Why is novel H1N1 virus called “swine flu”? This virus was originally called “swine flu” because laboratory testing showed that many of the genes in this new virus were very similar to influenza viruses that normally occur in pigs in North America.

But further study has shown that this new virus is very different from what normally circulates in North American pigs. It has two genes from flu viruses that normally circulate in pigs in Europe and Asia and avian genes and human genes. Scientists call this a “quadruple reassortant” virus.

Though the initial media spotlight has gone from Swine Flu, what we can see is that the virus is now spreading at a brisk speed. A critical threshold will be reached when we have a million cases of this flu, and it can spread very rapidly from there on. Its a dangerous partner coming along with the current economic recession.

US CDC Update 7/24/09: 43,771 cases of novel H1N1 flu, 302 deaths, 55 states/territories affected in USA alone. There are over 300,000 cases worldwide, and we are getting about 5000 new cases every week!

Tamiflu is one of the only medication used in the treatment of those infected by this Swine Flu/ H1N1 virus and its supplies are rapidly falling due to huge global demand. To buy Tamiflu online and protect your family, please go here: http://www.drugdelivery.ca/wholesale-tamiflu-114854.aspx

The basic difference between bronchitis and pneumonia is that bronchitis is primarily an inflammation of the air passageways called bronchi that lead from the trachea to the lungs. With pneumonia, there is an actual infection of the lungs with the alveoli (air sacs) filling up with fluid or pus, causing breathing problems.

Understanding the Differences in Bronchitis and Pnemonia

• Both bronchitis and pnemonia can start out innocuous enough from a cold or even an allergy.
• With bronchitis, you may develop a dry cough in the beginning but within a day or two you could have a moister cough which may bring up clear, yellowish or green phlegm.
• With pneumonia, the cough comes up from the lungs and may be green or spotted with blood.
• In terms of fever, you may get a mild one with bronchitis but pneumonia will usually cause you to have a higher fever of about 101?F or higher.
• In addition, the best way to determine pneumonia is to have a doctor x-ray your chest area. Bronchitis will present clear lungs while pneumonia will show signs of infection.

In treating bronchitis and pneumonia, it is also important to know whether they were caused by a virus or bacteria.

• Often, the doctor will test the mucus for signs of bacteria as well as conduct a blood test to verify things. When it comes to a bacterial infection, treating bronchitis and pneumonia will usually be through various forms of antibiotics.
• The blood and phlegm test will help doctors pinpoint what type of bacteria is present so that the proper antibiotic treatment can be chosen.

Treating Bronchitis and Pnemonia when Caused by a Virus

When a virus is the cause of these respiratory illnesses, there is no drug that can help so the infection has to run its course.

With bronchitis, it may take a week or two to clear up the infection and start feeling more normal. However, with pneumonia, the time frame could be several months because lungs take longer to heal.

• Treating bronchitis and pneumonia caused by viruses usually boils down to the symptoms. You can treat the symptoms and provide yourself some relief while the illness runs its course.
• Some remedies that can be used when treating bronchitis and pneumonia include breathing in steam several times a day either through a shower or vaporizer and drinking plenty of fluids like water, juice and soup which work to thin the mucus so that it can be expelled easier.
• Oxygen treatments may be necessary for viral pneumonia sufferers when breathing becomes labored or difficult.

And there are times when a cold may become something worse, so the question of the day is how do you know you have bronchitis instead of a lingering cold.

Question: How Do You Know You Have Bronchitis? What are the Key Symptoms?

Often, a cold is the first step in developing bronchitis so some cold symptoms will also be present in bronchitis. Identifying the current cough as something more than just a part of a cold — is the complex part of detecting if you have bronchitis.

• With colds, your cough may be rather dry with no expulsion of phlegm or mucus. However, with bronchitis, the coughs are moist, producing yellow or green sputum.

• Another symptom for bronchitis is wheezing and chest pain — ie behind the sternum (breast bone). When your bronchial tubes are inflamed, they are producing mucus which creates a rattling, wheezing noise when you breathe. Of course, the pain in the chest occurs from repeated coughing as well as from the bronchial tube inflammation.

• Fatigue and fever are two additional signs that can show how you know you do have bronchitis. Chronic coughing can take a toll on your body causing tiredness while fever is common when you body is fighting an infection. Of course, these two symptoms are also prevalent in pneumonia as well.

Question: How do you know you if you have bronchitis instead of pneumonia?

