Swine influenza

Swine influenza (also swine flu) refers to influenza caused by any virus of the family Orthomyxoviridae, that is endemic to pig (swine) populations. Strains endemic in swine are called swine influenza virus (SIV), and all known strains of SIV are classified as Influenzavirus A (common) or Influenzavirus C (rare). Influenzavirus B has not been reported in swine. All three clades, Influenzavirus A, B, and C, are endemic in humans.
People who work with poultry and swine, especially people with intense exposures, are at risk of infection from these animals if the animals carry a strain that is also able to infect humans. SIV can mutate into a form that allows it to pass from human to human. The strain responsible for the 2009 swine flu outbreak is believed to have undergone this mutation.
In humans, the symptoms of swine flu are similar to those of influenza and of influenza-like illness in general.

Excerpt From: Swine influenza

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WHO calls swine flu a 'public health emergency'

Below are CTV.Ca about Swine Flue and their cases. How to address the disease by knowing the symptoms of this deathly swine influenza. There are many cases out there around US, Mexico, and there are emergency declaration in some city.
Here are the video link on this swine flu


Symptoms Of Swine Flu
Global Swine Flu Cases Close to Pandemic Levels
The Doctor Is In: Info on Swine Flu
Swine Flu Strain Found In NYC Kansas Ohio UK. Quanrantines

Here are the news from CTV as promised above

CTV.ca News Staff

The World Health Organization is calling the swine flu outbreak a "public health emergency of international concern" and its asking countries to ramp up surveillance for the virus.

But the organization decided Saturday to hold off on raising the global pandemic alert level, even as more cases are being reported in Mexico, and the United States.

Gregory Hartl, a spokesperson for the WHO, said Saturday the threat level will stay at its current Phase 3 until the organization gets a clearer picture at what is going on. Phase 6 would mean officials are calling the outbreak a pandemic.

Countries around are being asked by the WHO to step up their reporting and surveillance of the disease. WHO fears the outbreak could spread from Mexico and the United States.

Mexico officials are closing schools in the capital and two other states for the next 10 days as the country tries to slow the spread of a deadly swine flu outbreak.

Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova told a news conference Saturday evening that 20 deaths have been confirmed to be from the swine flu outbreak and another 1,324 have likely been sick from the virus since April 13.

He added that the virus may have killed at least 81 people in Mexico, but not all the deaths have been confirmed to be from the virus, known as A H1N1.

The strain has not been previously diagnosed in either pigs or humans and appears to spread easily from human to human.

On Saturday evening, New York City health officials said that eight high school students in the city have likely contacted the virus after visiting Mexico. The results of tests won't be known until Sunday.

Kansas state officials confirmed two cases there Saturday, in addition to seven cases in California and two in Texas.

The head of the WHO, Margaret Chan, said at a news conference earlier on Saturday that the WHO has not received reports of swine flu beyond Mexico and the southwestern United States, but urged all countries to be vigilant for an increase in pneumonia cases or other flu-like illness.

"The viruses causing cases in some parts of Mexico and some parts of the USA are genetically the same," she said, adding the virus "has pandemic potential" because it is spreading between people.

Quarantine in Montreal

Meanwhile, doctors in Montreal placed a woman in quarantine, but released her later when it became clear she did have the virus.

The woman, Patricia Whelan, vacationed in Mexico two weeks ago. Another Canadian was also placed in isolation, but has since been released.

Doctors "have no reason to believe it's swine flu, but they're taking absolutely no chances. It's precautionary," said CTV Montreal's Rob Lurie.

Monica Whelan, the daughter of the woman who was in quarantine, said her family was surprised to learn her mother was so sick.

"My mother never catches a cold, and she's always very strong," she said.

"She still felt very ill after having been on antibiotics. It's been a month since she's been home and her symptoms have not gone away," said Whelan.

Mexican cases

According to Chan, Mexican authorities are reporting that cases range from the very mild to severe, which means it is difficult to tell how widespread the virus really is.

"We need to really comb through those data and get the granularities and understand exactly who is suffering and which (age) group has disease more severe than others," Chan said.

