Flu Virus Stop

According to the world health organization there is no means of stopping the dreaded H1N1 Swine flu virus. Most people were found to have mild symptoms of swine flu not requiring hospitalization. At many instances people recovered without taking help of external medication.

It is also true that number of people dying every year due to seasonal flu are far more that claimed by swine flu. But one should not ignore the fact that, may be this season the swine flu was less lethal and its virulence may increase in coming seasons. Another fact to worry is that it effects younger generation, thus has a higher social impact than its counterparts.

So, should there be mandatory swine flu immunization?

Before we get into this discussion let us see weather immunization is feasible or not in current scenario, the fact is there is no satisfactory vaccine against swine flu and the vaccines that were made did provide immunity to most of the individuals but also produced fatal idiosyncratic reactions in some individuals, it was later co-related that number of patients hospitalized due to swine flu were actually less than those hospitalized due to adverse affects of an experimental swine flu vaccine. This was surely an added financial burden on the society.

Now, considering that we find an effective and safe vaccine against swine flu, would it be prudent to make it mandatory?
There are two schools of though behind it. One advocates! In a democratic society nothing should be forced on people even for better. The other school of though says ‘ why people be allowed to become carriers of disease that is known to produce idiosyncratic reaction?’ I think both these thoughts are correct and there should be a midway that is democratic in nature. For example encouraging people to take vaccine on their own, use of mass media to propagate the advantages of immunization etc may encourage people to voluntary accept immunization. This technique was very successful in wiping out dreaded diseases like diphtheria, cholera, polio and many more.

As far as mandatory swine flu immunization is concerned there are some vaccine producing companies such as GlaxoSmithKline, Baxter, Sanofi-Aventis and Solvay which produce influenza vaccines, and it can be used against swine flu. But for the time being we must note that the vaccines available specifically for the cure of swine flu are not even tested and are being used as an experiment to know their efficiency against swine flu. These vaccines can be toxic and also risky for immune system of human beings. Tamiflu was used against swine flu as an antiviral therapy, but was later not found to be effective for H1N1 viruses.

So, I feel rather than discussing ‘mandatory swine flu immunizations’, we should consider precautions against swine flu.