Swine Flu Treatment – Cure, Care and Remedies

Various lab tests have revealed that Swine Flu virus is susceptible to prescription antiviral drugs. Therefore, swine flu treatment requires some special techniques. You cannot just use any other antiviral agents because of their resistance to other influenza strains which have been documented over the past few years.

The usual vaccine is administered right a beginning of flu season but its proving to be ineffective for the strain. Considering that, following is a detailed guide for treating h1n1 virus.

How is it Diagnosed?

Swine flu is diagnosed clinically by patient’s record of being associated with people who suffer from its symptoms. A simple test (such as Nasopharyngeal Swab Sample) is conducted to confirm if the subject is affected with H1N1 or not.

Moreover, different tests are conducted to learn if the subject is infected with Type A or Type B virus.

These tests can be negative or positive. If these are positive for type B, there are thin chances that its swine flu. But if type A tests are positive, the person is suffering from conventional flue stain or swine flu. However, the accuracy of such tests is challenged many times due to lack of comparative studies.

According to agencies, medical institutes can detect swine flu in four hours.

This ailment is diagnosed by identifying a particular antigen which are associated with the virus type. These tests are usually conducted in specialized laboratories and are not done by doctor office or hospital labs. However, the doctor office may forward specimens to be identified by specialized labs if needed.

As the outbreak of this virus back in 2009 and 2010 led to thousands of deaths, this only made possible for health officials to send virus strains from hospitalized patients to learn more about these strains.

It can also be confirmed by culturing respiratory secretions but it’s expensive to do very often. As the alternative, there are a few Rapid tests which concludes if the H1N1 strains are present or not.

These are far from perfection and may fail to pick up swine influenza or its strain. Keeping up, there is another test which tests genetic material of virus, it’s called the PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction)and it’s only done at state health departments.

How Many People Died from H1N1

The overall estimate of how many people have died till now is not that clear. But according to researchers, almost 150,000 to 575,000 people lost their lives in the 2009 outbreak. This was 15 times more than what the World Health Organization report.

After analysis, it was found that 33% of the deaths were in age group of 30-45 years. Moreover, there was another outbreak in 2015 and it claimed 2,000 lives. According to WHO, the seasonal flu claims more than 500,000 lives a year.

Swine Flu Cure

Most cases of flu, also Swine needs symptom relief. If you suffer from a chronic respiratory disease, your doctor may prescribe additional medications to help relieve the symptoms.

Antiviral drugs Oseltamivir and Zanamivir are often prescribed within first or second day of symptoms to control the severity. However, flu viruses can also develop from resistance to these drugs.

To make development of resistance and maintain supplies of the drugs, antiviral treatment for swine flu is reserved for people facing high risk of complications. The people who belong to high risk group are –

• People who are in hospital, nursing home or other such long-term health facility

• People under the age of 5 years

• Subjects aging more than 65 years

• Subjects who are pregnant or within two weeks of delivery, also accounting people who face pregnancy loss

• People younger than 19 years old and accounted for long term aspirin therapy as they are in risk for developing Reye’s syndrome

• Subjects that morbidly obese with body mass index above 40

• People suffering from chronic medical condition including heart disease, neuromuscular diseases, kidney or blood diseases

• People who are immunosuppressed because of different medications or HIV

Basic Swine Flu Treatment

In case you develop the flue, these basic treatments will help you control the symptoms –

Drink a Lot of Liquids: Keep your options limited to water, juice and warm soups to prevent dehydration.

Take Rest: Have more sleep to help immune system and fight infection.

Take Pain Relievers: Use some over the counter pain reliever such as Acetaminophen or Ibuprofen. Take extra caution when giving aspirin to teenagers or children.

Although aspirin is deemed safe for children older than 3 years, children recovering from chicken pox or flu should stay away from aspirin. This is because these children may be linked to Reye’s syndrome.

Pain relievers can make your comfortable but they will never make the symptoms go away fast. Also they can leave side effects. Adding up, Ibuprofen causes stomach pain, bleeding and ulcers. The best H1N1 treatment is rest at your home, keep yourself warm and drink a lot of water.

You can also take medication to lower high temperature and relieve ache. You can take further swine flu treatment if your condition worsens. Try taking some antibiotics to fight off your bacterial infections which may occur as complication of influenza.

Medical Care

Most common swine flu treatments include bed rest, cough suppressants, antipyretics and analgesics for fever and myalgia. These cases might need intravenous hydration with other supportive measures. The antiviral agents can also be considered for treatment or prophylaxis.

Patients should be encouraged to stay at their home if they are ill, avoid close contact with people who are sick, wash their hands often and avoid touching their eyes, nose and mouth.

Swine flu treatment recommendations:

The CDC recommends following actions for Swine Flu Treatment when infection is confirmed.

• Patients who are suffering from flu like illness are promoted to self-isolate themselves for 7 days after onset illness or 24 hours after the symptoms are resolved

• Seek medical care for Swine Flu Treatment and contact their health care providers for reporting illness by any means

• For people facing difficulty in breathing or shortness of breath who are believed to be severely ill should seek immediate medical attention

As you can see, there are various types of swine flu treatment available. Depending on the patient’s situation, the physician can prescribe any of these method in combination with regular medication.

Further Reading:

• Swine Influenza A [H1N1 and H3N2v] Virus

• Swine Flu Treatments & Drugs

• H1N1 Flu – CDC

Image Credit: Gregory Wake from Flickr