Dear Patients and Friends: This is a much awaited H1N1 Swine Flu Newsletter, which I had promised to put up on our website several weeks ago.

The information below is my personal subjective opinion on what the virus has taught us so far, and how I have coped with it in May ’09 when both myself and my 8-year old daughter were sick with it.

Hope it helps you all, should you need it.

First of all, my current take on :

To vaccinate or not to vaccinate against H1N1?

My answer: to vaccinate but not this year.

Here is why: when the state of emergency was announced in the US back in April, it gave the manufacturers a unique opportunity: to bid for a multi-billion dollar production job (the government has immediately pledged one billion dollars just for the vaccine ingredients alone), to bypass all the rules and regulations, and to skip most of the clinical human trials protocol. The latter is an essential requirement for a development of any vaccine – and it often takes years.

Here is the usual timeline for comparison’s sake: one major manufacturer has spent three years, from 2003-2006 on determining the proper route of administration of the regular yearly human influenza vaccine.

In our case, however, the COMPOSITION of the vaccine was studied in human clinical trials since August, and only on healthy adults.

Early collection of proper epidemiologic data was crucial back in April – but it was not done correctly.

When we look at the virulence data (which means how dangerous the virus is) the two most important things to know are: the exact number of cases and the number of deaths. If we divide deaths by cases and multiply by 100% we’ll have our Mortality from Virus picture.

From the first moment on, it became clear to me that most of the cases of swine flu were purposefully not diagnosed properly (nasal swabs were either not available for culture or PCR, Emergency Rooms were gloomily not testing people, the CDC lab representatives were very rude with me when I called to inquire about all of this).

It was not until later that it dawned on me:

This situation was artificially created to have Mortality number appear very high – in order to justify the billions of dollars already in the pipeline for the vaccine.

Ironically enough, I have encountered a huge number of patients with the symptoms of swine flu from April till July, and so did my colleagues. Most people were quite sick, some were extremely sick (as was I and my daughter) but no one in my or my colleagues practices has died. The virus remained with relatively low mortality rate up to date.

Does it mean we should forget about it?

Absolutely not. The virus can mutate and its virulence can spike in the future, however near or far that may be.

What it does mean is that, hysteria aside, we can spend more time on the clinical trials for the vaccines.

Instead of shoving the 195 million vaccines that are falling upon our heads like an avalanche, down peoples’ noses.

Just because we lost the money by being a little too hysterical to soon, does not mean that people should receive a poorly studied vaccine.

All of the H1N1 vaccines coming our way in October are LIVE. It was made this way because it’s Faster that way. The live viral seed stock grows faster inside the egg which the manufacturers use for vaccine production.

Live vaccines are plain dangerous. For many reasons:

They make us contagious to other people (Hello! Are we trying to infect more people with swine flu?!).

They may cause life threatening autoimmune diseases, e.g. multiple sclerosis, thyroiditis, lupus, etc.

They can be deadly to immunocompromised patients (who ironically happen to be at the top of the list to receive the vaccine).

They are contraindicated in children less than 2 years of age and people over 49 years of age (crazy to overlook this one because children less than 2 yo are a well known risk group for any flu virus).

To top it al off, the clinical trials on kids and pregnant women have been happening for less than two weeks.

To sum it all up:

I do not recommend getting vaccinated with this years H1N1 vaccine.

Let’s try to tough it out and wait for more data from these clinical trials.

If you feel that you or your loved ones absolutely must be protected against H1N1 this season, at least wait for one of the four manufacturers to come out with the Killed Inactivated version.

At the time this is being written, all the vaccine nationally distributed in October is a LIVE intranasal one.

Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/DrSvetlanaKogan for updates on the matter

Now..

Let’s move forward towards what to do to prevent getting sick with any flu

1)After October 1^st – see your doctor for a regular yearly flu shot (human influenza shot).

If you are getting your shot elsewhere – demand to see the vial, pay attention to the manufacturer, lot, and expiration date. Make sure you are not getting last years’ leftovers in your syringe.

Once again, avoid getting the intranasal flu vaccine (read above for my rationale)

2)Get plenty of sleep, try to lower your stress level at work and at home (may be an oxymoron for New Yorkers – but give it a try)

3)Eat frequent small meals throughout the day- avoid insulin spikes. Make sure to eat plenty of berries and veggies.

