per cab.

There are more food outlets and shops at Jusco hence more makan choices. TESCO is just across a road and within walking distance, about 200 meters. Just a sharing.




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Jurong Bird Park

Jurong Bird Park outing Photographs (197 photos).

Clip onto the photos to view more photographs taken during the trip.

The Importance of a Will

A Will is a document that provides for the proper administration and distribution of an estate after death. While most are aware of the benefits of a well-drafted Will, they tend to delay having them written for various reasons.

It is said that in Singapore, almost 90% of the population is without a Will. If no Will is made before an individual’s death, he is then known to have died ‘intestate’ and distribution of the estate will be distributed in accordance to the Intestate Succession Act. This means you have no say as to how your estate is divided up between your loved ones. The Will must comply with the Wills Act to be valid. You may consider engaging a lawyer to make your Will. Needy seniors can also seek the assistance of the Legal Aid Bureau to draft a Will.

A few things to note:

. Review your Will periodically especially if there are changes in your life such as a marriage or divorce.

. Register your Will for free at the Wills Registry.

. Do let your family members know that you have a Will and where the original Will is kept.

Engagement and Assessment of Needy Residents Workshop

Grassroots Leaders from Moulmein Constituency meet at Pek Kio Community Centre in the evening on 23 April 2009 to attend a Workskop session on the "Engagement and Assessment of Needy residents".

"A picture is worth a thousand words" hence click onto the picture to view more of these photos and the presentation slides photos (60 photos).

Help for Low Income Seniors

Low-income seniors and their families can seek financial assistance through the Community Care Endowment Fund or ComCare. For seniors who can still work, but need some help to tide them over, there are ComCare schemes which help support their job search and through their difficult period.

There will be a small number of seniors who are unable to work, have no savings and have limited family support. For them, financial assistance is available through the Public Assistance (PA) Scheme under ComCare. In July 2008, the criteria for the PA Scheme was revised to allow seniors who are permanently unable to work and whose family members are also unable to provide adequate support, to be considered for PA.

From 1 April 2009, a senior living alone receives a monthly PA allowance of $360. Besides the allowance, he is eligible for free medical treatment and, if he is able to meet the eligibility criteria, subsidised HDB rental housing. Seniors under PA also enjoy extensive community support, such as befriending programmes, daily activities at senior activity centres, free meals, hong baos and cash allowance.

Seniors in need of urgent assistance can also approach their grassroos leaders or their nearest Community Club to ask about the Citizen’s Consultative Committee (CCC) ComCare Fund, which can be used to help needy residents who require temporary, urgent relief. The fund can be used to help needy residents either in cash or in kind..

Seniors who need financial help should approach their Community Development Council (CDC) at www.cdc.org.sg or call ComCare Call at 1800-222-0000

The Flea Market at Pek Kio Community Centre

These photos were taken in the early 2004 when Pek Kio Community Centre started its Flea-mart.

Its aim is to promote neighbourliness and let residents generate some income from their old 'collections' instead of selling them directly to 'karang guni' collectors.

These flea-mart have been there for sometimes before being 'commercialised' and are now held at Pek Kio Market on the last Sunday of each month.

Click onto the picture to view more photos (60 photos).

Swine Influenza and You

MacRitchie Treetop

The new suspension bridge in MacRitchie let visitors and researchers get close to nature in the forest canopy.



The bridge is SUSPENDED 25m above ground, the stretch of cable and steel crosses no rivers or valleys, seems to lead to nowhere and smack in the middle of primary forest.

But the 250m-long suspension bridge in MacRitchie area will allow nature lovers and researchers to come up close to the rich flora and fauna of the forest canopy.

Unlike other such bridges, this $1.6 million one, is not anchored to trees, and is the first such suspended pathway in Singapore and the region.

Those who walk the highway will be among 80 species of birds, including the elusive Drongo Cuckoo, eight types of reptiles – such as the Black bearded Dagon and clouded Monitor - and 18 rare trees and climbers.

The new attraction also provides a breathtaking view of the Upper Peirce Reservoir and lush greenery.

The suspension walkway can be reached via two hiking trails. One starts from MacRitchie Resevoir Park off Lornie Road, the other from Rifle Range Road in Bukit Timah.

It is open from 9am to 5pm daily, except on Mondays, when it is closed for maintenance.

For the safety and comfort of users, the bridge is one-way and only 30 people are allowed on it at any one time. National Parks rangers are also stationed there.

Beware, watch your steps.........

Click onto this link to view more Treetop Photographs (127 photos)