by Clint Daniel

Created on: October 27, 2009

Although the H1N1 pandemic is the new topic of debate, is there any reason to let it rule over our lives? The fact is, everyone gets sick once in a while, but when the media attaches a name, it tends to blow it out of proportion, and people overreact. The main concern of most scientists studying it is, that the H1N1 flu will mutate into another form of the dreaded Spanish Flu, which wiped out half the population of some cities.

Though it may mutate, the symptoms of the H1N1 are much like the normal flu, including headache, diarrhea, sore throat, coughing, aching muscles, and vomiting. This flu is no more dangerous than the common flu that causes high fever, hallucinations, and being bed ridden. The common flu is often times combated by our own immune systems, the same goes for the H1N1. The common flu that sweeps across the United States is often times more deadly than the H1N1, killing multiple people each year.

There are many ways to help prevent your immune system from having to go to battle. The greatest of these methods is to develop healthy habits, washing your hands, covering your coughs, and covering sneezes. If you work in a place where it is common to shake other's hands, you may also want to place either a bottle of sanitizer or a carton of sanitizing wipes upon your desk. it would also behoove you to become more polite, giving others their personal space to prevent spreading your germs.

Yes, some people have died from the infamous H1N1, but most of the craze is stirred by the media frenzy that soon follows. The list of deaths is still short compared to the other disease the world struggles through each year. The overcrowding of cities definitely aids the progress of the pandemic, but the virus itself lasts a very short time out of the host, losing its steam after the most of a few hours. The risk of death usually comes greatest to the people with normally weak immune systems-the elderly and the young, but a few cases of strong immune systems failing have been seen. Even though the focus of the United States is upon the H1N1, the common flu usually kills more each year than this has so far; yet it hides conspicuously from the news.

The main point to glean is that the H1N1 is not all it's hyped up to be, spreading fear and panic only through media coverage of the deaths. All it takes to combat the dreaded H1N1 is healthy living and common sense.

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