Swine Flu Stories This Week

It has emerged in Serbia that two former senior health officials have been arrested over accusations of profiting from the swine flu vaccines when the outbreak emerged a few years ago in this story courtesy of BusinessWeek. It seems that this private company quickly saw an opportunity and milked it for all its worth, hyper-inflating the vaccine prices. We reported back in July that Scientists were working on a breathalyzer for swine flu. well it looks like the development and process has been faster than expected and now to improve upon this breathalyzer, you can read more about the 'breathalyzer' for swine flu halitosis and how it works here.
Also, this article from the Hong Kong asserts that Experts were wrong on swine flu - this story came out of a conference that was held by international fly experts in Asia this week.

Swine Flu Vaccine Worth 250 million Euros is Set to be destroyed

Read about this latest Swine Flu story here:
http://www.thelocal.de/national/20110817-37007.html

Swine Flu Breathe Test

A Breathe test to detect Swine Flu is being developed according to the Mail On Sunday:
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/health/article-2015046/Swine-flu-breath-test-vaccine-need-pandemic.html

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle

Often we are more susceptible to diseases and flu when our body systems are on low functioning power and our immunity is weaker than usual. We all know the basics on maintaining a fit and healthy lifestyle - but it's not always possible to fit exercise with a balanced and nutritious diet given the fast pace of our modern lives. So what's the solution? The first step is taking a serious evaluation of what we're doing in our daily lives that could be putting our health at risks. For some it may be gorging on junk food at least 2 or 3 times a week. For others, it may be being tied to an office desk from 9-5. Then the next stage is to look at solutions to reduce these unhealthy habbits.

If you're in the latter category, perhaps take breaks more regularly walk around the office, or if there's a gym nearby go to the gym at lunch - even if its only for 30 minutes. An intense 30 minute workout is sometimes better than an hour 30 drawn out workout. If you know your diet is unhealthy and unbalanced - take immediate action. Substitute McDonalds for homemade sandwiches and fruit. Reduce the amount of junk food consumption to once or twice a week maximum. Be strict with yourself.

Its only through changing your lifestyle that you can improve the state of your health, and ensure your less susceptible to succumbing to illnesses like swine flu.

Swine Flu still claiming lives

Googling the following phrases 'swine flu' in Google News and quite a substantial amount of links will show up for cases where victims have succumbed to the virus and ultimately in worst case scenarios being mistreated for something else, such as the case of a punk rocker in the UK, who fell ill from swine flu but because of his appearance paramedics thought it was a drug overdose. From the Daily Fail:
Daily Fail Swine Flu article

This kind of news article, whilst unpleasant to read, is perhaps testament to the fact that swine flu has disappeared to the back of peoples' minds.

What about Swine Flu Now?

So with no news stories for about 6 months now in regards to swine flu, it seems that swine flu has well and truly died down. This is not to say I'll simply close this blog down though, as I still believe by keeping up to date with the news and posting relevant articles we can still help to keep this in the public consciousness, and in case the influenza ever comes back in perhaps a more virulent form we shall remember what we learnt from the H1N1 outbreak in 2009.

I found this interesting press release from the Ministry of Health in New Zealand echoing the fact that swine flu cases are now below baseline levels and there's no cause for concern at the moment: http://www.nzdoctor.co.nz/un-doctored/2010/september-2010/30/pandemic-influenza-h1n1-2009-(swine-flu)---update-210-.aspx

If you hear of any other news stories related to swine flu or similar influenzas you're welcome to share them here.

Still cases of swine flu going on

Just when we thought we'd seen the back of this pesky flu, another case in India today:

http://www.duniyalive.com/?p=121205

My guess is that we'll still see odd cases like these popping up in areas that swine flu has already hit. But at least, now we have the benefit of hindsight on how to contain such cases quickly and stop it infecting others.