The Chief Medical Officer has advised the public, and doctors and the media have made us all aware of the ‘pandemic’ of Swine Flu.
This flu outbreak in humans that is propagated by and known as "Swine flu" is not solely due to a swine influenza virus. It is due to a new strain of influenza A virus subtype H1N1 that derives from one strain of human influenza virus, one strain of avian influenza virus, and two separate strains of swine influenza virus. The origins of this new strain are unknown, and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) reports that this strain has not been isolated in swine. (1)
It passes with apparent ease from human to human, an ability attributed to an as-yet unidentified mutation but the strain in most cases causes only mild symptoms and the infected person makes a full recovery without requiring medical attention and without the use of antiviral medicines.(2)
The number of cases notified per week was estimated to have peaked in the UK in late July around 110,000 notifications per week. It had dropped through August to less than 30,000 per week. It has as expected picked up again as the winter kicked in but notification actually declined through the middle of November. Figures released on 19th November 2009 showed an estimated 53,000 new cases of swine flu in England in the last week, down from 64,000 the week before, with 21,200 cases in Scotland, down from 21,500, and 36 cases per 100,000 in Wales down from 65.8 per 100,000 the previous week.(10)
More people will lose their life in the UK in one winter from seasonal flu than have died world wide because of the virus. Most of the 250 or so who have died in the UK have had an underlying illness already. Outside of Mexico and those working in the swine industry (interesting as the bug is not isolated in pigs??) the vast majority were already ill and died from secondary issues.
Flu can be very serious but for the vast majority it is a few days in bed - if that
The media would have us believe that this is an extremely dangerous type of flu but predominantly it isn’t unless you are already ill.
Until this week it has been advised that any baby under 6 months of age, any adolescent or an elderly person with a weakened immune systemmight benefit from some protection and swift referral to a doctor is recommended but remember The World Health Organization has stated that Swine flu symptoms may be less severe than any seasonal flu symptoms. (3)
There has been some medical advice and media attention about risks of flu in pregnancy. Most women are remarkably healthy through pregnancy due to the beneficial effects of high hormone levels but the suggestion is that the body naturally reduces it’s immune response to avoid rejecting the baby – a foreign body after all. Combine this with the general probability of poor nutrition in many of the population and there may be a slight increased risk.
However in the well fed, happy and healthy pregnancy the risk of this or any other type of flu is not high statistically. The theoretical risks associated with the vaccination (see below) especially the thiomerocal mercury content and the immune stimulant Squalene need to be considered. Also be aware that the vaccine has not been broadly tested on pregnant women or children and that safety is being assumed on the low rate of side effects reported.
Anti-viral drugs, Tamiflu and Relenza, are not specific for Swine Flu but general for influenza-like viruses.It is not effective in prevention and should, therefore, only be used as a treatment. Doctors are being advised to prescribe it when patients have a temperature of over 38 degrees Centigrade and flu symptoms are present.
On 10th August, after broad prescribing especially to children who have a had a case diagnosed at their school, The British Medical Journal published that the use of Tamiflu in children is overall ineffective and may be harmful ( there have been reported cases of the drug inducing suicide). Regardless “The Department of Health said a "safety-first approach" of offering anti-virals to everyone remains a sensible and responsible way forward, but promised to keep the policy under review”. (4)
I wrote the following in this information sheet in August : “Putting aside the ineffectiveness and health dangers from side effects a major risk of this treatment being prescribed injudiciously is that of resistant strains developing leaving us ill-prepared to help those who really need an effective drug. It is a similar situation to what has happened to create MRSA – the resistant staphylococcal bacteria. Broad use of such a drug has the potential to create resistant strains rendering the drug potentially useless which will cause far more deaths than keeping the treatment in reserve for those who need it”.
The UK announced it’s own findings of 5 people with human to human transmitted resistant strain on 20th Nov.09 The World Health Organisation has reported 57 incidents of Tamiflu resistance worldwide, and has now received four reports of possible person-to-person transmission in a US hospital.(10)
Swine Flu vaccine is now available and these will mainly be given to those interpreted to be at high risk. These include:
I. individuals aged under six months and up to 65 years in the current seasonal flu vaccine clinical at-risk groups (those with underlying health issues)
II. all pregnant women, subject to licensing conditions on trimesters
III. household contacts of immunocompromised individuals
IV. people aged 65 and over in the current seasonal flu vaccine clinical at-risk groups
V. frontline health workers (1 out of 3 nurses in the UK say they will not be taking the vaccine (8). They have fears over the safety of the vaccine. New York nurses are also worried about the potential side effects and are refusing to take it (9).
