Just as contagious as the swine flu, the H₁N₁ virus, are the many myths that surround it, too. Let’s separate the facts from the fiction, and uncover some of the fraud that is taking place.

MYTH:  I’m healthy so I don’t need to worry about swine flu.

This is untrue. Swine flu, like seasonal flu, can infect anyone. What’s worse is that teens, young adults and pregnant women, who are not usually at high risk for developing complications from the regular flu, appear to be at risk for hospitalization and even death from swine flu.

MYTH: The swine flu vaccine will give me the flu.

This is untrue. This is the same myth that haunts doctors each year when the seasonal flu vaccine becomes available.

“The flu vaccine we are creating is done using egg-based technology containing particles of dead virus, so there is no way to transmit influenza from an influenza vaccine,” Ray said. “The reason people feel that they’ve gotten the flu from the flu vaccine is because flu season occurs at the same time as cold season and they’ve confused the common cold with the flu. Also, the low fever that some people experience after they’re inoculated is not a symptom of the flu, but a symptom of a healthy immune system fighting off an insult that has been introduced into the body.”

MYTH: You need to touch a pig to catch swine flu.

This is untrue. The virus itself has mutated so that it is transmitting from human to human. This is the reason the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control are concerned about its pandemic possibilities.

MYTH: You can only get swine flu from someone who is Mexican.

This is also untrue. It is true that the virus was first identified in Mexico and that more than 150 Mexican citizens have been diagnosed with swine flu. It is also true that if you have spent time in Mexico since late March 2009, you may have been exposed to swine flu.

If someone from any country or background has spent time in Mexico since spring 2009, they may be at risk of being contagious for swine flu. Further, they may have infected someone else anywhere else in the world. But Mexican heritage by itself is unrelated to swine flu.

MYTH: Swine is pork, so eating pork can give you swine flu.

This is untrue. Pork meat cannot contain an influenza virus, which is an upper respiratory virus.

MYTH: Mexican food will give you swine flu.

This is untrue. And mostly it’s ridiculous. Mexican food does not come from Mexico. It’s simply a type of cuisine, just like Italian food doesn’t come from Italy.

MYTH: If you want to protect yourself against the flu, wear a face mask.

Wearing a face mask may partially protect you against swine flu. Some studies have shown benefits, but there are so many variables that wearing a face mask is no guarantee you are protected.

The recommendation is not to wear a face mask,” “First of all, they’re only good for a short amount of time and as soon as they get moist, which is pretty quickly, they become ineffective.

Hand washing, wearing face masks and avoiding touching surfaces that someone else who may have been exposed to swine flu has touched will, in combination, provide you with the best defenses.

MYTH: You can buy swine flu vaccine on the Internet.

This is untrue. It has come up in fraudulent, spam e-mail that started circulating early in this pandemic.

MYTH: The swine flu is more deadly than seasonal flu.

Not yet. In a typical flu season, 30,000 or more American deaths are attributed to seasonal flu. Fewer than two dozen swine flu-related deaths worldwide have been reported as of spring 2009. While the swine flu could become a more deadly flu, the high level of awareness and the steps people are taking to prevent its spread may keep it from becoming nearly so deadly as seasonal flu.

MYTH: If you catch swine flu, then family pets may be at risk, too.

This is untrue. Viruses rarely pass between human beings and cats or dogs.

MYTH: Using hand sanitizer isn’t as effective as washing your hands.

Hand sanitizers have been shown to be very effective in killing the swine flu virus and should be used not only by people trying to prevent catching the virus, but also by people who have the virus to keep from spreading it to others.

I have a sore throat and have been coughing and sneezing, so I have swine flu.

Typically, coughing and sneezing are not associated with seasonal or swine flu, Ray said. Some people with swine flu have reported a very mild sore throat.

“Really for both seasonal influenza and H1N1, the symptoms are a high-grade fever – typically above 101 degrees — headache, body aches and occasionally, more so with swine flu than seasonal flu, there is some nausea and vomiting.”

MYTH: The swine flu can infect your computer, too.

I actually laughed at this one! Computer viruses cannot be transferred to humans, nor vice versa.

source: National Geographic and Fox news

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As the dreadful flu is refusing to end the killing spree that it embarked on weeks ago in Mexico, researchers in two U.S. laboratories are sleeplessly working to develop a new way to quickly make targeted, infection-fighting proteins called monoclonal antibodies to fight the virus. The epidemic has so far killed 101 people in Mexico itself.

Rafi Ahmed, an Indian origin vaccine expert at Emory University in Atlanta, and his counterpart Patrick Wilson of the University of Chicago, are awaiting the arrival of blood samples from Mexican flu victims to make a serum that might offer some protection from the dangerous new flu virus called H1N1.

Last year, Ahmed and Wilson had explained in the journal Nature that by using just a few tablespoons of blood they could make monoclonal antibodies – specially engineered antibodies that attack a specific protein – in as little as a month, which they speculated, might prove useful in an influenza pandemic to help protect health workers until a vaccine could be made. Though the antibody therapy would offer only temporary immunity, it could be available much more quickly than a vaccine, which is expected to take four to six months.

On the arrival of blood samples from Center for Disease Control (CDC), the research teams in Chicago and Atlanta will isolate a type of immune system cells known as antibody-secreting plasma cells, which produce a surge of antibodies as part of an initial response to infection. Using these cells, the researchers will go to work making highly targeted antibodies against the new flu strain.

A native of India, Ahmed earned his undergraduate degree from Osmania University, India, and Ph.D. from Harvard University. He has served on numerous scientific advisory boards, including that of the Ministry of Science in India. Elected as fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1999, Ahmed has published more than 140 articles and reviews. He is currently principal investigator on two NIAID grants.

Ahmed had been part of many ventures of the Emory Vaccine Center in India. The center along with the International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) had launched the Joint ICGEB-Emory Vaccine Center in New Delhi last year. During the launch, he said that the joint international research center would provide unique opportunities for collaborative research in vaccine development that go beyond what is available then.

U.S. President Barak Obama has been running a massive campaign against the new immigrants coming to the U.S. But it is the immigrants like Ahmed who strove to make the U.S. what it is today. The U.S. will continue to thrive as long as the best and brightest from other lands continue to contribute to America’s progress and compete for its opportunities.

Source: Silicon India

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