Obama: 'I hope you'll all wash your hands a lot'...

In a speech that drew fire even before he delivered it, President Barack Obama is telling the nation's schoolchildren..

Obama: Government preparing for swine flu outbreak

President Barack Obama stated today that the U.S Government is on full alert for dealing with a potential swine flu outbreak, and he suggested that all americans take every precaution to avoid getting infected..

Sore Throat: 48 hours later a 6 year old girl and a Doctor are Dead

The swine flu is now upon us and may reach pandemic proportions. The World Health Organization is stating it is now infecting the entire World. Every precaution has to be taken. Recently a 6 year old girl complained of a simple sore throat. 48 hours later, she was dead.

A doctor who had been treating Swine Flu victims, has also died....

Prepare: World heading towards H1N1 flu pandemic

The spread of H1N1 flu in Australia, Britain, Chile, Japan and Spain has nudged the world closer to a pandemic, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday..

1918 FLU PANDEMIC - 100 Million Died. Over 500 Million Exposed...

The pandemic is estimated to have affected up to one billion people: more than half the world's population at the time.

Eyewitness: "I well remember my husband, who was custodian of the town hall at the time, coming home very depressed and telling me all about this awful flu epidemic that was spreading so fast. The patients had very high temperatures, and when they died the bodies turned black.."

The 1918 flu pandemic (commonly referred to as the Spanish flu) was an influenza pandemic that spread to nearly every part of the world. It was caused by an unusually virulent and deadly Influenza A virus strain of subtype H1N1.

Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin of the virus.

Most of its victims were healthy young adults, in contrast to most influenza outbreaks which predominantly affect juvenile, elderly, or otherwise weakened patients.


The pandemic lasted from March 1918 to June 1920, spreading even to the Arctic and remote Pacific islands. It is estimated that anywhere from 20 to 100 million people were killed worldwide,or the approximate equivalent of one third of the population of Europe,more than double the number killed in World War I.


This extraordinary toll resulted from the extremely high illness rate of up to 50% and the extreme severity of the symptoms, suspected to be caused by cytokine storms.

Scientists have used tissue samples from frozen victims to reproduce the virus for study. Given the strain's extreme virulence there has been controversy regarding the wisdom of such research.

Among the conclusions of this research is that the virus kills via a cytokine storm (overreaction of the body's immune system) which explains its unusually severe nature and the concentrated age profile of its victims.

The strong immune systems of young adults ravaged the body, whereas the weaker immune systems of children and middle-aged adults caused fewer deaths.

www.wikipedia.com

Americans told to wear masks as swine flu spreads round globe..

North of the border, in the US, doctors were advising people worried about the illness to buy painters’ masks from DIY stores as a precautionary measure.

Authorities across the globe were torn between the imperative of slowing the spread of a potential flu pandemic and the need to avoid bringing every big city to a grinding halt.