About Swine Influenza and How To Prevent It
Assalamu’alaikum Wr Wb
Good morning ladies and gentlemen, and also the adorable judge. First of all, let’s thank to our God Allah SWT because of the guidances and the mercies, so we can meet and gather here, in this place in good condition without any troubles or obstacles. Sholawat and salam we deliver for our greatest prophet Muhamad SAW who has lead us from the darkness to the brightness. And I would like to thank the committee that have let to participate in this wonderful event.
In this nice occasion, I would like to give a short speech about swine influenza, especially how to prevent it. As we know, after the epidemic of avian flu or bird flu. Nowadays, there’s another influenza virus that’s began to spread among us, human. It’s the swine influenza or many people call it hog flu or pig flu. Many people are panic because of this issue. So, because of that, in my short speech, I would like to give explanation about swine influenza, the history, transmission, the symptoms and how to prevent and treat it.
What is swine influenza? Swine influenza or we can call it hog flu or pig flu refers to influenza that is caused by those strains of influenza virus called swine influenza virus or SIV, that usually infect or endemic in pigs. The swine influenza firstly proposed to be a disease that related to human influenza during the 1918 flu pandemic. At that time, influenza that appeared in pigs is considered as zoonosis or transmission of influenza virus from human to swine. So, in this case, It was noted as a new disease in pigs. Then in 1976, there was one swine influenza case that occurred in United States. United States government then immediately took action. They gave vaccination for those who have high risk for getting swine flu. But, there were many problems, one of them was that citizens didn’t trust the government since some people died and became cripple after the vaccination. Then, in 1988 the swine flu killed one woman and infected others. They got sick after visiting a barn at a country fair in Walworth Country, Wisconsin. But, this case didn’t cause a community break. Ten years later, in 1998, swine influenza virus had spread through pig population in United States. Scientist found that this virus had originated in pigs as a recombinants between avian flu from bird and from human. A new case appeared in Philippine, but they considered that swine flu wasn’t really dangerous since the mortality rate is less than 10 %. Later in 2009, in April, Margaret Chan as the director-general of WHO declared a “public health emergency of International concern” under the rules of the WHO’s new International Health regulations when the first cases of the H1N1 were reported in USA. Following the declaration, each country immediately took actions to reduce the chances for a global pandemic of this disease. In Indonesia, the government has been taken actions by checking the people especially that came from Mexico, North America and Australia who were willing to stay in Indonesia by using thermal detector. Lately, there have been 3 people suspected having swine flu, but the further examination show that it wasn’t swine flu.
However, we still have to stay alert for this new disease although, the government has been taken action to prevent it. According to the study, this influenza disease has been spread among half of breeding pigs in United States. It may be caused by the easy transmission between pigs. The virus easily infected the healthy pigs just by having close contacts with the sick pigs. The infections may happened when pigs touching noses or through dried mucus. Transmission may also happened by air, when pigs sneezed or coughed. Then, a study performed in 2004 at the University of Iowa proved that swine influenza can be transmitted from swine to human. It may happened to people with intense exposure with pigs, such as farm workers or people who work with swine, veterinarians and meat processing workers although the risk of infection is less than the farm workers. In 2009 , in recent days, the H1N1 virus can be transmitted from person to person. It immediately caused a chaos among people. They feel afraid to get swine flu. It can be understood since according to CDC or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the signs and symptoms of swine flu have no difference from ordinary influenza. Symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue but the 2009 outbreak has shown that the symptoms may include diarrhea and vomiting. So, we can’t be sure, whether we have swine flu or not, till it’s too late for treatment. We need to do laboratory test to confirm whether it’s swine flu or not.
Here we come to the most important part. I’m sure most of you have a big question about how to prevent swine influenza. Prevention of swine influenza has three components, those are prevention in swine or pigs, prevention of transmission in human and prevention of spreading among humans. The first is prevention in swine, the methods are facility management, herd or group management and vaccination. Facility management include using disinfectant to sterilized the environment and also controlling surrounding temperature. Then, in herd or group management, what we should do is isolating the sick pigs from the healthy pigs. Those can prevent the transmission between pigs. The next is vaccination, vaccination is very important thing to do, it helps to prevent the pigs to get infection.
The second is prevention in human. To prevent the infection of H1N1 virus, human also have to take action, such as wearing gloves when working with animals, eat the pork that has completely cooked, and using face mask when dealing with the infected animals. The last one is prevention of human to human transmission. Influenza spreads between humans through coughing or sneezing or touching something infected and touching their own nose or mouth. To prevent it, we should wash our hands frequently with soap or antiseptic, especially after going out. We also have to clean our household equipment or utilities because the evidence shows that small droplets containing virus can linger on our house equipment, such as telephone and can be transferred via fingers to the mouth. I think. From that simple way, we can prevent the infection of swine flu toward us. Then if that methods didn’t work, and we still catch influenza, what we should to is the treatment.
And, what is the treatment? When we catch a flu and we can’t be sure whether it is a swine flu or not, what we should do? The United States authority in disease prevention recommends that person who suffer from influenza infection should stay at home, get plenty of rest, drink a lot of water, don’t smoke or drink alcohol, take the first aid medicine of flu symptoms, consult to a doctor and remain alert for emergency warning signs such as difficulty breathing, pain in chest, dizziness, and severe vomiting. Then, go for laboratory test as soon as possible to make sure what influenza type we suffer from.
In conclusion, we don’t need to get panic. All we need is to do the best prevention and treatment toward swine influenza. And of course, we have to update our news about that disease.
I think that’s enough for my short speech in this occasion. I hope this short speech can give benefits and more understanding for us all. I would like to apologize if there were may mistakes that I made. And at last, thank you very much for your nice attention, let me say goodbye. May Allah SWT give his blessing for us all.
Wassalamu’alaikum Wr Wb.
22nd, May 2009.
By.Karinda Quarta
SMABOY. SMILE
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar