Source List

Any and all of the material that has been borrowed from other sources must be credited, and this post will be used to do that. If you were wondering what my sources are for further research on the topic, then look no further.

BBC News (Tamiflu Resistant Strain):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8370859.stm

Let's Get Real (Swine Flu Propaganda):
http://www.nidokidos.org/lets-get-real-t37642.html

Center for Disease Control and Prevention:
http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/update.htm

Fight Flu:
http://www.fightflu.ca/

Flu Tracker:
http://flutracker.rhizalabs.com/

Flu.gov:
http://www.flu.gov/

Canadian H1N1 Information:
http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/ccom/flu/

World Health Organization:
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/

BRC’s First Event of the Year ‘Successful’

Entertainment and food come alive! The Brantford Residence Council (BRC) holds their first event of the year with the aim to provide a fun-filled environment for all first-year students on residence. On Wednesday, November 11, 2009, a Coffee House was held in the Grand River Hall lounge. The event was organized by the BRC, a council consisting of a representative from each residence that holds the sole aim of reuniting residence students with each other through events and activities.
This first event had the theme of a Coffee House with a special addition of a Talent Show. Free food consisting of cookies, pies and cakes, with refreshments such as coffee and tea were provided, exclusive only to first year students living on residence.
The talent provided consisted of volunteers from the various residences that had a wide range of talent. The opening act was a sketch performed by the BRC. Bianca Ferris did a freestyle dance, and Keigan played an acoustic version of ‘What a Wonderful World’ on his guitar.
Other talents included singing, spoken word, and the closing act was a cover of Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ performed by the residence Dons.
Meaghan Smith attended the event and had this to say, “The event was fun and exciting, and the talent for the most part was really great! I would love to see events like the Coffee House in the future.”
Carla Egesi, president of the BRC calls the event ‘successful’ as it brought out more than 90 students to the event. As for the attendance of students at the event, Carla had this to say, “Honestly, I expected around 50 at most [students] despite the alleged 180 odd students who were supposed to be in attendance. I was certainly proven wrong when I counted 200 odd students before I and my fellow emcee did the opening address. Suffice it to say, the turnout did exceed my expectations.”
The BRC understands how difficult it is for first year students to come together due to exams and assignments, and so this event was created to form a lively and classy environment for them to relieve stress from school and make new friends.
Carla plans to create similar events in the future with the rest of the BRC and hopes that they will bring the various residence communities’ closer together: “With such positive feedback, BRC will definitely be taking on more projects like the Coffee House in the future. We will be having a banquet in March 2010, so please look forward to that.”

Tamiflu Resistant Swine Flu Spreads Among Patients

Health officials at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff report of a Tamiflu resistant strain of swine flu that has spread among five patients. This is thought by the health officials to be the first case of person-to-person transmission of the swine flu.
Other cases of individuals who have built resistance to Tamiflu have been reported around the world, but they have never spread it among others. The health officials report that there is no further risk to other patients.
Two of the patients have recovered and have been discharged from the hospital. Two are being treated in a separate ward and one patient is in critical care.
Tamiflu, also known as 'Oseltamivir' is an antiviral drug that is used to treat the various influenza viruses. It is used as a treatment for the seasonal flu, Avian flu, and even the H1N1 virus.
The virus has been stable since its emergence in April, and this resistant strain of the swine flu does not seem any more dangerous than the already prevalent strain of swine flu.
Dr. Roland Salmon, the director of the National Public Health Service for Wale's Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, emphasizes that "Treatment with Tamiflu is still appropriate for swine flu and people should continue to take Tamiflu when they are prescribed it."
"It's also important that good hygiene practices are followed to further prevent the spread of the virus."

This Year It's A Different Flu Season

The flu is changing, and this season, it's completely different. The normal influenza virus is meek compared to the H1N1 influenza virus. Ontario has set up a website in order to help protect people against the flu. The website offers daily updates on vaccines and research on the virus.
There is plenty of information on how to prevent and protect oneself from the virus. If you are worried about taking the vaccination feeling that it may not be safe, there is a link provided that provides in-depth information on the vaccine.
Another link is provided for individuals who are having a hard time looking for a clinic that is offering the vaccination. The link helps to find the location of a clinic close by and provides the hours of operation to drop by.
There is information for all sorts of groups, and telephone numbers are provided to talk to a registered nurse about any health issues.
The website link is:
http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/ccom/flu/

Flu Tracker

Get out of the way Mantracker, everyone is worried about swine flu now. If you ever wanted to know where the swine flu is ocurring around the world, and how many confirmed cases there are, then head over to http://flutracker.rhizalabs.com/
This website is created by Dr. Henry Niman, using the technology offered by Rhiza Labs and Google. He has then created the Flu Tracker website, that provides detailed and credible information showing how many cases of swine flu have been reported from each country around the world. The number of cases has been highlighted in various colours, from white describing the cases as non-fatal, to red being fatal cases.
For someone who may be traveling on vacation, this is vital information to know so one can avoid places where contracting fatal cases of the swine flu are a high probability.
At the bottom of the website is a forum that contains excellent information. This website is an excellent site that I visit to learn which areas around the world are most dangerous.

Public Health Agency of Canada

Fight the flu! How, do you ask? By getting the information you need! The last few links posted were either partly or fully owned and maintained by the American government, but this link is all Canadian.
The Public Health Agency of Canada has created a website to provide Canadians with detailed information on the H1N1 influenza virus. There are two specific sections made, one for individuals seeking general information on H1N1, and another for specific groups such as pregnant or breastfeeding women or senior citizens.
The website also offers updates through various resources if getting online is a problem. Users can get updates on their Twitter page, Facebook page, or on their mobile phones. Users can also subscribe to RSS feeds.
This is one of the few websites that is created by Canadians providing information for Canadians. To access the website, point your favourite browser towards http://www.fightflu.ca/

Flu.gov

Did you ever want to know about the difference between H1N1 and the Avian flu, but couldn't find the information anywhere on the Internet? You're in luck, because the answer you seek has been right under your nose. Flu.gov is a website that is aimed at providing individuals seeking information on the various kinds of influenza viruses.
Two things that make this site more unique and essential than other similar websites is an option to do a self-evaluation to check if you have caught the swine flu, and a "Myths "& Facts" section.
A search bar is provided at the top right hand corner of the website to make searching for information a very simple task. There is a gigantic FAQ section and all the answers provided are answered by experts on the flu - such as doctors and nurses.
So if you're ever looking for frequently updated information on any type of influenza virus, then head over to http://www.flu.gov/ and search away!

World Health Organization

"How many people have died from H1N1?" I don't know. But I know where you can find the answer to that question! The website for the World Health Organization has the responsibility to follow various health issues around the world. A specific section of the website has been dedicated to tackle issues and host countless information on the H1N1 Pandemic.
The H1N1 situation is updated often in order to provide information to any who come across the site. At the moment, the website is focusing on how to prevent H1N1 and have released a full document with diagnosis and treatment (http://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications/swineflu/clinical_management/en/index.html).

The website is not just limited to H1N1, there are various other links and articles on the website pertaining to other diseases and health issues.
To access the website, please copy and paste the following URL into your address bar:
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/

Center For Disease Control And Prevention

The famous quote, "Knowledge is power" was given to us by Sir Francis Bacon. If there's one site I'm following closely in order to obtain knowledge on H1N1, it would be the website of the Center For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This website gives a day to day detailed update on the number of deaths from H1N1 and the number of reported cases.
The website also gives fair warnings on how to avoid the disease and tips on how to keep oneself clean in order to prevent catching infection.
The CDC website is maintained by the National Center for Health Marketing, Coordinating Center for Health Information and Service.
The website also lists which countries have had an outbreak of H1N1, and has a link on the left hand side of the website on treatments for the H1N1 flu. If you are unable to visit the site for daily updates, on the right side of the website, there is an option to receive email updates which may be more convenient.

To those who would like to visit the website and also get updates on H1N1, please copy and paste the following URL into your address bar:
http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/update.htm

Swine Flu - Should We Be Afraid?

The year of 2009 brings a relatively new pandemic into the scene, swine flu a.k.a. H1N1. The first outbreak of swine flu occurred in 1976, during the Presidency of Gerald Ford. A recruit in the United States army at Fort Dix, New Jersey reported that he felt tired and dazed. The next day he died and four men were hospitalized. The virus that caused such illness in the five men was found to be a strain of swine flu. Mass panic took hold of public health officials and they pressured Ford to have everyone in the U.S. to be vaccinated for this epidemic.

The 1976 outbreak of swine flu was expected to infect 50 million Americans, but only 200 cases were reported with one death (there were more deaths caused by the vaccination than the virus itself). The epidemic was called a political farce by the public. Swine flu is back again and we seem to fear it as a pandemic that could kill millions worldwide, but it may not be the case. Consider the following examples. SARS was considered to kill millions but only 774 people died by the time the World Health Organization (WHO) called the outbreak to be over. SARS is not the only example; bird flu was also expected to be a virus that could not be stopped, yet only 170-200 people died of bird flu worldwide. To better put this in perspective, you have a higher chance of killing yourself before SARS, bird flu, or even swine flu kills you.

The only known treatment for swine flu is Tamiflu (Oseltamivir), the same treatment for bird flu. Tamiflu has been licensed by Gilead Sciences Inc. with Hoffman-La Roche manufacturing it until 2016. Now this makes me think... Donald Rumsfeld, the former Secretary of State under the Bush Administration; the same man that led the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq was the former chairman of Gilead Sciences Inc. and held major stocks in the company. That just doesn’t seem right.

George Bush authorized $1.7 billion to fight bird flu, 14% of which went to Gilead Sciences Inc. and 10% of the cost of every vaccine went to Rumsfeld. This leads me to a conclusion; we’re living everyday of our lives trying to stay clean and clamming to rub hand sanitizer every moment we see it, when there could be a possibility that we’re forced to be scared. And by who? Corporate giants no less! This is occurring once again and swine flu is the excuse. We need to look at the bigger picture, more people die from AIDS and malnutrition worldwide than the different kinds of influenza viruses. We can’t be forced to focus on H1N1 just because the corporate pharmaceutical companies don’t make money treating other fatal diseases.

Yes, we should attempt to keep ourselves clear of swine flu’s way, but we should not be forced to lock ourselves in our homes and expect to ride out the epidemic. Rather, we should carry on with our everyday lives and not feed into everything on the news.