Swine flu

The UN is sounding the alarm - the world is beset by swine flu. True, it has already been intelligently renamed into the A/H1N1 influenza strain, which does not stop them from scaring us from television screens with an epidemic worse than the Spanish flu. With the help of specialists from the World Health Organization, scientists from the Epidemiology Research Institute of Rospotrebnadzor and the Influenza Research Institute, we decided to dispel several common myths about A/H1N1.

Myth 1.
The second “Spanish flu” awaits us

The world is not in danger of a repeat of the Spanish flu epidemic, which claimed more than 20 million lives in 1918–1920, since doctors and epidemiologists now know incomparably more about the causative agent of influenza and the mechanisms of spread of the disease. At that time, no one suspected the A/H1N1 strain itself, or others. Scientists responsibly declare that with each pandemic there are fewer and fewer victims of influenza due to the development of medicine and pharmacology.

Myth 2.
Vitamins and a mask are a panacea

When doctors advise drinking vitamins and wearing gauze masks to prevent A/H1N1, they play it safe. Immunity, which should be our first assistant in resisting infection, is not developed in a few days or even months. But sufficient protein content in food gives the body strength.

A mask is effective when it is worn by someone who is already sick, so as not to sneeze on others. A healthy person can only be saved from someone else’s virus by a thick mask like No. 95, which is physically impossible to wear for a long time, much less constantly.

Myth 3.
To protect yourself, you need to set up a cordon

In fact, you cannot get the flu by eating pork. If you don't trust these claims, then just remember that heat treatment above 70°C kills the virus instantly. A well-fried kebab will not give your body a surprise in the form of A/H1N1. This strain was indeed originally identified in pigs, but the mutated flu is now transmitted from person to person. By the way, this is its difference from the still memorable bird flu. Then we did not infect each other through airborne droplets. But swine flu is less pathogenic and the vast majority of people who get sick recover, just like with regular flu.

Myth 4.
This flu affects the population of industrialized countries

WHO data frightens Europeans: the list of countries in which the A/H1N1 pathogen has been identified often includes developed industrial powers. Ecological features? Experts say that this is rather a problem of the underexplored African continent. Perhaps there is a connection in less intense communication with the outside world. And quarantine now for developed countries is like a poultice for the dead. It is too late to isolate patients getting off the plane. Not only other passengers, but also previous neighbors at the airport, who are almost impossible to identify, could have become infected. The fact is that the specificity of the incubation period is such that the patient becomes infectious one day before the symptoms of swine flu appear.

Myth 5.
Seven million will fall ill in Moscow

This horror story was given by the head of the Rospotrebnadzor Moscow department, Nikolai Filatov. He was immediately refuted in every way. His immediate superior, the Chief Sanitary Doctor of the Russian Federation, Gennady Onishchenko, even had to make comments. The Russians, of course, understand that the figure is greatly overestimated, and so far not a single case of A/H1N1 has been recorded in Russia, but it is still somehow scary.

Total. You shouldn’t worry too much, much less give in to panic. Even in Mexico, the quarantine has already been lifted, although the most cases have been identified there.

By the way
In addition to myths, there are also versions about who benefits from the hysteria around the A/H1N1 flu.

This is a conspiracy by pharmaceutical companies. Commercial laboratories allegedly synthesized the current strain of the virus by crossing swine and human flu, and now pharmaceutical corporations will receive excess profits for the development and sale of antiviral drugs.
This is a conspiracy by high government officials to distract the population from the economic crisis.
This is a “cover” for theft and corruption: billions are written off to fight the flu, which then ends up in the pockets of officials and others like them.
And finally, a banal redistribution of the meat market. The struggle of producers among themselves using tough information technologies.