There is no mention in the official document from the Department of Health (7) of those that you might think it sensible to vaccinate such as workers in the pig breeding business.
The vaccine has not undergone safety tests that are usually required in the public domain and has certainly not been tested on children – who are now the next in line to get it. The argument is that the H1N1 component is being added to the same substrate as the regular flu vaccine that has been ‘side-effect’ safe for the last decade or so. In 1976 the Swine flu vaccine is reported to have killed more people that the virus itself following mass vaccination in the USA (5). This is, of course, denied by other sources (7).
Mercury in a compound known variously as Thimerosal or Thiomersal, a vaccine preservative, was withdrawn from childhood jabs 3 or so years ago after evidence linked it to brain damage, although the WHO denies this and the authorities claimed it was being withdrawn not because of proven danger but because of pubic concern. This is used in the pandemic vaccine due to be rolled out across the world within weeks.
The vaccine also contains a ‘natural’ chemical called squalene, used to stimulate the immune system to respond to the vaccine. Some scientists believe squalene is linked to autoimmune illnesses including multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
Squalene was included in the anthrax jab given to British and US soldiers during the 1991 Gulf War. Many claim it caused them permanent neurological damage, known as “Gulf War syndrome (6)
You currently may choose whether to take such a vaccine. There is a strong possibility that is will be made mandatory to have the vaccination and concerns of health and safety have blossomed into some worrying if not frightening conspiracy theories around the reasons why the vaccine is passing safety requirements at the speed it is. New York State , for example, is forcing it upon their nurses. Vaccinate or lose your jobs.
What can be done now?
Based on the facts above one could (still at the time of writing) argue ‘Do nothing’ but if you want to be proactive or you have health issues that you or your Health Care Professional think make you ‘at risk’ by catching this virus then there are some things you can do.
1.Use tissues not handkerchiefs and throw away any used ones
2.Wash your hands if you cough or sneeze but do not use anti-bacterial soaps – creates a risk of resistant skin bacteria and skin bacteria may protect against viruses.
3.The advantages of maintaining high immunity is the best protection, so eat well avoid refined or too much sugar.
4.Stop worrying as fear lowers the immune system
5.If you are an at risk person avoid crowded places
6.Those who wish to review the activity and status of their immune system could consider the TDC Immucheck Profile.
7.Certain vitamins and minerals inhibit viral spread from cell to cell - zinc and beta carotene. Vitamin C inhibits viral activity. A good multi Antioxidant is a potential preventative supplement.
8.Homoeopathic chemists will offer suitable homoeopathic remedies Virotox is a homeopathic mix that can be used 10 drops 3 x daily
9.Beta Glucan, a plant based immune stimulant, can be taken as a preventative supplement.
The Diagnostic Clinic has helped develop a Natural Food State immune formula, Formula F, which can be taken as an anti-viral preventative and treatment. The recommended dose is as follows:
FLU PREVENTION PROTOCOL
Formula F- for Adults and children over 13,use 2 caps daily as prevention increasing to 5 caps 2 x daily at onset of any cold or flu-like symptoms.
-Age 8 to 12,2 daily increase to 4 caps 2 x daily
-Age 4 to 7 1 daily increasing to 3 caps2 x daily
-Under 3 discuss with Dr Sharma
Return to 1 or 2 caps daily for prevention once health is restored.
A pot of 300 costs around £85 due to the inclusion of silver ( a highly viral-toxic mineral).
Probiotics are proven to reduce the frequency and longevity of viral infections so Formula F is recommended to be taken along-side TDC’s preferred brand , PROBIOTIC ECO 500.
Alternatively you can chose to use the slightly less expensive option of some or all of the following:
1.Vit C 1 tab twice daily
2.Zinc 1 tab nightly
3.Antioxidants with Co Q 10 1 daily
4.Vit D 1000iu tab twice a day (not required through summer if safely exposed to the sun without sun-protection factor. Give 1 tab daily to children age 10 – 16 and discuss options with a doctor for those under 10.
