Signs and symptoms of influenza A(H1N1)
Early signs of influenza A(H1N1) are flu-like, including fever, cough, headache, muscle and joint pain, sore throat and runny nose, and sometimes vomiting or diarrhoea. There no confirmation of transmission between pigs and humans at this point. The main route of transmission of the new influenza A(H1N1) virus seems to be similar to seasonal influenza, via droplets that are expelled by speaking, sneezing or coughing. You can prevent getting infected by avoiding close contact with people who show influenza-like symptoms (trying to maintain a distance of about 1 metre if possible) and taking the following measures:

• avoid touching your mouth and nose; 
• clean hands thoroughly with soap and water, or cleanse them with an alcohol-based hand rub on a regular basis (especially if touching the mouth and nose, or surfaces that are potentially contaminated); 
• avoid close contact with people who might be ill;
• reduce the time spent in crowded settings if possible; ? improve airflow in your living space by opening windows;
• practise good health habits including adequate sleep, eating nutritious food, and keeping physically active. If you are not sick you do not have to wear a mask. If you are caring for a sick person, you can wear a mask when you are in close contact with the ill person and dispose of it immediately after contact, and cleanse your hands thoroughly afterwards. If you are sick and must travel or be around others, cover your mouth and nose. Using a mask correctly in all situations is essential. Incorrect use actually increases the chance of spreading infection. You will not be able to tell the difference between seasonal flu and influenza A(H1N1) without medical help. Typical symptoms to watch for are similar to seasonal viruses and include fever, cough, headache, body aches, sore throat and runny nose. Only your medical practitioner and local health authority can confirm a case of influenza A(H1N1).If you feel unwell, have high fever, cough or sore throat:
• stay at home and keep away from work, school or crowds; ? rest and take plenty of fluids;
• cover your nose and mouth when coughing and sneezing and, if using tissues, make sure you dispose of them carefully. Clean your hands immediately after with soap and water or cleanse them with an alcohol-based hand rub;
• if you do not have a tissue close by when you cough or sneeze, cover your mouth as much as possible with the crook of your elbow;
• use a mask to help you contain the spread of droplets when you are around others, but be sure to do so correctly;
• inform family and friends about your illness and try to avoid contact with other people;
• If possible, contact a health professional before traveling to a health facility to discuss whether a medical examination is necessary. If possible, contact your health care provider before traveling to a health facility, and report your symptoms. Explain why you think you have influenza A (H1N1) (e.g. if you have recently traveled to a country where there is an outbreak in people). Follow the advice given to you.
• If you cannot contact your health care provider before traveling to a health facility, tell a health care worker of your suspicion of infection immediately after arrival at the clinic or hospital.
• Cover your nose and mouth during travel. Whether you have influenza A(H1N1) or a seasonal influenza, you should stay home and away from work through the duration of your symptoms. This is a precaution that can protect your work colleagues and others. If you are feeling unwell or have symptoms of influenza, you should not travel. If you have any doubts about your health, you should check with your health care provider.

"FLU" - That dreaded three syllabic word carries with it the import of suffering and impending sickness whenever the Newspapers carry the news that it is once again within our doors. On the year of grace 1972 has it again. Previously the epidemics of influenza used to visit humanity at very long intervals. But with the progress of civilisation and all round progress this disease is showing its ugly face more frequently as we shall presently see from the history of the disease so discerningly collected by our medical men. Much has been said and dealt with by almost all schools of medicine in this field but one does not find the available knowledge about it in one place. It seems expedient, therefore, to put together all that can reasonably be collected at one place, subject to the exigencies of space and precision. Therefore, these pages shall make known for the advantage of the public and the progressive-medical men how to protect, abort, treat and manage influenza and post influenzal sequelae from the angle of vision of the Allopathic and Homoeopathic systems of medicine. 
The Allopath might object to his learning the method the Homoeopath applies in such cases. But it would be advantageous to him, for, after all, he too is in need of something which can really benefit his patients and more so when it is not on shifting moving grounds but is of a permanent value. If we are not dealing with such a serious subject as medicine, which means health and happiness and often hazard of life itself to the patient, it would be amusing to notice the shifts that the old school are put to, to explain and justify their appropriation of homoeopathic ideas. They should leave the art of "conjecture" in medicine for the good of humanity whose health they swear by. It would be nice legal question to consider, whether a physician is not criminally liable, when he refuses to learn how the health of those entrusted to his care may be benefited ? 
Allopathic view In order to do honor to our elder brother the Allopath let us first of all consider what his system of medicine 
(Allopathy) has to say about the subject "Influenza. Iinfluenza A(H1N1), "Influenza", "La Grippe" or, in common parlance, simply "Flu" is an acute infectious disease spread by a filterable virus. "Virus" is a Latin word meaning poison but is used specifically as a term for a group of pathogens which are barely visible or invisible under the ordinary microscope; they are generally believed to be living organisms or chemical entities on the borderline between the living and the non-living, causing disease in plants, bacteria, insects, animals and man. With few exceptions, they are capable of passing through fine filters that can retain bacteria. They are incapable of growth or reproduction apart from living cells. They are composed of a protein structure units. RNA (Ribo-nucleic-acid) and DNA (De-exyribo-nucleic-acid) are the two main groups with many sub-groups which are classified according to their origin, mode of transmission and manifestations produced in the host. Many are named for the geographic locations where they were first isolated. Among the groups one such sub-group is known as "myxovirus" which has special affinity for certain mucins and have ability to sense influenza or influenza-like infections in man, other primates, and domestic mammals and even poultry. They are transmitted by means of respiratory secretions of infected hosts.

