A H1N1 Flu (and you)

Ignorance has caused 73 lives in Malaysia alone - due to attitudes of 'tidak apa' from individuals and organisations including universities and schools.

One of the students in my course recently just contracted A H1N1 flu and is supposed to be home quarantined, but she still went to the campus to sit for the Mid-Term Exam, 'coincidently', i am in the same room with her.. So, everyone in the course was quite angry due to her attitude.

Okay, this post isn't meant to be complaining about people. But more to promoting awareness and giving you guys knowledge on the Influenza virus.

This virus is an enveloped virus from the Orthomyxoviridae family. The size is around 80-120 nm and it consists of 7 to 8 ssRNA genome (single stranded RNA). These segmented RNAs make the virus even more dangerous as they can be randomly assorted to create new strains.

There are three serotypes of the Influenza virus - A, B and C. Type A causes pandemics, like the current one while type B causes epidemic human infections and C is less common.

In case you're wondering what the H and N stands for - H is called haemagglutinin while N is called neuraminidase. They are actually spikes found on the viral enveloped (which is the outer layer of the virus - the inner part contains the RNA, which is the genetic material). The H spike is involved in attachment of virus to host cell while the N type aids release of new virus from the host. The scary fact is that there are 16 different types of H and 9 different types of N spikes, thus, again, many combinations to create different strains can happen.

Transmission is usually due to droplet inhalation (breathing in sneeze or cough) and symptoms are fever, chills, muscle ache, headache and general malaise (unwell).

Treatment is obviously Tamiflu for now which inhibits the N (neauraminidase) spike to function.

However, there have been reports of resistance around the world, which is worrying due to the fast mutation rate of the virus.

So, prevention is better than cure in this case: avoid crowded areas, wash your hands more often, disinfect your hands with those alcohol gel thing (like Dettol), and it is time to live a healthy lifestyle (eat more fruits and Vitamin C lah).

Moving on to some stats to scare you. Perhaps one of the most severe pandemics which killed the record number of people, about 50 million is the 'Spanish Flu' in 1918 to 1919. Then comes others like SARS, avian flu (H5N1) and now, A H1N1.

The trend is that there would be an influenza pandemic every 40 years.

This is just very basic knowledge which i got from my lectures. Of course there are more which i didn't put it in (cause of laziness XD). So, take good care of yourself and people around you!

Signing off.. *pooofff*