If you know or think you have contracted the Flu add in
5.Homeopathic Virotox 10 drops 3 – 4 x daily
6.Beta glucans 2 caps three x daily
Those who would the protocol or would like any supplements can contact our associate Dispensary on 020 7 009 4650 and press button 4.
These are Natural Foodstate products and, therefore, are low dose, high absorbency and cannot be taken in overdose.They are safe in combination with any other form of medication and can be used in pregnancy and lactation and by children.
Please check our website for an update on this subject at a regular interval.
Dr Rajendra Sharma
Medical Director of The Diagnostic Clinic
23.11.09
References
[Maria Zampaglione (April 29, 2009). "Press Release: A/H1N1 influenza-like human illness in Mexico and the USA: OIE statement". World Organisation for Animal Health. http://www.oie.int/eng/press/en_090427.htm. Retrieved on April 29, 2009.]
SWINE FLU OUTBREAK SPREADING -OFFICIAL - Gibraltar Chronicle ... SWINE FLU OUTBREAK SPREADING -OFFICIAL Gibraltar Chronicle The GHA has yesterday confirmed that there is now an established outbreak of Swine Flu in Gibraltar. Sixty-two cases have been confirmed to date and a … ... <http://gibcosta.com/2009/11/21/swine-flu-outbreak-spreading-official-gibraltar-chronicle/>
Everyone is scared about the Swine Flu....a new strain of influenza....yeah....right. I was 4 years old in 1976 and 60 minutes aired a documentary about getting the "Swine Flu" shot to prevent a pandemic...and look what happened..people got severe neurological problems and even death. It started in Fort Dix in the States, 4 soldiers got it and 1 died. 46 millions of Americans got the shot (named X-43A, which wasn't tested and it also signed like some biological weapon name!!!) on advice of the government and many people got sick. Sorry, I don't want to take that chance. Wash my hands, keep my hands away from my eyes nose and mouth. Watch the video and you'll see what goes around comes around..
LVIV, Ukraine — When patients began arriving in Vyacheslav Bonder’s intensive care unit two weeks ago, their lungs so saturated with blood that they could barely gasp, the only thing he could compare it to was a field hospital in wartime. As soon as he hooked one patient up to a ventilator, a second and third would appear in the doorway.
Doctors and nurses at the Regional Pulmonary Center in Lviv, Ukraine, tended to swine flu patients in the intensive care unit.
By that time, hospitals were clearing wards to make room for a wave of pneumonia cases, and people were crowding into drugstores to buy whatever they could get their hands on. Rumors were circulating that the government had ordered the city aerially sprayed with chemicals, to cure Lviv (pronounced luh-VEEVE) of disease or, in a grimmer version, to exterminate its carriers.
The panic lifted almost as quickly as it had arrived, and the World Health Organizationannounced Friday that the swine flu illnesses and deaths so far in Ukraine — 265 fatalities nationwide, with 87 in the Lviv region — were statistically no worse than those in other countries. But what happened here has drawn rapt attention from experts bracing for the epidemic to hit Europe, and especially the fragile health care systems of countries of the former Soviet Union.
Early findings are that serious cases mounted because the sick avoided hospitalization until their illness was dangerously advanced, stockpiles of Tamiflu were locked in centralized locations and the supply of ventilators fell short, said David Mercer, of the World Health Organization’s European regional office.
“It’s not like this caught us by surprise; we’ve known for months that this was coming,” said Dr. Mercer, who heads the office’s communicable disease unit. “We’ve been working very hard on plans, but sometimes the battle plan doesn’t survive the first contact with the enemy. We’ve had to change a lot of things on the fly.”
With the worst of the health care crisis here past, many in Ukraine’s western provinces are trying to puzzle out what led to it. Doctors blame the news media and politicians for spreading fear and misinformation. The mayors of Ternopyl and Lviv, which reported their first deaths from atypical pneumonia on Oct. 12 and 19, have complained that the federal epidemiological service refused to act without laboratory confirmation that the virus was present, delaying serious measures by nearly two weeks.
Others point to more remote causes, among them the desperate poverty of Ukraine’s health care system 20 years after the Soviet Union collapsed.
