Think You Have H1N1?

If you are presenting the following symptoms, you may have H1N1 (swine flu)

• Fever ? particularly a fever of over 100 degrees
• Sore throat
• Cough
• Chills and fatigue
• Body aches
• Headache
• Occasionally, vomiting and diarrhea

People at higher risk of serious complications from seasonal flu, including people over the age 65, and children younger than 5 years old, pregnant women, people of any age with chronic medical conditions (such as diabetes, or heart disease), and people who are infected with HIV should be extra vigilant in looking for the symptoms of H1N1.

However, anyone with asthma or other respiratory illness, and perhaps even heavy smokers should be extra vigilant, because what makes severe cases of H1N1 more severe than regular flu is the way that it attacks the respiratory system. Seasonal flu is largely an upper respiratory illness, but in severe cases H1N1 moves deeper into the lungs and causes viral pneumonia. It is the complications from the pneumonia that has caused the vast majority of Swine Flu deaths.

Because young children often cannot explain how they are feeling it especially important to keep an eye out for children who are having difficulty breathing.

If any person, but particularly small children and others in high risk groups, exhibit any of the following serious warning signs, seek immediate emergency medical care:

• Trouble breathing, including rapid breathing.
• Gray or bluish skin color
• Not drinking enough fluids
• Sleeping constantly and not interacting when awake
• Being especially irritable
• Not urinating or no tears when crying
• The symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough

H1N1 Symptoms: Summary

Nearly, everything you learned about the symptoms of traditional flu is true of H1N1 Flu, but you should also look for the beginning of pneumonia type symptoms, particularly among anyone has a pre-existing respiratory illness.

In simple layman?s terms the severe cases of Swine Flu are basically the seasonal flu and viral pneumonia. Most cases are NOT severe, but the worse cases can be fatal, usually because of respiratory complications.

What worries public health professionals is that the vaccine for H1N1 is not widely available yet, though one is being manufactured, and the vaccine for the regular flu will not be effective against this newly discovered strain.

Also, that means, if the vaccines are available, you will need two flu shots to be fully protected from both H1N1 and the normal seasonal variety of the flu.

Finally, the simple fact that the virus is new is a real concern, because there is concern that it might mutate into something more deadly. Remember, the regular seasonal flu strain kills hundreds of thousands of people around the world each year, and, so, even if H1N1 turns out to be no more virulent than the regular flu that is still an awful disaster on the grandest scale.

At this point it is hard to know what the ultimate out come of the H1N1 pandemic will be. Be prepared, but don?t panic.

Get Tested Today and Make Sure You Don’t Have H1N1, our full panel tests for the following:

Adenovirus (types 3,4,7,21)
Coxsackievirus/Echovirus
Human Metapneumovirus
Influenza A - Human influenza
*Influenza A - H1N1-09
Influenza B
Parainfluenza (types 1,2,3,4)
Respiratory Syncytial Virus (types A & B)
Rhinovirus
Acinetobacter baumannii
Chlamydophila pneumoniae
Haemophilus influenzae
Klebsiella pneumoniae
Legionella pneumophila
MRSA
Mycoplasma pneumoniae
Neisseria meningitidis
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Staphylococcus aureus
Streptococcus pneumoniae
Streptococcus pyogenes (Group A)