Influenza A (H1N1) VIRUS, MEXICAN FLU

In the last couple of months the world has been under the spell of a possible pandemic of what is called the Mexican flu. Scientists are still assuming that the real threat is not over yet. A flu virus, like the Mexican flu virus, is capable of constant mutations and because of that could have aggressive effects on human health. This is why it is very difficult to vaccinate people against a virus like this. As soon as a vaccine has been developed, there is a risk that the virus has mutated in that same period of time, so that the vaccine is not able to adequately protect the patient. At the same time scientists consider the Mexican flu to be a relatively mild flu virus so they tell people not to worry too much.

There are three kinds of Influenza viruses. Type A, B and C.
- Type A is most common under human beings.
- Type B occurs less often.
- Type C hardly occurs with human beings.

It is usually an Influenza A virus that causes the annual flu.
In the case of the outbreak of the Mexican flu, there are a couple of measures that are taken by regular medical science:

Vaccination
The first option is to vaccinate. When a vaccine is available, this is usually preferred from a regular point of view. Based on the possibility that a possible outbreak of the Mexican flu virus might take place, our Minister Klink from the department of health, has already ordered 34 million basic vaccinations. Even though so far, it is still considered a mild flu virus. The vaccine that is supposed to protect us against the Mexican flu is still surrounded by insecurities though. The virus is considered a new virus and a new generation of so called adjuvants are being used. So far, no one really knows for sure how safe the use of this new combination is with human beings. The World Health Organization has therefore issued a warning to be extra alert on possible side-effects. The vaccine should be followed very carefully. By the middle of December the results with regard to the possible side-effects are being assessed.

Effect
For 70% of the vaccinated people the flu vaccine will be effective. They don’t get sick. The rest of the group does get sick, but in most cases the course of the disease will be relatively mild. A flu vaccine protects against the flu for about six months. It is not known yet what the effects of the present flu vaccine will be.

Vaccination and homeopathy
Basically, the vaccination policy is based on the homeopathic basic law Similia Similibus Curentur. The principle is based on the assumption that the disease symptoms of a vaccination resemble the symptoms of the natural disease, which results in an elevation of the resistance level. But still there are essential differences. Vaccines consist of disease matter and have not been dynamised. So this can be considered isopathy, or in other words, healing the equal with the equal. The patient is also vaccinated with several adjuvants and remains of proteins where the virus was cultivated on. In many cases this results in an extra burden of medication matter, resulting in a so called iatrogenic disease. The outrageous increase of allergies in the last couple of decades it often considered a result of the intensive vaccination program.

Virus blockers
The second option is the prescription of virus blockers (e.g. Tamiflu). Virus blockers are not able to prevent the disease, but they slow down the development of the virus, so that the virus has a milder character. The disadvantage of the use of virus blockers is the fact that this also blocks the development of sufficient immunity.

Isolation of sick people
The last option that is available to regular medical science and public authorities, is the so called ‘cordon sanitaire’, which means that one will try to isolate the sick people from the healthy people. The threat of the SARS epidemic that started in Asia quickly resulted in the close-down of the Montreal airport for all intercontinental air traffic.

Immune system
It is striking that many solutions that are offered by regular medical science and public authorities, basically take over the responsibility of the patients. We tend to forget that the best remedy to fight a viral infection is present inside of us, it’s our immune system. Our immune system is a highly perfected defense mechanism that is capable of intercepting and eliminating all kinds of pathogenic intruders. It is our immune system that has helped us, human beings, survive since the beginning of mankind, despite different climatic , social and epidemic circumstances.

Regimen:
The best way to defend yourself against a disease in common and an infectious disease in particular, is appropriate hygiene. Meaning: healthy nutrition, a regular lifestyle, a healthy physical and mental/emotional hygiene. A healthy person supports his immune system in the best possible way like this and should not be afraid of the flu. A healthy lifestyle, hygiene and regimen are the best guarantee to survive a flu epidemic without any harm. Even more so, going through an acute disease like that, reinforces the immune system to conquer future infections. Using some more of the right vitamins boosts the immune system that fights the viral infection.

Flu:
Most people who are infected by a flu virus don’t have any symptoms at all. This means that they are infected, and as a consequence, contaminated, but that the immune system works so efficiently that this infection does not make them sick. For a short period of time they are contagious for the people in their environment though. In these cases, the immune system conquers the infection without problems or noteworthy nuisance. Effortlessly they seem to have become immune, which is a sign that someone is healthy.

Then, there is the group of contaminated people that do become ill and therefore become a patient. These people all develop a limited amount of symptoms that defines the kind of flu that is active at that time.