In Lviv, senior doctors earn a monthly salary of 1,500 hryvnas, approximately $184, pay so low that many physicians leave their practices to work as home health aides in Western Europe. Though health care is officially free, patients typically pay a stream of cash bribes for services as large as X-rays and as small as blood tests or linen changes.
Ukrainians rely heavily on home remedies, and that is what they did for the third and fourth weeks of October, resorting to garlic and lemons and waiting so long to check into hospitals that by the time they did, many were beyond treatment.
“Medicine is underdeveloped in Ukraine, and people don’t believe in it — it’s a vicious circle,” said Oleh Berezuk, a physician who heads the mayor’s administration in Lviv. “In a mature country, if you get sick you will not say, ‘Nobody can help me.’ ”
Now, the doctors at Lviv’s main pulmonological hospital have the shaky good humor of people who have come through a crisis, though portions of their hospital are clammy and unlighted (“to scare the viruses,” one doctor joked), and some of their breathing equipment dates from Soviet times.
Two weeks ago, though, doctors here thought they were looking at a medical mystery: the deaths of healthy young people — not the drunks or addicts they usually see — with lungs so inflamed that they resembled liver. Dr. Bonder recalls the numb realization that his ordinary protocol for treating pneumonia was having no impact at all.
“You would come in to work and the next time you looked at your watch it was midnight,” said Dr. Bonder, who heads the intensive care unit. “You didn’t even think what could happen next.”
Nurses and doctors were falling ill at an alarming rate, in part because of shortages of gloves and disinfectant. Irina Mykychak, the assistant director of Lviv’s regional medical department, said around 3,500 medical professionals fell ill, of whom 300 were hospitalized and 4 died.
When they did suspect H1N1, physicians were stuck in a Catch-22. Though the government had stockpiled Tamiflu in preparation for an outbreak they expected later in the year, the drug was available only at the region’s single infectious disease station — and only with proof that a patient had H1N1. Obtaining proof was a three-to-four-day process that required that samples be sent to Kiev, said Lyubomir Rak, the hospital’s director.
Nadia Rudnitskaya, chief of pulmonology, was carefully putting the pieces together. On Oct. 27, she examined the body of a 32-year-old man — the latest in a series of four deaths from four parts of western Ukraine that, as she put it, “shouldn’t have happened.” Dr. Rudnitskaya gathered her samples together and appealed urgently to Kiev.
Right then the logjam broke: The next day the governor ordered a quarantine and released the emergency stockpile of Tamiflu to clinics and hospitals. A day after that, Prime Minister Yulia V. Tymoshenkoannounced on television that the virus had “reached epidemic threshold,” and all of Ukraine was talking about H1N1.
“It was a riddle,” Dr. Rudnitskaya said. “There was an answer.”
Catholic churches in Italy have installed automatic holy water dispensers to help reduce the spread of swine flu.
Published: 12:59AM GMT 12 Nov 2009
Fear of contracting the H1N1 virus has led many in Italy not to dip their hands in the communal water font.Photo: REUTERS
Many churches had suspended the tradition of keeping holy water in open fonts into which people dipped their hands following the outbreak of the H1N1 virus.
But an Italian inventor has combined faith and ingenuity to create the electronic terracotta dispenser, which is now being used in the northern town of Fornaci di Briosco. It functions like an automatic soap dispenser in public lavatories - a churchgoer waves his or her hand under a sensor and the machine spurts out holy water.
"It has been a bit of a novelty. People initially were a bit shocked by this technological innovation but then they welcomed it with great enthusiasm and joy," said Father Pierangelo Motta.
Catholics entering and leaving churches usually dip their hands into fonts full of holy water - which has been blessed by a priest - and make the sign of the cross.
But fear of contracting the H1N1 virus has led many in Italy - where some 15 people have died of swine flu - not to dip their hands in the communal water font.
Luciano Marabese, who invented the dispenser, said he did so out of concern that fear of swine flu was eroding traditions.
And he is now blessing himself all the way to the bank.
"After all the news that some churches, like Milan's cathedral, were suspending the use of holy water fonts as a measure against swine flu, demands for my invention shot to the stars. I have received orders from all over the world," he said.
