Swine Flu (H1N1) - causes and prevention tips

All about H1N1 Swine-Origin flu

Swine influenza is an infection caused by any of the several types of swine influenza virus.

Swine influenza is also called as H1N1 flu, swine flu, hog flu, and pig flu. Swine influenza virus (SIV) is any strain of the influenza family of viruses that is endemic in pigs. As of 2009, the known SIV strains include influenza C and the subtypes of influenza A known as H1N1, H1N2, H3N1, H3N2, and H2N3.
Swine flu is quite common among pig population. Swine influenza virus is common throughout pig populations worldwide. People with regular exposure to pigs are at increased risk of swine flu infection. However, the meat of an infected animal poses no risk of infection when properly cooked.
Its not really Swine Flu

Swine flu is an acute respiratory disease of pigs caused by a virus that belongs to the influenza A virus group. Mortality rates are generlly low and pigs recover within 5 to 7 days after initial symptoms

The virus currently infecting humans is a form of a swine flu virus and not the actual one

It has jumped from pigs to humans and contains genes from pig, bird and human flu viruses

A more appropriate name would be swine-origin flu and not swine flu.

1 A Classical Swine H1N1 virus and a Human H3N2 virus combine to form a Swine H3N2 virus
2 The Swine H3N2 virus combines with an Avian virus to form a Swine H3N2 Triple reassortment virus
3 Swine H3N2 Trple Reassortment combines with Classical Swine H1N1 to form Swine H1N2 Triple Reassortment virus
4 Swine H1N2 Triple Reassortment virus and a Eurasian Swine H1N1 virus join to form the Swine-Origin Influenza Virus 2009
The Lethal Leap

Every virus has 8 genes

Strains of flu viruses jump from one species to another without the 8 genes changing (no genetic change) or with a reassortment of the 8 gees (antigenic shift)

An example of reassortment is

a duck passes a bird flu virus to a pig
a person passes a human flu virus to the same pig
if the viruses infect the same cell in the pig, the genese from the bird strain cn mix with the genes from the human strain to form a new virus in te pig. This can also occur in a human or chicken infected with different strains
Prevention / Remedies Tips

Tulsi leaves are used for preventing cold, cough and other related diseases. Tulsi leaves are supposed to be the best natural anti-viral herb that builds immunity levels against such diseases.
Tulsi leaves soaked in hot water along with little honey and ginger can be given for kids. This can help in flu prevention.

Avoid going to crowded places like malls, theatres, markets, etc.
Avoid diets which have curd, cold food, cold drinks, fruit juices, fermented food, ice cream
Drink hot water
Drink decoction made of any one or combination of tulsi, ginger, termeric, black pepper, long pepper and guduchi in the morning
Ayurvedic medicines like sudershanghana vati and sudershana churna will improve body's defence mechanism