Swine Flu Immunity
Posted by Health articles on May 6th, 2009
Swine Flu – a not-so-pretty name for symptoms of fever, coughing, runny nose and/or sore throat, joint aches, severe headache, vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy and/or lack of appetite.
This disease (lack of ease, i.e. incoherency in frequency) sprouted up in Mexico about a month ago and appears to be traveling around the world. So, what do we believe we know about it? Let’s take a look:
Science tells us it is a virus which is defined as an ultramicroscopic, metabolically inert, infectious agent that replicates only within the cells of living hosts, composed of an RNA or DNA core and a protein coat.
Sounds a lot like us in some respects except that viruses are not living organisms, i.e. they depend upon their hosts to give them life.
We are told that this virus is a combination of pig, bird and human flu viruses. The current strain of virus (named A(H1N1)) is a new variation of the customary flu that seems to go around every year – H1N1. A(H1N1) contains pig and bird flu virus along with the human flu virus. It has not been seen in animal or human before. Yet, because older people have had more opportunity to be affected by H1N1 and therefore have built up an immunity, it appears that the new virus is mostly affecting the younger population.
There are several theories about how this virus was birthed:
According to the Online Journal, a top scientist for the United Nations has concluded that the current swine flu virus possesses transmission capabilities that suggest this new flu strain has been genetically-manufactured as a military biological warfare weapon. And, according to the Frederick News Post, disease samples are missing from the biolabs at Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD.
Another theory is that the flu could have originated due to factory farming wherein pigs are transported across the U.S. for raising, fattening and slaughter. Any virus that might be replicating within the pigs would have ample opportunity to catch a ride rather than staying down on the farm.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has placed the pandemic (epidemic over a large area) alert level at 5. This means that there is evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission capable of causing outbreaks in two countries in a single WHO region. WHO breaks its coverage into specific areas of the globe, i.e. Region of the Americas, European Region, etc.