The Mexican Flu
In the case of the Mexican Flu virus (H1N1 virus) this means a rapidly developing ailment, mostly affecting the bronchial tubes. The disease can develop into a mild variant, but might as well take on severe forms. Most symptoms disappear after two to seven days. The coughing can last for a much longer period of time. The incubation period is usually two to four days, and a week at the utmost. This concerns a new virus that contains RNA-molecules from pigs H1N1, as well as molecules from bird flu and human flu. Despite these mutations, the virus belongs to the H1N1 type.

Symptoms:
So far, the disease is characterized by the following symptoms: fatigue, lassitude, cold shivers, fever (more than 38,5 degrees), coughing, lack of appetite, muscular pain, laryngitis, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, chilling and a running nose. Also, many cases report about aching muscles during the periods of high fever. These symptoms arise because the immune system of the patient is at that moment not strong enough to overcome the viral infection. The symptoms point out the weak spots in the immune system.

Homeopathy:
Influenza belongs to the group of acute illnesses. Influenza, or the flu, belongs to the group of epidemic, or contagious diseases. These illnesses are considered acute illnesses. Acute illnesses are characterized by a starting point, a peak and an end. Eventually they all come to an end by itself. In more serious cases the patient could die because of the fierceness (the effects) of an acute illness and only then, when it is a case of constitutional weakness or in case of an already developed chronic disease. Obviously, it is the objective of homeopathy to prevent or cure this escalation in a person’s sickness.
One characteristic of this kind of illness is that is transferred from one person to another by touch or through the air. Sneezing, coughing or just being close to someone could transfer the infection from one person to another.

Severe course of the disease
The level of intensity of the course of the disease not only depends on the malignity of the virus, but is mostly determined by the condition of the immune system. In brief, the course of the disease depends on the basic healthiness of the patient.

Chronic:
It is a well-known fact in regular medical science, that the group of patients that are at risk, in case of a flu epidemic, are the patients that suffer from chronic diseases. Patients who suffer from heart- and vascular diseases, rheumatism etc., etc.. These patients automatically receive an annual call for a flu-shot. The chronic illness of the patient and the disturbed immune system that is a consequence of that illness, could lead to an acute activation of the chronic symptoms. These newly evoked complications and crisis of the disease could be fatal for the patient.

Hereditary defects
The chronic disease a patient suffers from could be the cause and could have it’s fundaments in a familiarly pathological defect.
It is important to obtain a clear picture of the predispositions of this patient so that in the early stages of this pathological defect, the right prescriptions can be made. Hahnemann describes three chronic basic miasmatic disturbances. These are not all equally important and risky for the patient who suffers from the influence of symptoms of the Mexican flu.

High-risk groups
The vulnerable groups that are defined by regular medical science also apply for homeopathic science. Patients in advanced stages of chronic diseases indisputable belong to the group that could suffer extra and that could be in the danger zone, when suffering from a latent, acute kind of illness like the Mexican flu. The patients who deceased during the Mexican flu epidemic so far, were all patients who died from a severe underlying chronic suffering.

Patients who temporarily suffer from reduced immunity, a bad nutritional condition or reduced immunity caused by other infectious diseases or the acute activation of chronic diseases, are at higher risk after contamination with an influenza virus. Reduced immunity caused by frequent use of medication could result in a more intense course of the influenza infection. People with a delicate constitution who repeatedly suffered from infectious diseases in the past. How previous contaminations with infectious diseases have passed could be an indication of how a possible new infection with the Mexican flu will elapse.

Syphilis:
The most vulnerable group of patients are those people whose ancestors (and therefore parents) are aggravated with what Hahnemann calls the Syphilitic miasma. The Syphilitic miasma is characterized by a disturbance of the immune system that causes the vitality to respond in a self-destructive way. In critical situations, like what normally seem to be quite innocent infectious diseases, the defence could manifest itself in an acute destructive way, because of such a syphilitic burden on a physical level.

One well-known example of such a complication during the flu, that could lead to the death of a patient, is a double-sided pneumonia. Hahnemann calls Mercurius sollubilis a ‘gift from God’ in the treatment of pneumonia. And… according to Hahnemann, Mercurius is also the main remedy for the symptoms of the Syphilitic miasma.

We can recognize these patients by their familiar Syphilitic burden. The Syphilitic burden can be recognized by fast and destructive disease processes with the patient’s ancestors. Some characteristics are:

• Ancestors with the sexual transmitted disease syphilis;

• Ancestors who were sailors;

• Ancestors who committed suicide;

• Ancestors who were alcoholics;

• Incest in the family;

• Sudden, deadly accidents with young people in the family;

• Fast progressing destructive diseases in the family and with ancestors;

• Severe birth traumas or traumas during life;

• Chronic diseases characterized by a fast and syphilitic destructive course.

