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My Rambling about the Swine Flu The media is full of information telling us that the flu is deadly, but not much else. It’s strange to me that the general media does not discus why this strain of flu which has killed a few hundred people so far is so much scarier than the common flu that kills thousand every year. Rarely do I see the term “Cytokine Storm” mentioned on MSN. What I understand about the swine flu is this. This flu is actually a rare combination of mutated swine, bird and human virus. It is very similar to the Spanish Flu virus that killed 40 million people in 1918. The difference with this flu is that it usually does not kill the victim directly. The common flu tends to ravage the elderly, very young and the weak because their immune systems are not able to combat it. The swine flu is particularly deadly to the young and healthy because it causes the immune system to attack the body. This is called Cytokine Storm. Look it up on Wikipedia. Basically, it means that the swine virus may enter the lungs and the immune system of the victims body will in turn attack the lungs so fiercely trying to kill the virus that it actually destroys the lungs and kills the victim itself. The stronger the immune system, the greater the damage. I can see where immune boosters would be a great idea when trying to fend off the virus, but during a cytokine storm, these same boosters would only make things worse.
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