Injections, Ejections: The H1N1 Enigma

Over the last couple of months, hello-kisses and pleasantries of ‘how are you?’ and ‘can you believe this weather’ have been replaced by distant smiles and rhetoric fringed with panic and utter confusion. All this – while worshiped Purell dispensers of a palpable deity status not seen since SARS’s heyday, oust Holy Water at religious gatherings.

Since health officials declared in October the ‘Second Wave’ of a pandemic that was first reported in Mexico this past spring – the 2009 flu pandemic, a.k.a. swine flu and politically appropriate, H1N1 influenza virus – the hottest topic these days is whether to sink or swim with the biggest mass vaccination program that has sloshed and frothed onto Canadian shores. Read more

A Boost of Immunity

After months of monitoring, the World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed that swine flu is the first global flu pandemic since 1968. Since April of this year, H1N1 (swine flu), has spread globally to 74 countries across the world. With almost 30,000 people infected and 141 deaths, there are grave reasons why we all need to concern ourselves with our immunity. As pharmaceutical companies gear up to concoct vaccines that could take months to hit the market, boosting your body’s resistance to infection may be your best bet to avert the flu. Read more