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WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF SWINE FLU

Posted by Admin on Wednesday, November 25, 2009 - 02:34 AM

The symptoms of H1N1 swine flu are much the same as those any regular seasonal flu. This is one of the reasons that the epidemic spread so fast unquenched. Originally people believed it was a strong seasonal flu. People stayed at home and acted in the same manner they did when they had a seasonal flu before. Stay in bed, chicken soup, pain relief medicine, were the solutions to the problem. The flu does come around every year so why should this one be different.

Swine flu does not show any symptoms until after the second to fifth day of infection so all these people continued on their normal routines during all this time. For the next few days after they were infected, they themselves infected their co-workers, classmates and all the people around them. When infected people started to come to the hospitals for treatment the virus was already on the move, not only in the area where it started but it was already outside the country’s borders.

Symptoms vary and depend much on the age, physical condition, and state of mind of the person infected. The first symptoms are a feeling of tiredness, slight fever, loss of appetite and generally feeling uncomfortable. As the virus invades the body fever rises and if unchecked can produce very serious consequences. The tiredness turns into weakness which in some people, especially the elderly, sick and small children can render them incapable of getting off the bed and even hold a fork or spoon in their hand to eat. A person who has been infected for several days spends most of his time sleeping and depends on assistance to eat and move about.

The general discomfort turns into pain, especially in the body’s articulations. It is painful to move your arms and legs, even to close your hands into a fist. There is a complete loss of appetite and in critical cases it is necessary to force feed the patient. This general pain is accompanied by a constant dry cough that racks the body and increases the pain. Infected people also have runny noses and sore throats. Nausea and vomiting may also be present in severe cases or in weak, sick, elderly people and small children.

These are the general symptoms, infected people suffer after the few days the swine flu settles in and starts to take over the respiratory system. They are the symptoms and sufferings any one can expect from a seasonal flu but multiplied several times over. A big difference with the swine influenza and which has caused so many deaths is that it weakens the immune system and the body in general in such a way that any other disease, infection or ailment the infected person has will increase and complicate. Other viruses, unrelated to the swine influenza can also take advantage of the weakened, unprotected host and infect this person bringing along greater complications, examples of this are bronchitis and pneumonia. Constant vomiting can also damage the stomach and windpipe because the acids produced in the stomach and expelled when vomiting are extremely corrosive and can damage delicate tissues on their way out of the body.

There is great danger in the complications swine flu may produce in the body of a person which is not healthy. The same applies to the elderly, the sick and the young, the swine flu weakens the body in such a way and with such devastating power that it leaves the host wide open for other disease and virus to develop and for existing ones to gain strength.