Keeping healthy and preparing against the flu is vital to your health. Learn the differences between different types of flus, and how to protect yourself. There is a contagious respiratory disease that stems from a virus that is constantly changing and adapting. Once a year, every year, this virus comes sweeping across the globe, and the worst part about it can be fatal.
This virus is known as influenza, and because there are different strains and it is constantly adapting to be more powerful and harmful to the human immune system people have categorized the virus into different tiers of danger. These different tiers will allow you to identify the amount of danger you are in when you hear a about the upcoming influenza.
First there is the seasonal flu; this is when the flu only affects 5 to 20 percent of the population, in other words not very contagious. On average 3,300 to 49,000 people will die each year from the flu.
The CDC (center for disease control) change the way they measure statistics, so that is why the average is a large range of individuals rather than a single number. Back in 2000 before they changed their report methods the average was 41,000 casualties from influenza.
That is just seasonal, and really shouldn’t be too much of a concern for you unless you have health issues already and you are malnourished. The next tier in the danger-meter of the flu virus is epidemic.
An epidemic is when the flue is spreading rapidly and affects an entire region of people all at once. This type of flu would infect a school and by the end of the week have the whole district coughing and wheezing.
Epi comes from the Greek language, it basically means epic or great or large. Demic also comes from the Greek language and its meaning is problem, danger, peril, hazard.
So you put the words together and what do you have, one big problem. So when you hear that the flu in your region or area is an epidemic that means you need to stay home and start drinking your Emergen-C packets.
Keeping a good diet with a lot of anti-oxidants is going to help fight any bacteria from the flu, and even if you are sick keeping a healthy diet will help you recover faster. The last type of influenza is known as a pandemic.
You already know what demic means, but what about pan. Pan was the Greek god of earth, so whenever “pan” was mentioned it was an all-encompassing expression toward the whole earth.
So pandemic means the whole entire planet is being overwhelmed by this disease. The swine flu was mentioned as a pandemic for a little while, but it turns out that it didn’t even kill that many people.
By: Emma Green
Emma Green is a health and fitness nut who often writes for proformcoupon.com. You can reach her with any questions on Twitter via: @emmalimegreen.
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Source: http://www.articledirectoryusa.com/article/category/health-and-fitness/flu/prepare-for-flu-season/
Article Tags: Influenza , Seasonal Flu , Health , Wellness , Disease , Epidemic
Submitted On Jan 04, 2013. Viewed 908 times.