Swine flu: no need to panic

The growing storm around ‘swine flu' is already sending people in the northern hemisphere to their doctors with the question: "I'm feeling sick - have I got swine flu, doctor?" With everything reported in the media  should people be worried or not?

If you have not recently taken a holiday in exotic Mexico, you're probably quite safe!  But if you're planning a trip abroad in the next few weeks it would be wise to take some precautions.

South Africans have ready access to the treatment which the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in the USA recommend for this strain of flu. The CDC is suggesting that swine flu be treated with oseltamivir (brand name Tamiflu®) and zanamivir (brand name Relenza®). These are prescription drugs, but due to previous flu scares like avian flu, we have relatively good stocks available. So far, South Africa has not confirmed any cases of swine flu.

This does not mean that we are safe, however. In a globalised world, all it takes is one sick person on an inward-bound plane to spark an outbreak. And you don't have to visit Mexico to be infected. With cases reported in the USA, Britain, Europe and the Middle East, you stand a small chance of being infected if you are travelling anywhere.

How flu works
Influenza is an infectious disease caused by viruses which affect birds and mammals. (Common reservoirs of flu strains are ducks and pigs - which is why some virulent strains have arisen in the Far East, where humans often live in close contact with their ducks and pigs.) Flu is spread by contact with bodily fluids containing the virus (it spreads through the air when someone sneezes, or you can be infected by touching a surface someone with flu has touched, for instance in a bathroom).

Strictly speaking we shouldn't be calling this ‘swine' flu at all. It's a strain which appears to have human, avian and swine elements. New strains of flu are constantly evolving, and each year we are likely to encounter a strain that differs slightly from the one we had the previous year. Medical scientists create flu vaccines using the strains which are prevalent in the opposite hemisphere: so, for instance, they assume that we in our South African winter will be infected by the same strain that the Europeans have just battled in their winter, and they create vaccines containing the European flu strains.

What to do
If you have to travel internationally, consult your doctor or Travel Clinic beforehand for an assessment of your risk factors. People with compromised immune systems, people who have recently had a serious illness or surgery, elderly people and the very young, and anyone with respiratory or other organ complications will likely be given a course of antiviral prophylaxis. Make sure you visit the clinic in good time, ideally four weeks before travelling. Update all the other medications and vaccinations that protect you while travelling - if you fall ill with a different disease, your ability to fight the flu would be reduced."

Do not take risks with your health while travelling. The normal, average winter flu has a mortality rate of about 0.1%. So far, in Mexico, the mortality rate of swine flu is much higher than that, and may even get close to the 2.5% reported in the 1918/19 pandemic - and this flu strain bears some resemblance to the one responsible for the 1918 outbreak. So it is important to be very careful and vigilant." The World Health Organisation has raised its alert level for swine flue to Phase 5, meaning the virus has shown it causes sustained human-to-human transmission, but that is still below a full-blown pandemic, which is Phase 6.

However, do rest assured that South Africa has good measures in place to tackle Swine ‘flue.  We have highly qualified and experienced medical scientists and good monitoring procedures in place in South Africa, so should the virus reach us, we are likely to pick it up quickly and be able to react swiftly and effectively."

In the meantimeboth stay-at-homes and travellers should step up their own infection control. "It's all the stuff your mother taught you: wash your hands (you might want to wash them more regularly in flu season, when you could be touching infected surfaces more often); cover your mouth when you sneeze to avoid spraying others if you're infected. Pack a sanitiser spray containing alcohol in your bag or briefcase to spray surfaces - alcohol does a good job of killing flu viruses. And see a doctor as soon as you start to experience symptoms such as an aching body, shivering and fever, sore throat, headache and watery, red eyes."

Click here for more information about Swine flu.