How to Survive the Bird Flu

Especially in rural areas of China and Southeast Asia, the bird flu is becoming an increasingly visible and alarming problem. Despite fears that the bird flu may one day become a pandemic, you can survive it if you know how to recognize the symptoms and when to act to get them treated. Read on to learn how to survive the bird flu.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Physician
• Flu shot
• Anti-viral medicines

1. Know how to avoid contracting the avian flu in the first place. As viruses can be very difficult to defeat, prevention remains the best way to survive the bird flu. Practice proper hand-washing techniques, don't visit poultry farms and watch where you step in open-air markets that carry poultry products, including eggs. Don't get too close to birds in general and their droppings in particular.
2. Recognize the symptoms of the bird flu. While mild cases exhibit symptoms of an eye infection, with swelling and redness, more serious cases share many symptoms with the common flu. Fatigue, body aches, headaches, sore throat, cough and fever develop. In emergency cases, pneumonia or severe breathing problems occur. Emergency cases have sometimes been fatal, though patients in otherwise good health can still survive.
3. Consider whether your flu symptoms may be linked to direct contact with birds, bird droppings, eggs, poultry and/or poultry farms. In rare cases, it can also be caused when the virus was present in chicken that was prepared and consumed as normal.
4. Seek medical treatment as soon as possible after symptoms develop. Medical intervention within the first 48 hours after symptoms first appear is crucial to your chances of surviving the bird flu. Anti-viral medicines must be administered within that time period to have any hope of affecting the virus' progress within your body.
5. Take any prescription medicines your doctor gives you as directed. Continue to use any medication as instructed, even if you are no longer showing acute flu symptoms. Tell your doctor about any other medicines you may be taking for unrelated illnesses or conditions, as certain medications should not be mixed.
6. Drink plenty of fluids, get plenty of rest and don't overexert yourself during your recovery period. Non-life-threatening cases of avian influenza are treated in a manner very similar to the common flu--with common sense.

Tips & Warnings

• Get a flu shot before heading to a region of the world where the avian influenza occurs with relative frequency. While it is not proven to protect specifically against the bird flu, it does offer general protection against influenza infection.