1. The flu kills many thousands in this country every year, and the toll will undoubtedly be even greater this year with the threat of the H1N1 flu.
2. Experience shows that the dangers associated with an attack of the flu are many-fold greater than any risks or side effects of the vaccine.

They discovered that a mysterious gene carried by the herpes simplex-1 virus — the one that causes cold sores — allows the virus to lay low in the nerves it infects.

It does so via microRNAs, little pieces of genetic material that regulate the activity of many viruses, the researchers report in the journal Nature.

It may be possible to “wake up” the virus and then kill it with standard antiviral drugs such as acyclovir, said Jennifer Lin Umbach of Duke University in North Carolina, who worked on the study.

“We are trying to go into animal trials,” Umbach said in a telephone interview.

The Duke team is discussing a potential collaboration with Regulus Therapeutics LLC, a joint venture between Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc and Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc that specializes in microRNAs.

Herpes viruses cause permanent infections. They head straight to nerve cells, where they stay latent for the life of an animal or person, often causing periodic outbreaks.

Herpes simplex 1 or HSV-1 causes cold sores, HSV-2 causes genital herpes, while varicella causes chicken pox and returns in middle or old age as herpes zoster to cause shingles.

Acyclovir and related drugs can suppress symptoms but only when the virus is active.

IMPOSSIBLE TO KILL

“Inactive virus is completely untouchable by any treatment we have. Unless you activate the virus, you can’t kill it,” said Bryan Cullen, who oversaw the research.

Umbach said that for still unknown reasons, viruses infecting different neurons in the same body activate at different times, making it impossible to eradicate an infection.

Her team found that a gene called LAT controls microRNAs that turn off other genes in the virus.

“The presence of these active microRNAs keep the virus dormant,” Umbach said. “When the virus is activated by stress like UV (ultraviolet) light or a wound, production of (other) genes goes up.”

Then LAT is overwhelmed and unable to keep the virus in check. It wakes up and causes an outbreak.

A drug that would turn off the microRNAs could drive the virus out of hiding and allow all copies of the virus to be killed with acyclovir, she said.

“You would have one cold sore but you would get rid of it,” she said. Curing something more painful, such as shingles, might be a little trickier, she added.

One class of drug called an antagomir might work, Umbach said. These chemically engineered oligonucleotides are short segments of RNA that can be made into mirror images of a targeted bit of genetic material — such as the herpes microRNAs. They would attach and “silence” the microRNA.

The potential market is large. An estimated one in five Americans have genital herpes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while 100 million have the HSV-1 virus that causes cold sores.

The CDC estimates there are a million cases of shingles every year in the United States alone.

© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved

There are many ways you can protect yourself from HIV/AIDS. The surest way is to abstain from sexual intercourse and from sharing needles and “works” if you use steroids, hormones, or other drugs.

Many people have been infected with HIV/AIDS by sharing needles. If you are using needles for steroids, hormones, or other drugs

• Never share needles.
• Get into a needle-exchange program.
• Be sure to disinfect the needles you use.

Don’t share personal items that may have blood on them. This includes toothbrushes, razors, needles for piercing or tattooing, and blades for cutting or scarring.

If you choose to have sex, have safer sex to reduce the risk of exchanging blood, semen, or vaginal fluids with your sex partner(s).

Safer Sex and HIV

Some kinds of sex play are “safer” because they have lower risk of infection than others. “Safer-sex” activities are those we choose to lower our risk of exchanging blood, semen, or vaginal fluids — the body fluids most likely to spread HIV. Each of us must decide what risks we will take for sexual pleasure.

Here are some common sexual behaviors grouped according to risk :

VERY LOW RISK — No reported HIV infections due to these behaviors

• fantasy, cyber sex, or phone sex
• using clean sex toys
• masturbation or mutual masturbation
• manual stimulation of one another
• touching or massage
• fondling or body rubbing
• kissing
• oral sex on a man with a condom
• oral sex on a woman with a Glyde dam or plastic wrap

LOW RISK — Very few reported HIV infections due to these behaviors

• deep kissing that causes bleeding
• vaginal intercourse with a condom or female condom
• anal intercourse with a condom or female condom
• oral sex

(Try not to get semen, vaginal fluids, or blood into the mouth or on broken skin.)

