Understanding Swine Flu (Influenza A H1N1)

Mary Young – Dr. Mary Young is an assistant professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at Georgetown University Medical Center. She is also director of the HIV Women’s Program and a member of the Center for the Study of Sex Differences in Health, Aging and Disease. She is an expert on infectious diseases, HIV/AIDS, and various treatments for infectious diseases. She is the site principal investigator of the N.I.H. funded Women’s Intra-Agency HIV Study (WIHS), which is a longitudinal study of HIV-infected women. She is also one of the Chairpersons of the Georgetown University Hospital Institutional Review Board (IRB), providing advice and direction on IRB protocol submissions and helps reinforce compliance with local IRB requirements.

Dr. Mary Young, assistant professor of medicine, discusses Influenza A H1N1 (swine flu), its symptoms, and steps that can be taken to prevent contracting or spreading the virus.

The U.K to vaccinate the entire population against H1N1 virus

The number of infected people from the H1N1 virus is increasing exponentially in the U.K, therefor, the NHS put an emergency plan to vaccinate everyone from north to south. This decision came after the first healthy male victim to die from swine flu in Essex.

Peter Holden, the British Medical Association’s lead negotiator on swine flu, said GPs’ surgeries were ready for one of the biggest vaccination campaigns in almost 50 years.

“If this virus does [mutate], it can get a lot more nasty, and the idea is to give people immunity. But the sheer logistics of dealing with 60m people can’t be underestimated,” he said.

The new medication is expected to arrive within few weeks, and it will be approved for immediate vaccination withing five days from its arrival. The U.K is taking serious steps toward this deadly and nasty virus, because if it mutates again it might be devastating.

The FDA has announced new signs of swine flu that everyone has to pay close attention to, especially people who have health problems.

Source – Timesonline.co.uk