4)Ask your doctor to check vitamin levels in your blood (covered by most insurances) to see if you are deficient in anything. If you are - discuss supplementation with your doctor.

5)Wash your hands with liquid soap and water. I do not recommend using all these hand sanitizers out there. The use of these hand gels, lotions, and foams is yet another propaganda, another billion dollar contract with someone who manufactures these foams. Watch these thingies pop up in every school, bank, hospital, etc. People wind up with sticky hands which are bound to collect more germs. People also get a false feeling that they don’t really need to wash their hands that often- now that they have smeared them with “magic gel”. Who conducted the research studying the bactericidal and viricidal properties of these commercial foams and gels? I’d be guessing: the sponsors of the studies were manufacturers themselves.

Remember : wash hands with soap and water and repeat many time over during the day. I would also use a light sponge on the children’s hands after school or activities to get the soap under their nails. Scrub lightly.

6) A wet daily cleanup of your home’s commonly touched surfaces is recommended – soapy water and paper towel is all you really need. However, if you must use Lysol or any other fancy shmancy “sanitizers” – knock yourself out.

7) Kissing and Hugging is great when everyone around you is healthy. However, if you have flu at work, don’t get too cuddly at home without taking a shower head to toes first. Also, if anyone you know decides to be inoculated with a LIVE H1N1 vaccine – don’t kiss and hug them for several weeks.

Next:

What to do if you or your kid or anyone else you care about has gotten sick with swine flu:

1. I recommended buying several boxes of non-surgical masks for the caretakers, not for the patient.
2. The patient is already in respiratory distress, and putting a mask over his or her mouth will only exacerbate coughing. It’s the caretakers that should wear these at all times – and they should change them every day.
3. Keep the sick person well hydrated (water tea or milk are good, as well as Gatorade if anyone vomiting (as I was). Sleep is key as well. Too many cartoons may be over stimulating for kids – they need to heal. Chicken soup and gentle non-fried diet will be beneficial for children and adult, as the swine flu is often characterized by an upset digestive system. Keep the foods boiled and baked – the liver is already under an assault from the virus. It does not need any extra burden of chips and fries.
4. I would not use Tamiflu or Relenza unless it’s being given to an asthmatic child or a pregnant woman. You kind of through all of your arsenal at these two groups. But with the rest of us:
5. Neither medication has helped anyone I know. Many scientists believe that the use of either one creates viral resistance = prompts the virus to mutate to put up defenses against the drug.
6. A glass of regular (Lipton) tea with one full teaspoon of raspberry preserves admixed to it helped me to bring down fever in my daughter and myself, when Tylenol and Motrin did not work, or when it was too soon to take either one.For a severe cough, boil a glass of milk in a ceramic or glass container ( 2% or 1% organic milk is best) , add 1/3 teaspoonof baking soda and 1/3 teaspoon of honey. Stir well. Drink slowly. Works wonders for kids though tastes gross.
7. To decrease the inflammation in the respiratory airways use inhalations prepared with sage, thyme, and eucalyptus herbs. I have used a handful of each herb in a glass teapot, added one large mug of water, brought it to a boil. Wait for the pot to cool off somewhat and move it to the table, where it should be secured properly. With your face close to the pot (close enough to feel the warm air entering your lungs), inhale via mouth, deeply, for about 5-10 minutes. This infusion is good to inhale repeatedly during the day. It just needs to be brought to boil for 15 seconds.
8. Another great way to soothe the respiratory distress is to add one raw organic egg yolk to a glass of warm milk. I added two teaspoons of sugar and 1/3 teaspoon of molten butter (coconut butter is the best but any butter will do). Mix really well. Eat with a teaspoon slowly. Feel it coat the back of your throat. Can take a break after 1/3 of the glass, and eat more later. My daughter loved this one for obvious reasons.

I will be posting more home remedies from people who had swine flu on http://twitter.com/DrSvetlanaKogan

Feel free to send in your experiences. Our power is in communication.

I am very hopeful that armed by knowledge we will emerge out of this fall and winter without major infectious disease. I also hope that the present H1N1 vaccine will undergo the same proper research protocol that the vaccines in this country always have to be scrutinized with.

Sincerely Yours,

Dr.Svetlana Kogan