For that you can get chest x-ray or “Bronchoscopy” at the hospital or doctor’s office. The x-rays will reveal clear lungs with bronchitis, but infection is will be visible in the lungs of a pneumonia patient.

Question: What are the Treatment Options?

Once you know that you do have bronchitis, specific treatment can be started.

• If the cause is a bacteria, your doctor will prescribe antibiotics. A blood test and sample of the phlegm/sputum can show how you know you do have bronchitis caused by bacteria.
• If the cause is a virus (and this seems to be more common) you can’t solve it with antibiotics (as you may know already), and you just have to wait and let the illness run its course. However, you could still ease your symptoms like the inhalation of steam, consuming plenty of fluids and taking a pain reliever for those body aches.

Question: How can I prevent it from coming in future?

That’s very difficult give that we live in a society and we have to constantly interact with people. Even if your body is able to Once you have become better, think about future. The best defense is preventative maintenance like hand washing and avoiding disease prone areas. Regular exercise can keep your respiratory system in good shape for

Fortunately, there have been significant developments in the treatment of asthma in children.

Asthma in children affects children the same way this condition affects adults. The airways in the human body are constricted when an asthma attack occurs.

It often results in wheezing and a whistling sound when breathing. Asthma can also make the child feel as if their chest is very tight, and they often have a coughing spell.  It creates fear in children because they think they might die.

Asthma in children is the result of the same conditions as asthma in adults. Excessively hot, cold or moist air is often the trigger that causes an asthma attack. Smoke in the atmosphere can trigger an asthma attack in children and adults. Strenuous work or play can bring on an asthma attack.

Asthma In Children Can Be Controlled

There have been some significant developments that provide freedom for children affected by asthma. There are some great inhalers that children can use on their own if they have an asthma attack. These inhalers can be put in their pocket or backpack to be pulled out to relieve the symptoms of an attack. These inhalers provide security to children who might be worried that they could have an attack at any time.

There are also medications for asthma in children. These medications have been developed through expert medical research, and the treatments continue to improve. These treatments make the use of the inhalers less frequent.

Stress is often a cause of asthma, and the worry of having an attack can add stress to the lives of young children.

The medications and inhalers reduce the worry that young children might feel because of previous asthma attacks. Most young children today can live a fully independent life without worrying that they will have trouble breathing because of asthma.

Please read this as a guide and not as a medical opinion on your case.

After a few days of that dry, wheezy cough, you will realize something is not right. Though this could be the symptom of many diseases or illnesses, it is most commonly a symptom of acute bronchitis.

Knowing what the symptoms of acute bronchitis are can help you to recognize your illness sooner, and prevent it from progressing into the more serious chronic bronchitis.

When To Expect The Symptoms Of Acute Bronchitis

It is good to know when symptoms of acute bronchitis usually occur. This will help you to look for warning signs of acute bronchitis. The symptoms typically begin about three to four days after an upper respiratory infection. If you have recently had a cold or a nasty case of the flu, then you should be on the look out for symptoms of acute bronchitis.

So What Are The Symptoms?

There are several common symptoms of acute bronchitis. The symptoms usually last for about two to three weeks. The main symptom of bronchitis is a cough. The cough might start out dry, but after a few days the cough usually progresses into a productive cough. This means it is bringing up mucus from the lungs, which may be yellow, green, or clear.

Although a cough is the main symptom of acute bronchitis, there are other symptoms as well. These symptoms include: fatigue, a mild fever, hoarseness, feeling short of breath, a tight or painful feeling in the chest, and wheezing.

When The Condition Becomes Chronic

Typically, acute bronchitis goes away after a few weeks by itself. However, if the case of bronchitis does not go away, then this means it might have progressed into chronic bronchitis. A form of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic bronchitis is typically found in smokers and people with other health problems.

Preventing Complications

If the symptoms of acute bronchitis are not recognized, the condition could develop and lead to other health complications. There are several complications that could possibly result from an undiagnosed and untreated case of acute bronchitis, including: pneumonia, sinusitis, cystic fibrosis, and repeated episodes of bacterial acute bronchitis.

A Mild Case

It is easier to diagnose a condition if you have some idea of what the symptoms are. Knowing the symptoms of acute bronchitis will allow you to recognize your condition and seek treatment before the condition becomes chronic or complicated.

While Bronchitis and Sinus Infection may share a few symptoms, for the most part, these illnesses occur in different parts of the body and therefore can be quite distinctive.

