As I mentioned the other day, I have just finished reading a new book that backgrounds this swine flu situation and puts it into context by comparing it to the other pandemics of the last century. You can find the web site for the book here:

I know that a lot of people are wondering about the necessity of getting the swine flu shot this fall.

The truth is that some people *do* seem to be a lot less susceptible to swine flu. People over 50 years of age appear to fall into this category, and it is thought that the fact that an H1N1 swine flu strain was in circulation prior to 1957 (the year the Asian Flu pandemic dropped swine flu off the map) might have something to do with that. Older people may have antibodies to the older strain of swine flu, and this may be protecting them to some degree.

But for the rest of us there is no such protection. Moreover, if you have children, they seem to be at particular risk from the new swine flu strain. The average age of hospitalized swine flu sufferers is somewhere in the mid teens.

If you are a parent, the good news in all of this is that your children will receive first priority when the vaccine becomes available. They will likely have the option of receiving 2 doses of the swine flu shot, the second administered about 3 weeks after the first to raise sufficient antibodies to fight off an infection.

The not so good news? Vaccine companies have found that they can grow only about one third as much swine flu as they can seasonal flu using the technology at hand. This means that swine flu vaccine will be in short supply for 2009, so the only people who will be able to get their hands on it will be those for whom swine flu represents a higher risk of serious complications.

Unless you are diabetic, suffer from high blood pressure, a heart condition, asthma, or another type of respiratory problem, you may have to forgo protection from a swine flu shot until some time in 2010.

To find out more about this issue, I strongly recommend getting a copy of the definitive title on this subject: “Survive Pandemic Flu: Understand and Protect Against Novel Strains Of Influenza”. You can find out more about the book on this page:
Unless you feel convinced that you are immune to swine flu, this is one book you will want to have read by the time the virus appears at your front door.

Sincerely,

Not really, but search engine optimisation (SEO) and swine flu have combined to produce a strange revelation for SEO observers.

While the current swine flu pandemic has caused panic and disruption across the world, with news agencies and reporters falling over themselves to describe the latest casualties, sitting quietly in front of computer screens across the globe are a group of people shifting uncomfortably in their swivel chairs.

These are the people whose daily job consists of SEO. They must monitor the current trends in SEO and incorporate them immediately into their every day routines and practices. And why are they scratching their heads at this moment? It’s all down to swine flu.

No, it’s not because swine flu gives you an itchy scalp; it’s because the virus has caused a flurry of new keyword phrases to be used as search terms on the internet. Search terms that are being used by the thousand; an opportunity too good to miss for search engine optimisers who will be working overtime to determine how best to incorporate these phrases into their projects. Typical search terms include “swine flu vaccine”, “swine influenza” and “swine flu epidemic”.

But it’s not just the subject matter of the search terms that has the search engine optimisers nervous; it’s the length of them which has been a big eye-opener. Previously it was thought that internet users only used fairly short keyword phrases but Bill Hartzer writing in WebProNews has analysed the website statistics of a blog post about swine flu symptoms. Search terms such as, “how do I know if I have swine flu” and “what to do if you think you have the swine flu” were the most popular and demonstrate that most of these search terms have been more than 5 words long.

It is possible that, as internet users are becoming more confident in using search engines, they are not afraid to use more complex search phrases in order to get the information they want. Or it is possible that these complex phrases are being used as a result of users’ increasing lack of time and the need to access very specific information in as short a time as possible.

So what does this mean for the search engine optimisation people? The evidence of using long tail keywords and complex phrases means extra research and more second guessing about what internet users will be searching for. SEO professionals need to dig further down into their keyword phrases and not just look at the two or three word phrases. If SEO can home in on the phrases that people actually type into their searches, then content can be created that describes what a user is really looking for.

In another swine flu related SEO development, McAfee’s Avert Labs has noted that the surge in swine flu searches has resulted in an increase in swine flu spam. Spam messages take visitors to unrelated medical sites, phony companies set up to collect credit card numbers, or often they just carry malware. In addition, swine flu domain names are also being registered to try and catch internet users who are searching for advice on the virus. Any website that has “swine flu” in the url is highly unlikely to be a credible one.

Any search engine optimiser worth his or her salt will be keeping one eye on the news and one eye on current popular search terms in order to keep their projects up to date. But while they are working on incorporating “how do I catch swine flu” into their next project, they must also be aware of the next challenge on the horizon; the fact that some organisations around the world have objected to referring to the pandemic as “swine flu” and have renamed it “ Mexican flu”, “h1n1”, “ novel flu virus”,  etc. This is bound to water down the number of searches for “swine flu” and will mean that another round of keyword research is inevitable.

Swine Flu is a respiratory disease, caused by a tiny spheroid virus that belongs to the Influenza A virus group (known as H1N1) that is capable of infecting humans, birds and pigs. It is contagious and can be passed from one species (e.g., birds) through an intermediate animal host (e.g., pigs) to a third species (e.g., humans).

Although, H1N1 is the same virus that causes seasonal outbreaks of flu in humans, the latest type is different as it is a mutated version containing genetic material that is generally found in strains of the virus that affect humans, birds and pigs.

This time, the flu viruses from humans and pigs have swapped genetic components with each other, and evolved into a completely new variety. It is now a wholly human disease and can be transmitted from person-to-person.

Swine flu virus is genetically different from the human H1N1 seasonal flu virus that has been circulating throughout the world for the past few years. The new virus contains DNA that is typical to avian, swine and human viruses, including elements from European and Asian swine viruses.

The symptoms of swine flu are similar to ordinary flu. The major swine flu symptoms are:

• Fever and chills
• Aches and pains
• Fatigue, tiredness
• Sore throat, scratchy throat
• Runny nose
• Cough and head congestion
How to protecting yourself against Swine Flu?