The virus is unusual in that it is primarily affecting healthy young adults. Influenza usually affects the very young and the very old.

Unlike recent bird flu cases, where people who became ill had contact with infected birds, it appears that this strain of swine flu is infecting people with no history of contact with animals, according to Canadian infectious disease specialist Dr. Neil Rau.

"What is concerning is that even though it has the word swine flu, meaning it originates from pigs, people who get this infection have no history of contact with pigs," Rau said Saturday during an interview on CTV Newsnet.

Mexican authorities have closed schools, museums, libraries and theatres in an attempt to prevent the virus's spread, while officials at the Mexico City airport are questioning travellers in an effort to prevent a sick passenger from boarding a plane.

On Saturday, Mexico City's mayor cancelled all public events for the next 10 days in order to control the outbreak.

Mayor Marcelo Ebrard also announced that the city has enough medicine to treat those who are infected.

The Mexican government plans to administer 500,000 doses of influenza vaccine to health care workers, who are at high risk of infection.

However, it is unclear if this year's influenza vaccine offers protection against the swine flu.

The WHO said that 12 of the Mexican cases have been linked genetically to a swine flu virus that has appeared in California.

In Canada, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said Friday that so far, the virus has not been detected in Canada.

According to Rau, the current outbreak has not been linked to resort areas frequented by Canadian tourists.

However, public health officials are probing a small number of flu-like cases in Canada to determine if they match the Mexican illness.

Experts say the best protection against the virus is to avoid contact with anyone who is coughing or sneezing, wash hands regularly and see a doctor if any of these symptoms become apparent:

fever
cough
sore throat
eye pain
shortness of breath
muscle and joint pain
extreme fatigue
With files from The Associated Press and The Canadian Press

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Butter Battle

The artificial butter flavoring used in microwave popcorn poses a danger of lung damage to ordinary consumers.

The email that follows is from my sister-in-law Ellen who is an attorney working on cases involving microwave popcorn and lung disease. This isn't a hoax. Please send it to people who need to know. Here comes her email.

As I may or may not have told you guys, I'm working on a case involving microwave popcorn manufacturing plant employees who have contracted a bad lung disease that causes scarring of the lungs, sometimes requiring transplant. The suspected culprit is a chemical in the fake butter flavoring (which is also used in other types of flavoring, such as caramel). The FDA has stated numerous times that there is no evidence of any danger to consumers from eating products containing the fake butter flavoring, as the danger appears to be in inhaling the fumes from the product when it is superheated during the manufacturing process. Accordingly, such products remain on the shelves.

However, the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver just sent a letter to the FDA detailing what the hospital alleges is a landmark diagnosis of a consumer who has contracted lung disease as the result of cooking and consuming large amounts of microwave popcorn that contains diacetyl.

I haven't touched this stuff since my case began in 2000, as I always suspected something like this would happen (particularly since microwave popcorn makes the butter flavoring hot enough to emit fumes). Anyway, DON'T eat this stuff!!!!!

Origins: It should come as no surprise to most consumers that many of the flavors found in modern packaged food products are created through the use of chemical flavorings. One example of such is

diacetyl, a chemical used in artificial butter flavoring which is commonly found in microwave popcorn. Studies have linked diacetyl with the development of the lung disease bronchiolitis obliterans (a widespread inflammatory and fibrotic obstruction of the small airways) in industrial flavor workers who experience signficant inhalation exposure to the chemical, and various health advocates have pointed to those studies as a reason to call for more stringent governmental regulation over (or an outright ban on) the use of diacetyl.

The question on many people's minds, then, is if the link between diacetyl inhalation and bronchiolitis obliterans (also known as BO, or "popcorn lung") in industrial workers is indeed causal, does diacetyl pose a danger to consumers with much lower levels of exposure to diacetyl than factory workers, consumers who merely breathe in fumes produced during the heating of artificially butter-flavored microwave popcorn products? This issue gained prominent public attention in September 2007 via the publication of a letter sent to federal agencies by Dr. Cecile Rose, a pulmonary specialist at Denver's National Jewish Medical and Research Center, saying that doctors at the center believed they had encountered the first case of a consumer's developing lung disease from the fumes of microwave popcorn.

