Sanitizing gels

Where I currently live in Thailand, a number of sanitizing gels have sprung up into existence since the outbreak of swine flu. I sometimes wonder just how effective these gels are those when it comes to eliminating harmful bacteria. Perhaps it's me being too cynical. I dunno. But i do like the automatic hand sanitizers which means you don't have to touch any dirty bottle cap or tap pump to get the stuff out. Also, I like to carry around with me just a small tub of alcohol sanitizer. When this whole swine flu dies down, I wonder if the Thais will go back to their old ways of not perhaps being so obsessed with disinfecting their hands all the time. Or if its become a new ingrained habbit, hard to shake off. In many ways the swine flu pandemic has helped us really how susceptible we are to germs, bacteria and viruses and how quickly they can be passed on from one human being to another. Let's hope that we will continue our better hygienic practices in the future.

Vaccination available in the UK from October

The NHS has announced that there will be a vaccination against swine flu given to people in October. The Government has ordered enough for the entire population. However, only those most suscetible and vulnerable will have the vaccination adminstered at first, and also people in direct contact with those suscetible to the virus such as health care professionals. Andy Burnham, health secratry for the UK, has said that the vaccination will be administered at first to the following at-risk groups:

• People aged over 65, in the clinically at-risk seasonal flu groups.
• People aged between 6 months and 65 in the clinically at-risk groups from seasonal flu.
• Pregnant women, but the adminstration of the vaccine is subject to licensing by the European Medicines Agency.
• People who come into contact with others with a weakened immune system, namely if the contact is a household contact.

If you're wondering how at risk we still are from the virus, the following confirms that the number of cases has fallen from 2 weeks ago, but we are still at threat as the information below also shows:

• There has a been a reduction in the number of cases in the UK in the last two weeks. There have been 25,000 new cases in the last week, this has fallen from 110,000 new cases two weeks previously.
• There are 371 patients in hospital with the swine flu virus, 39 of them are in critical care.
• The number of consultations to GPs has also fallen in the past week.
• There have been 44 confirmed deaths in England, and now the total stands at 49.
• Still there are no signs of the mutating into a more deadly form.

Source: http://www.nhs.uk/news/2009/04April/Pages/Swineflulatest.aspx

So does this mean, that we are safe from the pandemic. Is it time to go back to our normal daily lives? I would say we shouldn't be complacement and still keep to what we've been doing, although the number of cases in the UK has fallen there are still new cases of swine flu everyday and until we have a safe, effective vaccination we should not let our guards down. What do you think? Please post your comments and opinions.

Previous historical evidence of H1N1

You may have heard that this isn't the first time we've been exposed to this virus. In 1918 - 1919 the virus was seen in Spain and the pandemic was responsible for high mortality rates.
These deaths were cause by a failure in the respiratory system, resulting in the death of the affected person. The estimated deaths due to the flu virus between the years 1918 and 1919 resulted in between 20 and 30 million. Much like what's happened the virus has spread rapidly. Then the first case originated in Europe and soon spread to the States and Africa. Of course they didn't have the medical sanitation we have access to today.

With the influenza that was experienced in the 20th century there were two waves of it, the first being a rather mild wave in comparison to the second in August of 1918 which ravaged several continents and resulted in the deaths of not just the old and vunerable, but in fact the majority of deaths were people under the age of 65. However, many deaths were said to be as a result of a secondary infections, usually pneumonia. The total death figures were around the 20 million mark.

However, we've got to bear in mind how fortunate we are to have the access to the medication and hospitals we have today. It seems that H1N1 is one of those things that we will always have to be prepared for in the future and be quick to contain and quarantine it when it first outbreaks.