HIGH RISK — Millions of reported HIV infections due to these behaviors

• vaginal intercourse without a condom
• anal intercourse without a condom

Talk with your health care provider about testing and treatment for STDs. Women and men with open sores from herpes and other infections get HIV/AIDS more easily than other people.

Basil or `tulsi` has traditionally been used as a medicine to ward off cold.
A tender plant, the tulsi grows as a perennial in warm, tropical climates.

The leaves of basil have numerous oil glands with aromatic, volatile oil. The herb is well-known for its medicinal virtues.

Recipes in which you can use basil:
Ingredients:
1 cup – tomato puree
2 cups – fresh spinach, torn
2 tbsp – butter
1 – large yellow onion, chopped
1 tsp – minced garlic
1 1/2 cups – milk
1 tbsp – white sugar
1/4 cup – chopped fresh basil
1/4 tsp – freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp – grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp – salt

Method:

1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.
2. Saute onion and garlic for 3 minutes.
3. Stir in milk and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Stir in tomato puree and sugar.
5. Mix well, cover and bring to a boil over high heat.
6. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 5 minutes.
7. Add spinach, basil, salt and pepper and simmer, uncovered, for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
8. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese, if desired.

This virus constantly changes its form, thereby eluding the protective antibodies that people may have developed in response to previous exposures to influenza vaccines. Every two or three years, the virus undergoes minor changes.

But at intervals, a bulk of world’s population has developed some level of resistance to these minor changes and it easily infect populations around the world, often infecting hundreds of millions of people whose antibody defenses are unable to resist it.

In 1957, an Asian flu pandemic infected 45 million Americans and killed 70,000. It caused
about two million deaths globally. Once again, the cycle turns back in 2009. So far, 300 peoples in Mexico have been infected by the influenza A swine strain. Thus making evident, the outbreak of swine flu and making contingency plans for a possible global pandemic.

Symptoms:

Swine flu symptoms are similar to the symptoms of regular flu and include fever of over 100.4°F, fatigue, lack of appetite, and cold. Some people with swine flu have also reported runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. Nearly everyone with flu has at least two of these symptoms.

So, how do you know if you have flu or just cold?
There is one clue: when you have the flu, you feel flu symptoms sooner than you would cold symptoms, and they come on with much greater intensity. With the flu, you may feel very weak and fatigued for up to 2 or 3 weeks. You’ll have muscle aches and periods of chills and sweats as fever comes and goes. You may also have a stuffy or runny nose, headache, and sore throat.

Can I compare flu symptoms with cold symptoms?
Yes. The following chart can help you compare flu symptoms with cold symptoms. Use it to lean the differences and similarities between flu and cold symptoms. Then, if you get flu symptoms, call your doctor and ask about an antiviral drug.

Prevention:

1. Prevention in swine: The spread of swine influenza can be controlled by executing facility management, herd management and vaccination. Standard commercial swine flu vaccines are effective in controlling the infection, when the virus strains match enough to have significant cross protection and custom vaccines should be given to the animals.
2. Prevention of transmission to humans: The transmission from swine to human is believed to occur mainly in swine farms where farmers are in close contact with live pigs. Since the outbreak of transmission had occurred, the farmers were requested to use face mask while treating with infected animals.
3. Prevention of spread in humans: Influenza spreads between humans through coughing or sneezing but it is restricted to pork products, since the virus is not transmitted through food. Swine flu in humans is most contagious during the first five days of the illness although some people, most commonly children can remain contagious for up to 10 days. The standard infection control, which includes frequent washing of hands with soap and water or with alcohol based hand sanitizers. A new H1N1 starin vaccines are being developed and could be ready as early as June 2009.

Treatment:

If a person becomes sick with swine flu, antiviral drugs can make the illness milder and make the patient feel better. As soon as the symptoms are detected, antiviral drugs should be started soon. The US CDC recommends ostelamivir and zanamivir for the treatment and prevention of infection with swine flu influenza viruses. The virus outbreak in 2009 were found be resistant to amanatadine and rimantadine.

Eating nutritious food and building immunity against the swine flu pandemic is on top of everyone`s mind today