Whether this disclosure demonstrates that microwave popcorn poses a signifcant health risk to ordinary consumers is not so cut-and-dried, though. As Dr. Rose noted, "This is not a definitive causal link" and "We cannot be sure that this patient's exposure to butter flavored microwave popcorn from daily heavy preparation has caused his lung disease" (although she also noted that doctors had "no other plausible explanation" for the patient's symptoms and that the issue "raises a lot of questions and supports the recommendation that more work needs to be done"). Additionally, this case might represent far more of an extreme than a norm, as the patient involved "did report daily consumption of several bags of extra butter flavored microwave popcorn for several years" (at least two bags per day for more than 10 years) and "when he broke open the bags, after the steam came out, he would often inhale the fragrance because he liked it so much."

Shortly after the publication of Dr. Rose's letter, the producers of four of the biggest-selling microwave popcorn brands in the U.S. (Orville Redenbacher, Act II, Pop Secret, and Jolly Time) announced that they were working to remove diacetyl from their microwave popcorn recipes (while nonetheless reassuring consumers about the safety of their products).


Source: http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/popcorn.asp

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DANGEROUS OF LEMON SLICES SERVED WITH BEVERAGES

Beware the lemon in your drink. It could make you sick.

When restaurant workers place a lemon wedge on your glass of water, tea, or soda, they are apparently spiking your drink with germs.

A new study by a New Jersey microbiologist found nasty bacteria on two-thirds of the lemons that were tested from 21 restaurants.

"It was gross," said Anne LaGrange Loving, assistant science professor at Passaic County Community College."

Loving decided to do the study after noticing a waitress with dirty fingernails delivering a drink to a table.

"They put lemon in my Diet Coke, I didn't ask for it, and so I decided to do a study."

Loving and her team swabbed for bacteria as soon as drinks hit the table at restaurants all around Paterson, New Jersey.

"You would think they had dipped the lemons in raw meat," she said, referring to the high levels of bacteria that she found.

The swabs of lemon wedges revealed everything from high counts of fecal bacteria to a couple of dozen other microorganisms — most of which can make you sick. They found bacteria on the rind and on the flesh of the lemons.

Health laws require lemons to be handled with gloves or tongs. But its common practice for waiters and waitresses to simply pop the little lemon wedge onto a drinking glass with their bare hands.

If an employee's hands aren't clean, however, then touching the lemons is likely to contaminate them with bacteria according to Loving.

This is not the first time that Anne Loving has gone looking for bacteria in unusual places. She did a study several years ago and found bacteria on communion cups.

"You'd just have to know me," she laughed. "I'm a germ freak."

But, Loving says, the results of the study point to a significant problem.

"People need to know that the lemons have bacteria on them that can make them sick."

Source: http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/lemon.asp

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WARNING ABOUT CANDY CANES FROM TARGET

I am not one to send mass emails, however, after a recent experience I had I must share this with all of you.

Last night I bought a box of mini candy canes from Target. Of course Emmie begged for one the whole way home and when we got home I gave her one. Later I had one also and they were really good. I turned the box over to see the ingredients and saw they were made in China. After all of the news about products from China recently I gave the box to Charles to bring to work. Before Charles distributed them to anyone he noticed an unusual ingredient in the product, Titanium Dioxide. He googled this and checked it out on OSHA. This is an ingredient that is used in paints, plastics and paper products and is a potential carcinogen.

Charles immediately called Target headquarters to question them on the product and left a message. They did return our call and the customer service rep that called me said they would gladly take my return and that she could not give me any scientific explaination as to why the product contained this ingredient!

Please pass this along to others who are probably doing just what I was doing, buying stocking stuffers for their kids! Tell them to look at not only the origin of the product but the INGREDIENTS also!

It frightens me that Target is selling this product! Please check the labels before you buy candy canes at Target or anywhere else.