Bronchitis or Sinus Infection – The Differences

With bronchitis, your airways, also known as bronchial tubes, which lead from the trachea to the lungs, become inflamed due to irritants and infection. Bronchitis typically produces a cough in which phlegm is expelled. If a virus is the cause then no drugs are available to fight the viruses off. Occasionally, bacterial infections can be blamed for causing bronchitis.

In determining bronchitis or sinus infection, a sinus infection occurs when the hollow cavities around your eyes and cheekbones called sinuses become inflamed. This inflammation is typically due to inadequate drainage of mucus and fluids due to colds, infections, allergies and even physical deformities of the nose like a deviated septum. The primary symptoms of a sinus infection include some coughing when drainage occurs in the back of the throat as well as discolored nasal discharge, tenderness in the eye and facial area, aching teeth, fatigue, eye swelling, headaches and more.

Similar Treatment works for Bronchitis or Sinus Infection

When a bacterial infection is the cause of bronchitis or sinus infection, both conditions require a course of antibiotics as treatment. In addition, some of the home remedies used to ease the pain and discomfort of bronchitis or sinus infection will be the same too.

With both conditions, the inhalation of steam from a hot shower or a vaporizer alleviates some symptoms, only in different ways. The steam loosens the mucus lining the bronchial tubes to ease breathing and coughing in bronchitis whereas with sinus infections, the steam helps loosen nasal congestion so that you can blow your nose and expel the mucus in that manner.

For bronchitis or sinus infection, you could also eat spicy foods to help loosen and thin mucus thereby giving your body an easier way of expelling it. With bronchitis, the mucus is loosened in the chest area while mucus in the head area is loosened in sinus infections. And paying more attention to cleanliness by washing your hands and avoiding other sick people can go a long way in preventing both illnesses.

As you can see, there is little confusion in determining bronchitis or sinus infection. While each condition afflicts different parts of the body, similar treatments can help clear up both conditions.

How Bronchitis Occurs

As mentioned above, bronchitis often manifests itself on the tail end of a cold and therefore is most likely caused by a virus rather than bacteria. When a viral infection is the cause of bronchitis, antibiotics do not help this condition. In children, symptoms of bronchitis present themselves after a cold or even the flu and can even be the result of the measles or whooping cough.

Prolonged exposure to secondhand smoke from cigarettes and other tobacco products can lower the immune system of children, inviting more colds, thus inviting bronchitis as well. Heavy allergens in the air and even air pollution can be contributing factors of this respiratory illness.

Symptoms of Bronchitis in Children

Symptoms of bronchitis in children typically start with the common cold, so sore throat, coughing, mild fever and runny nose are all signs. You will also notice that with the cough that accompanies a cold, it may start off dry but as it turns moist, it could be a sure sign of bronchitis developing.

Other symptoms of bronchitis in children include shortness of breath and even some wheezing. Keep in mind however that asthma also shares these symptoms so only a doctor using a stethoscope to listen to the child’s lungs can make an accurate diagnosis.

Treatment and Recovery for Children with Bronchitis

With the onset of symptoms of bronchitis in children, you should immediately make an appointment with the doctor to determine that bronchitis is indeed the culprit. In many cases, a virus is the cause so you should do what you can to ease the symptoms of bronchitis in children to make them more comfortable, which in turn speeds up the recovery process.

Fluids such as water, juice and warm soup are all great at soothing the cough as well as thinning the mucus secretions so that they are easier to expel. Occasionally, body aches and mild fever could occur so a children’s pain reliever could be administered.

Steam from a shower or vaporizer also eases the symptoms of bronchitis in children and can be administered several times a day as needed.

For the most part, bronchitis clears up within five days to a week. However, if the symptoms of bronchitis in children last longer or recur frequently, a doctor can determine if there is an underlying condition which could be contributing to the problem.

A drug treatment of acute bronchitis may not work if the infection was caused by something viral. In this instance, the only thing you can do is alleviate the symptoms and make yourself comfortable while the virus-caused acute bronchitis runs its course.

The only way to determine whether this respiratory illness was caused by bacteria is for the doctor to run a blood test or even test some of the phlegm that was coughed up.

Drug Treatment of Acute Bronchitis

If indeed your bronchitis was caused by bacteria, there are a few options in regards to your drug treatment of acute bronchitis.

For children, milder antibiotics such as amoxicillin and zithromax are prescribed by the doctor. This drug treatment of acute bronchitis in kids is gentler to the stomach than heartier antibiotics that are prescribed to adults.

For the adults, tetracycline, biaxin, augmentin and erythromycin are among the antibiotic types that are typical in drug treatment of acute bronchitis.

