Seasonal flu (also known as influenza) is a highly infectious illness caused by a flu virus.
The virus infects your lungs and upper airways, causing a sudden high temperature and general aches and pains.
You could also lose your appetite, feel nauseous and have a dry cough. You may need to stay in bed until your symptoms get better. Symptoms can last for up to a week.

How it is spread
The flu virus is spread in the small droplets of saliva coughed or sneezed into the air by an infected person. If you breathe in these droplets, you may become infected.
Flu can also spread if someone with the virus touches common surfaces such as door handles with unwashed hands.

The infectious period
Symptoms develop one to four days (two days on average) after being infected.
People with flu are usually infectious (can spread the virus) a day before symptoms start, and remain infectious for five or six days. Children and people with weaker immune systems (such as cancer patients) may remain infectious for slightly longer.
Try to avoid all unnecessary contact with others during this infectious period.

A video of how flu spreads
This video is quite good, it gives an intro as to how the flu enters your immune system and reproduce itself.

How common is it?
Seasonal flu is a very common illness that occurs every year, usually during the winter months (October to April in the UK).
The number of people who consult their GP with flu-like symptoms varies from year to year, but is usually between 50 and 200 for every 100,000 people. This is in addition to the many people with flu who do not see their GP.

Outlook
Your symptoms will usually peak after two to three days. You should begin to feel much better within five to eight days.
However, elderly people or those with certain medical conditions may develop a complication such as a chest infection. This can lead to serious illness and can be life-threatening.
In the UK, about 600 people a year die from seasonal flu. This rises to around 13,000 during an epidemic.
A seasonal flu vaccine is available free if you are over 65, have a serious medical condition or live in a residential home. For more information see Seasonal flu jab.

With the current worldwide vaccination program against the H1N1 flu virus, you may be wondering just what a vaccine is and how it works.

In essence, it’s a substance, usually a protein or carbohydrate, that induces immunity to a disease or infection. You can get immunity to a disease in two different ways.

One is to have the infection and thereafter you have a level of immunity.

The other way is to receive a part of the virus or bacteria that won’t cause an infection, but will allow you to develop antibodies so that when you later get the infection, you will be able to handle it.

The H1N1 flu vaccine falls into the latter category, exposing recipients to a small amount of a purified version of virus, grown in a laboratory, in order to boost the body’s level of resistance to that specific illness.

What is a vaccination and how does it work?
Vaccinations protect you from specific diseases that can make you very sick, disable or even kill you. They boost your body’s own defence system, which is also called the immune system.
Vaccines create immunity that protects you from an infection without causing the suffering of the disease itself.  Sometimes vaccines are called immunizations, needles or shots.

How vaccines work
- Most vaccines contain a little bit of a disease germ that is weak or dead. Vaccines do NOT contain the type of germ that makes you sick. Some vaccines do not contain any germs.
- Having this little bit of the germ inside your body makes your body’s defence system build antibodies to fight off this kind of germ. Antibodies help trap and kill germs that could lead to disease.
- Your body can make antibodies in two ways: by getting the disease or by getting the vaccine. Getting the vaccine is a much safer way to make antibodies without having the suffering of the disease itself and the risk of becoming disabled or even dying.
- Antibodies stay with you for a long time. They remember how to fight off the germ. If the real germ that causes this disease (not the vaccine) enters your body in the future, your defence system knows how to fight it off.
- Often, your defence system will remember how to fight a germ for the rest of your life. Sometimes, your defence system needs a booster shot to remind it how to fight off this germ.
- Sometimes vaccines prevent one disease. Sometimes they are combined to protect you from several diseases with one shot. For example, the MMR vaccine fights Measles, Mumps and Rubella (German measles).

Scientists are looking at new ways to give vaccines, such as by mouth or with nose spray.

This is the big news of today : Two potentially key genes linked to the development of Alzheimer’s disease have been uncovered by UK researchers.

I have a friend which has patched of psoriasis under her arms and under her belly button. It is very itchy at times.

She is from Italy and whenever she goes back to the sun and the sea, the psoriasis fades away.

I am very happy to read this article on the BBC site that reports that is is actually easy to replicate the UVB treatment that you get in hospitals but in your home.

The BBC site reports that ultraviolet (UV) treatment of psoriasis is just as safe when carried out at home as when performed in a clinic, say a study conducted by researchers from Netherlands, and published in the British Medical Journal.

What is Psoriasis

Psoriasis is an autoimmune disease in which scaly red patches form on the skin. Because UV radiation is known to suppress the immune system and reduce inflammation, UVA and UVB rays are commonly used to alleviate the symptoms of psoriasis. The treatment lasts eight to ten weeks, however, with three visits per week. Because the treatment must currently be performed at a hospital, this can impose a significant burden on some patients.

Purpose of the Research and findings

Researchers compared the effects of UVB therapy on 200 psoriasis patients who were treated either at a hospital or with a home UVB phototherapy unit. They found that there was no significant difference between the two types of treatment in safety or effectiveness, and that patients who received treatment at home reported higher levels of satisfaction and perceived the treatment as less of a burden than those treated at a hospital.

Comments

“We knew a lot of dermatologists are not convinced of the safety and effectiveness of UVB photo therapy but our theory was they should be equally safe,” said lead researcher Mayke Koek. “One of the most important findings was a lot of patients treated at home were more satisfied.”

Alex Anstey of Royal Gwent Hospital in Wales said that limiting UV treatments to hospital settings restricts medical care to those who live near big hospitals.

“In my area there are very large numbers of people who don’t have access to photo therapy,” he said, “which is a shame as it’s a very effective and safe treatment.”

Tell me about your experience in comments

A UVB treatment bed costs between £5,000 and £10,000 ($8,000-$16,000) !! This is way too expensive to my liking.

I wonder wether any of you my readers have bought a UVB lamp and did any self treatment ?

What about this ? Does it work? Dermfix 900 UVB Lamp (not a promotion).  Hum i suppose that if this worked there would be many comments on the page…