With rumour mills spinning all sorts of news about swine flu, it becomes important to debunk the common myths about swine flu, which are leaving people extremely worried and panic stricken about the causes and consequences of the flu.
Swine influenza, or ‘swine flu', is a highly contagious acute respiratory disease of pigs, caused by one of several swine influenza A viruses that cause regular outbreaks in pigs.
There is a myth surrounding the swine flu that eating pork can lead to swine flu. However, there is no truth in it. Whenever you eat pork, it should be well cooked and that would kill the virus.
Face masks do offer some amount of protection against the flu, but they do not offer guaranteed protection. Washing your hands frequently and wearing face masks can certainly offer you some protection against the disease.
Swine flu doesn't seem to be more virulent than seasonal flu as symptoms of the disease are largely the same like fever, cough, throat infection etc., but H1N1 is slightly more contagious than normal flu.
After recovering from swine flu once, it does not mean that you won't get the infection in future. Swine flu virus is notorious for mutating; so a recurrence is possible.
While it is important to eat well and healthy, adding vitamins cannot help to strengthen the immunity. More important for the immunity is a sufficient amount of proteins.
Both kids and adults who have had suffered from swine flu need to stay at home for at least 24 hours after fever goes away without the use of fever-reducing medicines.
