Fighting the Flu – Will we wait till the neighbor is sick approach.

Fighting the Flu – Will we wait till the neighbor is sick approach.

Swine flu pandemic is spreading so fast and worldwide, it is creating a scare because people dont know how serious the problem is? Flu being a infectious disease and calls for immediate measures by one and all. Some literacy on how serious it is and how to deal with the situation if we happen to be close to a person with this illness would go a long way to subdue the panic.

Swine flu is a national emergency, declares Obama. Calling the emergency declaration “an important tool in our kit going forward,” one administration official called Obama’s action a “proactive measure that’s not in response to any new development.”

Obama: “Potential exists for the pandemic to overburden health care resources”  46 states are now reporting wide spread flu activity. However, the onslaught of information about H1N1 — be it playground rumors, employer signs telling you to cover your cough, memos from your kids’ school, or scary-sounding news reports – is making it pretty hard to figure out what you should be doing right now.

Some guidelines to what we can do right now to fight the flu:

Look up local flu outbreaks- Keep abreast of flue situation in your area
Don’t panic. For most people, an H1N1 infection is generally mild and can be cured with time, bed rest, and fluids. The virus is serious, though — particularly for those in high-risk groups. So far this year, 28 pregnant women have died of H1N1, and 76 children died in the spring. High-risk people, whether adults or children, tend to have chronic heart or lung conditions (including asthma), weakened immune systems due to disease or chemotherapy treatment, or diabetes.

That said, H1N1 will feel like seasonal flu for most people. “I’d say at the present time the swine flu looks no more serious than the routine seasonal influenza,” says Litman.

Wash hands

Stay at home - better chance to recover and not spread the infection. Are you sick right now? Say, with flu-like symptoms such as fever, aches, stuffy nose, and chills? Sorry, but it’s quite possible you already have swine flu. Experts say that flu activity is higher-than-normal for this time of year and almost all of it is due to H1N1. If you (or your child) are not in a high-risk group, it’s best to stay put.

If a child is 2 or older “and has no risk factors for complications and has fever, runny nose, or cough, the best thing to do is to stay home,” says Litman. “Plenty of fluids, Tylenol, Motrin, or Advil for fever, and it should run its course on its own.”

Understand the risks.

While the symptoms of H1N1 may be no different from seasonal flu, there are some key differences. H1N1 may be easier to catch than regular flu, and younger people may be more likely to come down with it than older people.

Get a pneumonia vaccine.

Get a flu shot
Don’t stock up on face masks or Tamiflu.

Swine flu is bringing about boom for one industry i.e. hand sanitizers. Demand for hand sanitizer has gone through the roof since the first cases of swine flu broke out earlier this year, and some makers of the germ-fighting gels are scrambling to keep up.

Market research firm Panjiva recently estimated that 3 million kilograms of hand sanitizer were shipped in the third quarter, compared with 1 million kilograms in the same quarter last year.

Josh Green, chief executive of Panjiva, said concern about the H1N1 virus, also known as the swine flu, is the “most likely explanation” for the surge in volume.

And demand is only expected to rise given the outlook for an exceptionally bad flu season.

In response, the companies that make and distribute Purell, the most popular name-brand hand sanitizer, are ramping up production and urging customers to not hoard the product.

Heavy demand

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, Fortune 500), which makes Purell and distributes it to retailers, does not provide figures on sales or shipments of items such as hand sanitizer. But the company said demand for Purell has been “heavy” since the first cases of swine flu broke.

“Due to the influenza A (H1N1) virus outbreak this past spring and resurgence this fall, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies Inc. has experienced heavy demand on supplies of Purell,” said J&J spokesman Marc Boston in a statement.

The company is working to increase production for the remainder of the year and the beginning of 2010, but Boston acknowledged that supplies may be limited in some areas.

“Because of this increase in demand, consumers may currently find limited supplies of Purell Instant Hand Sanitizer at certain retailers,” he said.