THE SWINE FLU VIRUS

Yet again a wave of alarm has swept over Baku with regard to the outbreaks of swine flu in the territories bordering on Azerbaijan.

Approximately 80 per cent of the flu viruses circulating in Europe and Russia in the winter of 2016 are of the swine flu strain, according to data from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

"Roughly 80 per cent of the type A flu viruses come from the A (H1N1) strain. Healthcare workers need to pay particular attention to the likelihood of the "serious flu" diagnosis in the young and in healthy people on the whole and render the relevant assistance," TASS quotes the World Health Organisation report. 

According to the latest data from WHO Guidelines, cases of serious illness and death have been registered in Armenia, Israel, Turkey, Ukraine and Russia.

According to the information published in the media, three people have died of H1N1 swine flu in neighbouring Georgia.

An epidemic of swine flu has already started in Russia, evidence of which is provided by the Russian Federation Healthcare Ministry's Research Institute of Influenza. In St. Petersburg alone 15 people have died recently, including a pregnant woman. Another 11 fatalities have been registered in Volgograd, three in Belgorod and two in Moscow. At the present time, quarantine has been announced in Chelyabinsk Region [near Urals mountains], Adygea and in Yakutsk [northern Russia]. Large-scale incidence of flu has been noted in Kamchatka [Russian Far East], where 20 patients were diagnosed as suffering from flu all on the same day, on 22 January. According to Russian doctors' forecasts, the peak of the seasonal outbreak of flu has not yet passed.

In Armenia 16 people had died from the H1N1 virus by 18 January.

Our citizens and healthcare representatives could not of course remain indifferent to this news.

In keeping with a special regime

Back in December last year Azerbaijani Minister of Healthcare Oqtay Siraliyev signed an order connected with this, the aim of which was to step up preventive and prophylactic measures to avert the spread of swine flu in Azerbaijan. The order recommends that all staff of medical organisations and structures should be provided with the relevant information. Besides this, persons suspected of being infected with swine flu are to be allocated special wards in hospitals and polyclinics. This particularly applies to patients in the high-risk group like children and the elderly.

Where necessary the introduction of special restrictions at medical establishments is envisaged as well as the stepping up of disinfection procedures, and all medical personnel are to be provided with individual means of protection. Moreover, in the order the need is particularly noted for all hygiene and epidemiological centres to be informed immediately when patients come in with serious respiratory infections, and tests and samples must be dispatched to the Republican Anti-Plague Station as well. 

Stepping up the checks on persons with "suspicious symptoms" crossing the border from countries where incidents of infection with the virus have been registered is also envisaged.

The last clause in the order stipulates that reports on the research and analyses conducted, as well as on the viral strains circulating at the given time, must be produced weekly.

No cases of infection

Naturally, there is growing panic among the public, especially among the elderly and parents with small children whose immune systems have not yet properly developed. According to the head of the Healthcare Ministry's press service, Lia Bayramova, in spite of the fact that cases of infection and even fatalities have been registered in neighbouring countries, for the moment there is nothing to fear in our country. Not a single case of swine flu infection has been recorded, and every possible precaution has been taken. "Approximately 100 people consulted the Republican Anti-Plague Station, when they had flu symptoms, but fortunately, after immediate tests and analyses, it turned out that it was simply the seasonal flu virus, Lia xanim [respectful way of addressing women in Azerbaijan] comments.

At any rate, precautions have been stepped up on all fronts; checks are not only being made on the border, but at educational establishments as well. If cases of suspected swine flu are discovered at schools and nurseries, then the entire premises will be subjected to the necessary procedures, the head of the press service explains. She says that the public is constantly being provided with information, special leaflets are being issued telling people what to do if they get sick and what preventive measures to take. 

In the three major hospitals - the Institute of Pulmonary Diseases, the First Clinical Hospital and the Children's Infection Hospital No. 7, special cabins have been made ready for any potential cases of infected patients. Measures have also been stepped up at the country's railway stations: the rail services and staff have been provided with medication and rooms have been equipped for temporarily holding people suspected of having the virus.

Leaflets for everyone

Professor Adil Qeybulla, M.D., lists the symptoms which distinguish swine flu from ordinary flu: high temperature, muscle and back aches, nausea and vomiting and signs of catarrh in the upper respiratory tracts. If measures are not taken in time, the virus very rapidly destroys the body's tissues with a fatal outcome, the professor says.

 According to the professor, people should avoid spending a long time in crowded places, since there is more risk of the virus spreading in an enclosed space. Those who go down with a temperature should be isolated from the collective and go to bed under the observation of the doctor. The doctor thinks that you can recover from this type of flu, but you just need to have a strong immune system. In his view, people with a feeble immune system, diabetics and patients suffering from bronchial-pulmonary diseases find it harder to combat the virus. Adil Qeybulla thinks that late diagnosis also makes the recovery process more difficult.

In the leaflet published by Azerbaijan's Healthcare Ministry, precautions are indicated that you should take if you suspect someone may have the disease. In particular, you should avoid contact with people who are coughing and sneezing, you should wash your hands frequently, pursue a healthy way of life, be outside in the fresh air more often and get enough sleep. If the sick person is a member of your family, he or she should be isolated from the other members of the family at a distance of no less than one metre; you need to wear a muslin mask when having contact with him or her, to air the room, wash your hands thoroughly after being in contact with the patient and touching his or her everyday things.

If you discover that you have symptoms of the disease yourself, it says in the leaflet, avoid having contact with people, don't go out of the house, drink more fluids, use disposable muslin face masks, and, most importantly, consult your G.P.

This is just one type of strain

Moreover, by no means all doctors are of this opinion. Hepatologist and therapist Zaur Orucev comments, "There is no such thing as swine flu; there is H1N1 or H3N2 (this season) and a number of others that the media lyrically refer to as swine flu. Vaccination is all that we need to know about flu and its preventive measures. Not a special anti-swine-flu vaccination moreover but just the one against the anticipated seasonal flu." According to the doctor, the risk of dying from this virus is the same as the complications caused by any other strain of the virus. But there is panic due to the whipping up of the situation by the media. In its turn, the Healthcare Ministry has been compelled to take measures in response to eliminate the panic. 

"Ultimately," the doctor says, every new strain of flu is a "particular one", since it is a "mutation" of the previous one, and the statistics relating to complications are the same as for any flu. I have the flu vaccination every year and I recommend that everyone should do the same." According to Zaur Orucev, the vaccine may not be effective against all types of flu, but, if some patients do go down with flu after they have had it, as a rule, they suffer from a much milder form of flu. The strains are usually analysed that will be rampant this year. Thus, from year to year the vaccination not only protects you against new types of strains, but against old ones too.

We would like to remind you that the most serious type of flu, the H1N1 strain, was discovered in 2009. A vaccination against it was immediately developed. Over the last few years, people receiving the vaccination voluntarily have not allowed the situation to get to epidemic levels, but flu develops in cycles and, after an interval, its on-slaught is even stronger, according to the doctors. It is still not too late to have the vaccination in Azerbaijan, since we do not yet have anyone suffering from this strain.