Dr. Richard Besser, acting director for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is urging Americans to go out and live life, even amidst the spread of swine flu.  He says this is no time for healthy individuals to curtail usual activities, even air travel and public transportation.  On the other hand, he is urging everyone with fever or any flu-like symptoms at all to stay home and away from others to minimize the risk of spreading the infection.

Besser says personal responsibility will be a key factor in containing the spread of disease.  The three most important things everyone everywhere can do to protect their health are wash hands thoroughly and often, cover mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, and stay home if fever and flu-like symptoms develop.

Symptoms of swine flu are the same as most other strains of the flu:  coughing, fatigue, fever, and loss of appetite.  Some individuals are also experiencing diarrhea, vomiting, sore throat, and/or runny nose.

The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a pandemic alert at level 5 yesterday, an indication that we are on the verge of global outbreak.  This particular viral strain, H1N1, is passed easily from one person to another so the likelihood of raising the alert from imminent to actual is real.

Some details of the swine flu epidemic, as it is occurring in the US, include:

• 16 is the median age of swine flu patients thus far;
• Most cases have occurred since April 18;
• Only 6 Americans have required hospitalization;
• The first person to die of swine flu in the US was a 22-month old child from Mexico who became ill during a family visit to Houston.
• There are currently 109 confirmed cases in the US as of Thursday; and
• Patients in 11 states have tested positive for swine flu.

Swine flu is a respiratory illness, transmitted person to person when someone with the infection touches another or coughs or sneezes on another.  It’s safe to eat pork and work with pigs; there is no possibility of getting swine flu this way.

Besser says he does expect more US deaths as the epidemic progresses and notes that approximately 36,000 Americans die from the flu, regardless of the strain, every year.