Deathly virus starts like an innocent cold

By Guy Derla

Last Tuesday, my eye fell on an article in the Washington Post who reported that an apparently common cold virus (adenovirus) has mutated into a killer strain quite unexpectedly.

In the State Oregon in the U.S. it recently caused a death rate as high as 23%!

The American government run Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC, has been tracking the virus over the past year and has recorded outbreaks in Oregon, Texas, Washington State and New York.
The virus, first discovered in 1955 in The Netherlands as the adenovirus 14, has recently mutated into a more severe virulent form.

The Frightening thing about this virus is that it's so strong that it can kill strong, young and otherwise healthy people, rather than the usual "at risk" populations of the very young and the very old. There's no way to know if this virus will spark an epidemic, or whether it will die down and disappear for momentarily.

Those who have survived the virus, say that it came on like a usual cold.
But then, instead of getting better at the usual 4-7 day point, their symptoms got worse and turned into high fevers, coughs, and difficult breathing.
Some people have even required mechanical ventilation in Intensive Care to help them breathe.

Could this be, like the in my earlier post mentioned acinetobacter baumannii, next avian flu (bird flu) or SARS -like outbreak and turn into a real pandemic? Will it come our way?

It makes you think when you have a stuffy nose next time!

Source: RevolutionHealth

The Holidays: Don't ignore cardio health!

Be extra careful during the holidays: risks of a heart attack are higher and hospitals are short-staffed!

Why are risks of a heart attack higher during the holidays?

Here are some factors to consider:

• Busy revellers tend to skip their medications, forget them when travelling or be unable to get refills far from home.
• What dieter can resist holiday goodies? The few extra pounds so many people gain will haunt you long term. Right away, a particularly heavy meal, especially a high-fat one, stresses the heart as it is digested. Blood pressure and heart rate increase. There's even evidence that the lining of arteries becomes temporarily more clot prone.
• Too much salt has an even more immediate effect, causing fluid retention that in turn makes the heart have to pump harder.
• Alcohol in moderation is considered heart healthy. But if a round of holiday parties leaves you tipsy, that, too, makes your heart pump harder to get blood to peripheral arteries.
• Worse is something called "holiday heart syndrome," where alcohol literally irritates the heart muscle to trigger an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation. If atrial fibrillation goes unchecked for too long, it in turn can cause a stroke.
• People say they're too busy to exercise, especially as it gets cold and darkness falls earlier. It can take months to build back up to pre-holiday exercise habits.
• As for cold weather, it can constrict blood vessels, and the extra exertion of snow shovelling can cause a heart attack. The usual winter rise in respiratory diseases is another risk, adding further burden to a stressed heart: another reason to get a flu shot.

"Moderation is the key to almost everything. Happy Holidays!"