Origins: In the latter part of 2007, the news of the day was filled with one tale after another about dangerous vendables imported from China. Lead found in consumer products and contaminated pet foods grabbed the headlines, but that was just the tip of the iceberg as potentially dangerous levels of chemicals and toxins turned up in a variety of Chinese products, from toothpaste to

fish.

The "candy cane" e-mail quoted above, which began circulating in November 2007, plays upon the fear of dealing with consumer goods imported from China, but that fear is apparently misplaced in this case.

Titanium dioxide, the subject of the alert, is a naturally-occurring compound which (for the sake of purity) is refined for use in the manufacture of a variety of consumer goods, both domestic and international. Its chief use is as a pigment: it serves to color items a brilliant white and is therefore commonly found in toothpaste and just about any item where a bright white coloring is called for, such as paints, paper, various foods, and even pills and tablets. It also gets put to work in cosmetics and skin care products, where it is used both as a pigment and as a thickener, and is present in almost every sunblock, where it helps protect the skin from ultraviolet light. Beside imparting a brilliant white to products, the compound is also a noteworthy opacifier, which means it helps make items treated with it opaque (i.e., not allowing light to pass through them).

While we can't confirm that there was titanium dioxide in the candy canes purchased by the e-mail's writer, it wouldn't be at all remarkable if there had been. As consumers, our concept of a desireable candy cane calls for the red of its stripes to stand out in stark contrast to its brilliantly white base, and for the sweet to not only start out opaque, but to remain so even as the confection's red stripes get licked away. That sounds like a job for titanium dioxide, or as it is sometimes known, titania.

Titanium dioxide is a potential carcinogen, but is hasn't been demonstrated as posing a cancer risk to consumers through ordinary consumption of food products. In 2006, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified it an IARC Group 2B carcinogen "possibly carcinogen to humans": however, that classification applied only to a finding linking respiratory tract cancer in rats to exposure to high concentrations of ultrafine titanium dioxide dust. While that finding would strongly suggest that people who have to deal with the compound at the manufacturing level should be protected from any chance of their breathing in this very fine dust, once titanium dioxide is no longer in a particle state (i.e., has been incorporated into a manufactured product), it's regarded as safe to eat, touch, or smear on one's skin.

Barbara "candy is still dandy" Mikkelson

Source: http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/candycane.asp

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Vitamin C users who eat shrimp risk death from arsenic poisoning

F.Y.I.

Spread this message out to as many friends and families as possible, because this is a matter of life and death!!

I just read a medical report from my friend saying that: DO NOT eat shrimp (Prawn) if you have just taken VITAMIN C pills!! This will cause you to DIE in ARSENIC (As) toxication within HOURS!!

THIS IS NOT A JOKE!! There's been a case happened in Taiwan.

Take care!

Origins: This e-mailed scare began circulating on the Internet in May 2001. Presumably it's trying to claim that prawns metabolize arsenic (as some aquatic organisms do), forming compounds ordinarily non-toxic to humans, but when the prawns are ingested in combination with Vitamin C, something in the vitamin prompts the re-estalishment of toxicity. Obviously, even if this were true, it only occurs under very specific or extraordinary circumstances, or we'd be finding plenty of accounts of healthy-but-dead seafood lovers.

Shrimp does not turn into arsenic when combined with Vitamin C tablets. Arsenic is a basic element, as listed on the periodic table of elements. It is not formed by combining any one thing with any other; it exists as is in the same way gold does. Just as there was no magical philosophers' stone that would enable its user to transform various worthless substances into gold, neither will the combination of shrimp and Vitamin C tablets produce arsenic.

In any case, we haven't turned up any "medical report" (received from the unnamed but authoritative-sounding "my friend" or not) that links shrimp and Vitamin C with arsenic "toxication." Likewise, we have found no news accounts of any death(s) occurring in Taiwan from this

combination.

What we have here is the usual unsigned e-mail of unknown origin promoting a dubious claim. What went through the head of the person who wrote this. Pure hoax? Something egregiously misheard then overreacted to? We don't know, but we do know nothing of less-than-dubious validity supports this one.

Barbara "arsenic and old plaice" Mikkelson

Source: http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/shrimp.asp

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