The Bird Flu and You
By: healthfitnessinfo

There is more news about the Avian Bird Flu (H5N1), and some of it may be frightful sounding.

Even President Bush finally addressed the issue in a recent speech. He mentioned that the US

Military might be called in to help enforce a possible quarantine of those afflicted, since

there is no vaccine for it.

This obviously is a worse case scenario, but it does

bring to light how much impact something like this flu could have. For years now, experts have

been warning about such a pandemic, whether or not it is the current H5N1 virus.


/> Currently the flu is only responsible for an estimated 65 deaths (October 2005 AP) and has

been isolated to primarily Southeast Asia, a continent far away from the States. The World

Health Organization (WHO) and other global health organizations have been warning the public and

following the flu since its first outbreak in 1997 and HEALTHandFITNESS.com first reported it as

a news-headline in early 2005. The main concern is that this virus could mutate and easily

spread from human to human, which, in another worse case scenario, experts estimate would be

fatal to a couple million and possibly up to as high as 100 million across the globe.


/> The most recent development has come from researchers who have reconstructed the world's

most deadly flu virus, the Spanish Flu, a pandemic in 1918 that caused at least 50 million

deaths (with some researchers stating up to 100 million). As reported in the journals Nature

and Science, scientists now know that this flu started as a bird flu before mutating its way

into the human population, raising the immediacy of understanding and, hopefully, controlling

the current bird flu.

What can you do?Generally speaking, flu is most

likely to become fatal to the very old, very young and those afflicted with chronic diseases.

This, however, was not true of the 1918 flu, which primarily affected young adults by filling

their lungs with fluids that they drowned in, but the best fight can be made by those who have

increased their own immune system's strength. By becoming healthier and stronger now, not later,

you can improve your ability to prevent illness and,if you do become afflicted, increase your

ability to fight the flu.

Improve your immune system response by following these

guides:
1. Eat Healthier Foods

Article Source: http://www.ArticleJoe.com

Darren Rieck is a Health Scientist (University of Cincinnati) and Environmental Specialist (UC Santa Barbara) and is the Founder & Publisher of the informational website HEALTHandFITNESS.com.

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