Obviously, not all of the symptoms have to be present. Three to five syphilitic symptoms with relation to the ancestors provides enough information to consider the prescription of a medicine for the syphilitic burden that is obtained by heredity.

The right medicines:
Recent information from the LIGA MEDICORUM HOMEOPATICA INTERNATIONALIS shows us that, based on symptom similarity, the following homeopathic remedies were indicated the most appropriate during the Mexican flu epidemic in Mexico:

• Aconitum napellus: fear of dying from the disease. Red and inflamed throat, symptoms occur after catching a cold, suddenly and starting intense, red and swollen face, muscular pains.

• Belladonna (atropa): red and burning eyes, red face. Fever over 39°Celsius, acute laryngitis, < coughing, severe headache, strong pulsations caused by the headache. Red face and burning eyes. Unable to tolerate even the slightest noise or light.

• Bryonia Alba: disturbances start with sudden headaches, <through movement, painful cough, fever and cold shivers, intense back pain and pain in the legs, < with even the slightest movement and > when resting, extreme thirsty for large amounts of fluids, cold red throat, painful legs when walking, dry mucous membranes.

• Arsenicum album: starts with severe laryngitis, laryngitis > when drinking warm beverages, very chilly, cold feet. Wants to be covered too much, feels tired and totally exhausted, heavy vomiting, and a little bit of diarrhea on a regular basis, thinks he is going to die, burning stool, coughing after drinking, excited and anxious, does not want to be alone.

• Eupatorium perfoliatum: Fever that starts with cold shivers, back pain, continuing fever with unbearable and insatiable thirst, painful bones as if being battered, back pain as if broken, snoring respiration, painful cough, painful chest when coughing, severe pain in muscles and bones, feeling as if the back has been dislocated, swollen (gestuwd?) face during the fever, sweating, > of all the symptoms except for the headache.

• Gelsemium sempervirens: fever shivers, shaking hands, excessive perspiration, gloomy, severe muscle ache and painful legs, lies in bed without moving, swollen (gestuwd?) face, bloodshot eyes and lainful throat, dry cough with rapid pulse, no thirst, despite of fever, depressed and in a lot of pain.

• Mercurius vivus: starts with hoarseness and loss of voice, cold with burning runny nose, throat is painful and feels as if it is made of raw meat, dry and spastic cough, fever with nightly sweating with no improvement, constant thirst, tooth print on the tongue, bad breath, very exhausted, painful feeling in all the bones.

The prescription of a homeopathic remedy is based on the individual symptoms of the patient. Usually in case of a flu patient, only one well-chosen medicine is necessary. In case of an epidemic disease, like the flu, we can also distinguish the concept called ‘genus epidemicus’ where, when obvious, a prescription is based on. This means that many patients suffer from the same symptoms and therefore, in this case, need the same medication. Surprisingly enough, the recovery process is practically identical for most of these patients. The information above from Mexico shows us that in this case of Mexican flu, there is no obvious ‘genus epidemicus’, which requires the assessment of the individual symptoms of the patient, in order to be able to determine the appropriate medication.

Distinct medicines with a strong effect on the syphilitic miasma are: Arsenic album and Mercurius vivus . These are also the medicines with which we expect to observe the symptoms real quick and to find the patient being very sick. When the ancestors of the patient suffered from a heavy syphilitic burden, it might be useful to prescribe the right nosode of Syphilinum or Luesinum first, as a remedy for the hereditary taint, to solve a possible blocking response of the vitality beforehand. Because of this, the patient is able to respond to the remedy that was prescribed for the acute illness in question, even better.

The risk of the syphilitic miasma is the highest for young and vital people. The syphilitic miasmatic disruption is then able to feed itself with the energy of the young and vital human being. For this group of patients the acute illness can be most destructive and fatal. This is the reason why the biggest group of persons at risk with regard to the highest mortality rate of an A-type flu, is the group of young and vital persons with an innate or acquired syphilitic burden.

After the prescription of a remedy based on the symptoms of the genus epidemicus that is suitable for the syphilitic miasma, the destructive course of the disease will take a turn for the better as quickly as the disease has emerged and the patient will be able to recover successfully and without problems of the threatening, acute illness.

Taking the above into consideration, we can conclude that from a homeopathic point of view, there is not a single reason that justifies the ‘hype’ with regard to the Mexican flu. This flu is easy to prevent and, when necessary, curatively treatable. Or it has to be the 48 billion euro that the vaccination campaign will being in for the industry.