This morning President Barack Obama, addressed the National Academy

of Sciences, calls the swine flu a cause “for heightened state of alert, not

a cause for alarm.”

Europeans have been urged to avoid traveling to the United States or Mexico due to the epidemic of Swine Flu hitting.

For those of you who are unaware of what this disease is, Swine influenza is a respiratory disease of pigs first isolated in swine in 1930, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The illness is caused by four different type A influenza strains that can cause outbreaks in pigs, though subtypes H1N1 and H3N2 seem to be more common. The death rate among pigs is low, with most infections occurring in the late fall and winter.

Human-to-human infections do occur similar to the way the human seasonal flu virus is transmitted — through coughing, sneezing and coming in contact with a person or object with the virus.

People cannot become infected by eating pork or pork products.

Cooking pork to an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit kills

the virus as well as other bacteria, notes the CDC.

If at all infected by this disease, there are four antiviral drugs that are licensed to treat the disease in the U.S.: amantadine, rimantadine, oseltamivir and zanamivir. Most of the viruses are susceptible to all four, but the CDC currently recommends oseltamivir or zanamivir to treat and prevent swine flu infections. The antivirals should be taken as soon as possible symptoms appear.

EU Health Commissioner Andorra Vassiliou met with the EU foreign ministers on the subject as Spain reported the first confirmed case of swine flu in Europe. That was also the first swine flu case outside North America.

So for those that have planned to do some traveling it is definitely suggested to postpone your plans unless it is a dire emergency for the time being.

Source