Vitals Spotlight - We Give the Doctor an Exam

Dr. Anthony Fauci

President Obama warned Americans last week to be ready for an aggressive return of the Swine flu, based on findings from the H1N1 Influenza Preparedness Summit. The government is vigilantly preparing for a virus whose outstanding characteristic is its unpredictability.

The Swine flu, or H1N1, has confused and confounded experts from the start. Even its name was misleading causing needless slaughter of pigs in some countries and a general fear of eating pig products which peeved the 97 billion dollar US pork industry.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, who heads research on infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Health, has stated that we are not dealing with the typical seasonal flu. Usually the summer’s warm weather and high humidity makes it hard for a flu virus to survive. According to Vitals.com, Dr. Fauci received his medical degree at Cornell University and completed his internal medicine residency at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center.

But the spread has continued even though the official flu season ended in March. During the last week in June, Maryland confirmed 166 new cases and some summer camps are feeling the impact with campers being sent home midway. The Muscular Dystrophy Association canceled more than half of its week-long sessions as a preventative measure.

Doctors cannot predict how severe it will get, but Obama’s heavy hitters are working hard to be prepared. This big part of the preparation is the development of a vaccine. The US government has allocated 350 million dollars for H1N1 as well as the seasonal flu.

“I can say with confidence that we will have a vaccine that we will be making a decision on in the fall,” says Dr. Fauci. He reassures everyone that no vaccine will be released to the public until it is proven safe.

For the most part, health officials say, the symptoms of this flu strain have been mild to moderate, with nearly all recovering. The hope is that the virus will not mutate or become resistant to antiviral medication as government health officials continue to closely monitor the situation.

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