Take the below steps to protect yourself against swine flu viruses.

• Wash your hands often with antibacterial soap
• Avoid contact with person who shows symptoms of a cold
• Keep hand sanitizers with you in case you do not have access to water
• People who work in pigs farm should take extra precautions
• Avoid group activities or do not go to crowd unless absolutely necessary

If you find that you are showing any flu like symptoms, try to avoid contact with others until you have been examined by a doctor or had tests done. Stay home from school or work, and be sure to keep your nose and mouth covered when you cough or sneeze. Keep complete information about swine flu as this will help you a lot to protect against it.

To learn more about swine flu H1N1, how is the virus transmitted and how to guard against H1N1, you need to know the complete information on swine flu H1N1. Be sure to pick up the book on swine flu to keep yourself and your family away from this pandemic disease.

Get the complete information on swine flu symptoms, prevention and treatment through Swine Flu H1N1 Books. Read simple and effective Home Remedies for Influenza and herbal treatments. Know the herbal treatments and Home Remedies for Cough.

The President has rendered the swine (H1N1) influenza blow-up a national emergency. According to an October 2009 FluView announcement conveyed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been 32,814 documented cases of the swine flu on a national scale. This quantity does not take into consideration avian (H5N1) virus (bird flu) or seasonal virus cases. And virus movement is, at this point, common in all but 2 states!

You may possibly be asking yourself, “How does this bear upon me and my family? And what could I feasibly do regarding it?” There are particular solid steps you can take now to help safeguard you and your loved ones if the H1N1 influenza epidemic invades your area (for all one knows it already has). Added to some good hygiene reminders, valid flu epidemic guidance (at http://www.fight-the-flu.net) and an ‘H1N1 influenza pandemic kit’ (info at http://www.squidoo.com/swine-flu-prevention-and-pandemic-kits) are the most practical actions you can undertake without delay.

So what is a swine virus pandemic kit?

Don’t mistake a swine virus ‘pandemic kit’ with a swine virus ‘test kit’, which is used to determine if an individual has the swine virus. Simply put, a swine influenza pandemic kit is an integrated accumulation of preventive knowledge and necessities that you could draw on throughout an influenza pandemic or epidemic emergency. Please do not reckon that an influenza pandemic kit will fix up a person who comes down with the influenza. You want to get medical help for the suffering person if possible, as soon as possible!

You can procure professed ‘all-in-one’ standalone epidemic emergency kits, but you’re almost certainly better off putting together a personal kit on your own. Henceforward, YOU control the options, financial investment, AND worth of your kit. But, if you own or bank on obtaining a standalone kit, you could continually renovate it by depositing more items to it. In an emergency, possessing no more than a standalone kit is further along than having nothing at all. But think over that it’s singularly an ‘elementary’ kit on its way to growing into a specially made, at-the-ready pandemic kit.

A plentifully fitted swine (H1N1) flu pandemic kit in addition metes out resistance and treatment for other classes of influenza pandemics or epidemics, such as the avian (H5N1) virus (bird influenza) and seasonal influenza. Scores of preparedness supplies will come in handy for further emergencies also, from an ordinary power failure to a biological, chemical, or nuclear incident.

When most people think about the prospect of a severe pandemic visiting their neck of the woods, it is the fear of becoming infected that scares them. In the case of a flu strain that kills as efficiently as the one that circled the world in 1918, the prospect is hardly a comforting one. In the case of blue collar workers it is believed that in some U.S. communities the mortality rate for those infected was as high as 10 percent. In more epidemiologically isolated communities, like the Inuit Eskimo tribes of Alaska, the mortality rate reached 90 percent and virtually wiped those communities off the map.

Less widely appreciated is that a pandemic need not even reach your door in order to be able to kill you or a family member. During a severe pandemic you could literally starve to death while never having come in close contact with the virus. This is just one of the conclusions I reached after reading Survive Pandemic Flu which will have you rethinking just how much you really understand about your own place in the world. Because it turns out that we are a lot more delicately positioned than we like to believe.

Here is what I am talking about. Get up from your chair and head to the kitchen and make a quick inventory of the amount of food you have. How long would it last you if you discovered tomorrow that the shelves would be empty in the stores where you shop? Most retailers today work on a “just in time” model – they stock just enough product to keep the shelves full for a few days, and restock just as frequently as new shipments come in. Nobody stores in quantity any more because their margins are too thin to accommodate the extra expense. So any disruption to the fulfillment line means rapid onset of delivery problems, to stores, to customers, to you and your family.

In the event of a national crisis that should knock out truck drivers – and this could simply be due to fear that once they get in their trucks and embark on a long haul they will not be available if a family member falls gravely ill during a pandemic – the panic sweeping of inventory by consumers could easily clear store shelves in as little as 24 hours, leaving whatever you have in your cupboards as the only food and water you may be able to get your hands on for weeks.

Your neighbors will be facing the exact same dilemma, so don’t bother looking to them to bail you out. Nor should you expect the government to come rushing in with supplies to help you. That kind of thing happens only during local emergencies, not the kind of nation-wide threat we are talking about here where *everyone* is experiencing the same kind of disruptions to their normal existence.

If you are lucky enough to have a huge stockpile of food in your home – enough to get you through the crisis with some rationing – you will not want to advertise the fact. If your neighbor is faced with the option of either watching his family starve to death, or forcibly take food and water from you to make sure that does not happen, well, your life may be threatened yet again.

As I said at the outset, a virus that causes a severe pandemic does not need to reach your door in order for it to claim your life or the life of a family member. It only has to spread fear to get the job done. This is just one of the startling conclusions you will reach yourself once you have read Survive Pandemic Flu, which you can find it here

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