It all depends on the causative bacteria as to which antibiotic in particular is prescribed by the doctor. In some instances, a hearty strain of bacteria may be taking up residence in your bronchial tubes and therefore requires a stronger antibiotic. When this situation occurs, the drug treatment of acute bronchitis is gemiflaoxacin, a drug that targets antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

For both children and adults, decongestants may be prescribed to speed up the process of loosening up mucus for expulsion.

Another drug treatment of acute bronchitis is the prescription of bronchodilators. This family of drugs is often in the form of an inhaler and works much like medications for asthma – they help open the constricted, swollen airways going to the lungs.

Other Treatment Options

Of course, non-drug treatments exist for acute bronchitis as well. These treatments include the use of a vaporizer to breath in steam which helps loosen swollen bronchial tubes. You might try adding eucalyptus, lavender or orange essential oil to the vaporizer as these do help in promoting easier breathing.

Many non-alcoholic and decaffeinated drinks and soups are also on the non-drug treatment of acute bronchitis. The fluids help loosen the mucus so that you can expel it from your body.

In all, there are a variety of treatment options to try and only your doctor can help you with a drug treatment for acute bronchitis caused by bacteria.

And someone with chronic bronchitis and even those with asthma can get asthmatic bronchitis.

It is also usual for asthmatic bronchitis patients to show signs and symptoms of chronic bronchitis and whatever prior treatments may have been taken to treat asthma will turn out ineffective and airways will continue to stay clogged and mucus will still gather in them.

Diagnosis

Even physical examinations undertaken in a clinic can fail to establish the proper diagnosis based solely on the symptoms of asthmatic bronchitis, because there are common symptoms for a number of conditions including chronic bronchitis, emphysema and also asthmatic bronchitis that can lead to confusion when diagnosing.

Therefore, the best means of diagnosing the problem would be through testing in the laboratory and also by carefully making physical examinations.

• Asthmatic bronchitis is also likely to occur amongst patients of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases.
• In addition, the disease is also caused due to being exposed to irritants that are outside of the body rather than because of internal viruses and also bacteria.
• Sometimes, extreme cases of respiratory problems that occur during childhood coupled with a poor immune system and also hyperactivity affecting the respiratory tract is other factors that cause an onset of asthmatic bronchitis.
• And smokers that have a chronic bronchial condition can be at risk of developing this disease and the usual symptoms of such a condition include coughing, breathlessness, wheezing and also feeling discomfort in the chest when trying to breathe.

Since this disease does cause respiratory tract obstructions, it follows that any treatment given to the patient should be effective in freeing the airways from the blockage within, and to also combat internally the bacteria that may have caused the problem in the first place.

The treatment recommended most often is known as bronchodilators which are effective in making clogged airways become decongested and gets rid of the mucus.

Asthmatic bronchitis can also lead to grave complications that are known as pulmonary bacterial infections which will require a prolonged and on going treatment regime, and if you suffer from such a malady, you should make it a point to keep away from irritants such as smoke from cigarettes, chemical, pollutants, dust and also alcohol vapors.

Viral bronchitis may be caused by a number of different factors, and is quite common among the general public.  Viral bronchitis is similar to regular bronchitis conditions but there are a few very significant differences as well.

• One of the most noticeable differences is that viral bronchitis is usually accompanied by a fever, whereas other types are not.
• Also, little to no mucus or phlegm is coughed up from the lungs in the beginning, whereas with bacterial forms of bronchitis this is one of the most major and noticeable symptoms.

In most normal/healthy people, both bacterial and viral bronchitis will usually get better with simple home treatment, however if your condition is especially serious or has been left untreated for quite some time, then your doctor may have to recommend more severe methods of treatment.

The Risk Factors:

• Although there is no way to prevent yourself from bronchitis in general, there are certain risk factors that are involved, which you should try to avoid in order to prevent as best as possible your body from developing the condition.

• You generally have a higher risk of developing bronchitis if you have had a recent illness or viral respiratory infection, or if you have chronic lung problems.

• You are at much higher risk if you are a smoker, and it is also important to realize that if you smoke and you do end up developing bronchitis, it will be much harder for your body to fight off the disease and you will have a much lengthier recovery time as well.

• The best thing you can do then is try to maintain as healthy a lifestyle as you possibly can, and quit any unhealthy habits that you may have, namely smoking and excessive drinking.  Again you will not be able to prevent yourself from ever getting bronchitis 100%, but you will be guarding yourself against it as best as possible and making yourself healthier in general at the same time.