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Plainspeak on the Swine Flu

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Juan Gérvas

Rural general practitioner, Canencia de la Sierra, Garganta de los Montes and El Cuadrón (Madrid), Spain.Visiting Professor, Primary Care, International Department, National School of Public Health (Madrid), Spain.

Honorary Professor, Public Health, School of Medicine, Autonomous University (Madrid), Spain.Email address: jgervasc

Abstract

1. Swine flu is very contagious. But the severity of swine flu is much lower than the seasonal flu (the flu of normal winters).2.

Swine flu demands common sense and calmness, as for seasonal flu.

Contact your physician only in severe cases, such as coughing up blood

or significant difficulty breathing.

3. Medications for swine flu such as Tamiflu and Relenza do not prevent

the disease, and they are not useful for treatment in healthy people,

They have common side effects some of which are serious causing

admission to hospital. These medications might be useful in severe

cases, but this is unproven.

4. Vaccine against swine flu is experimental. Nobody knows how

effective it will be in preventing the disease or how safe it will be.5. Swine flu does not have any different consequences for pregnant women than seasonal flu.

6. Previous flu pandemics do not produce high mortality since we have

had antibiotics to cure pneumonias which complicate flu. Previous flu

pandemics have no “second wave†and if it takes place it is not likely

to be more severe.

7. Health services must always take care of thousands of acute and

chronic patients, and it is important not to waste time and resources

for mild cases of swine flu. www.iamnolabrat.com

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