Photo Caption: The injectable version of the swine flu vaccine is shown Monday, Oct. 19, 2009 at Broadmoor Elementary School in Miami. The Miami-Dade County Health Department launched their H1N1 vaccination campaign Monday after having received their initial shipments. (AP)
I have been doing some extensive research about swine flu for my company and have suddenly come across so many facts which are indeed alarming. Up until now, I chose to ignore the disease all together to a certain extend so that I wouldn’t have to live in fear every day. But now when I read more and more facts, its alarming fact indeed and cannot be just ignored. None of us can ignore the fact that the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the swine flu pandemic "unstoppable".
Here are a few facts:
According to a review of the current epidemiologic data released by the World Health Organization (WHO) -- between 1% & 10% of people who develop swine flu require hospitalization. The new data was discussed on 27–29 October at a meeting of WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization. Up to 25% of hospitalized people are admitted to intensive care units, and between 2% & 9% die. Pregnant women make up 7% to 10% of hospitalized patients.
The pandemic virus has infected millions globally with more than 6000 documented deaths and likely far more. The swine flu vaccine has been tested for only a few weeks on a few thousand healthy children and adults, including very few pregnant women, so we don't know how safe it really is for pregnant women, children and adults with chronic illness even though they are being specially targeted for vaccination by government health officials. There is also very little information about how safe it is to give swine flu vaccine with other vaccines, including seasonal influenza vaccine.
What is all the more surprising is that - Swine flu has driven up the price of horse meat in Mongolia, closed schools across Afghanistan and Ukraine and sparked a quarrel over whether detainees at the US base in Cuba should be vaccinated. Swine flu has also gone on to hit an isolated tribe of Indians in the Amazon jungle and more than 1000 members of the Yanomami tribe in Venezuela are believed to have caught the flu and it is feared that the flu will sweep through the area and kill many as these people do not have resistance to such introduced diseases.
Well look at the far reaching effects this flu which has travelled all over the world in such a short span of time and created such chaos. It is certainly a worrying factor that new new diseases are being introduced into the world and they are becoming unstoppable too. How do we live in fear everyday of our lives?
In my present stage, I am also too confused about the vaccine and am certainly not confident about taking the vaccine shot even though the health minister, other cabinet members and senior Ministry of Health officials were the first to receive vaccinations in order to show to the public in Kuwait that the vaccine is safe. I mean on what guarantee do I take that vaccination? How can I be sure that it won’t affect me or the baby for sure? How can I get the guarantee that no long term effects will show up later? With winter just around the corner, the climate has already started changing and many are down with the seasonal cold and flu which makes it all the more alarming as Swine flu is going to spread all the more.
Well the world just seems to be getting scarier by the day to live in with new threats, new diseases, new problems and all the kind!!!