Types of influenza
Types A, B, C and D of influenza virus are recognised. They differ in antigen structure and do not have cross - immunity. They have low resistance to environmental influences and perish in a few hours at room temperature. When acted upon by disinfectants, or exposed to direct light of the sun or heated at 60°C, perish in 5 to 10 minutes. Influenza A viruses are the most important pathogens among the influenza viruses, infecting man and many domestic animals and birds. This type causes influenza and sometimes pneumonia and also naturally infects ferrets and pigs. 
Considerable changes in the antigen structure have taken place since 1933. A (1933-46), A-1 (1947-56) A-2 (1957 - to date). Influenza B virus causes influenza and sometimes pneumonia in man, the disease being more endemic than that caused by influenza A virus. Influenza C virus is thought to cause sporadic, mild influenza-like infections in man. Para - influenza viruses D, Iinfluenza A(H1N1), HA 1, HA 2, C A are other varieties.
History Influenza must be having a very remote antiquity, since humanity has been suffering from diseases of respiratory system and fever called catarrhal fever but it was recorded clearly for the first time in the fourteenth century and since the early decades of that century, it has been occurring in epidemics and pandemic with varying intervals and duration as also severity. Some notable years are 1837, 1847, 1890, 1916, 1918-19, 1957, 1960, 1964, 1968. Endemic and sporadic cases are not to be accounted for. The 1918-19 pandemic was the severest. Occurrence Sporadically, epidemically and pandemically, influenza has now been visiting the world. It usually occurs in epidemic form many people in the community being struck at the same time. The epidemic generally reaches its peak in 2 or 3 weeks, then sub-sides in another month or two. A devastating world-wide epidemic (pandemic) occurred in the fall of 1918 and early winter of 1919, killing somewhere between 6 and 10 million people, including a half million in the U.S. A. Such widely fatal epidemic has, fortunately, not since occurred. However, in the year 1957 (summer), a world wide influenza originated in China but it produced a much milder disease than the 1918-19 pandemic. This was named Asian Influenza. In India on year (1972) the Asian Influenza has again been declared to be "in the air", both literally and figuratively. Even in New York there were reported in first fortnight of December 
'68, 5,00,000 cases of Flu with 107 deaths and 40% absenteeism in factories. In America it is now a warning from the United States Public Health Service that Type A Influenza tends to flare up every two or three years. Type B may also come. We would rather say that Influenza might become an annual feature in future because of the vast areas sprayed with insecticides all over the world and air being charged with poisonous matter inimical to human health. Those poisons are absorbed by the vegetables and fruit that reach us. Body reacts to this poisonous matter and attempts to expel it via the respiratory tract and excretions. Efforts results in fever, also. Endemic Influenza or Influenza Nostras or the Acute Catarrhal Fever or "Winter Grippe" is a disease resembling in its general features pandemic influenza but is usually of less severe type, occurring with more or less regularity during the cold season especially in larger cities of the world. One thing is sure. Once it starts in any country, it takes a global tour. Probably, however, no diagnosis is made so frequently and often with so little justification as that of influenza. The layman, indeed, is very apt to term any severe nasal catarrh or infection of the upper respiratory tract an influenzal attack, irrespective of fever and bodyache. Age ? Any. But is more often found affecting persons between the age of 20 and 40. It has been found that in pandemics the disease is usually more severe in young and otherwise healthy adults than in infants and the aged. It attacks both the sex. Its incubation period is 1 to 3 days only. 
Mode of infection It is a droplet infection. (All those suffering from influenza are its carriers.)

Clinical features of influenza A(H1N1)
After a short incubation say of one or two days, at the most three, there is felt a sudden malaise, headache, pain in the back and limbs, anorexia and may be there is nausea and vomiting. Fever is usually 103°F (39°C) - remits for two or three days, with chills and shivering but there is seldom any rigor. Face is flushed, conjunctivae is suffused and hyperaemic fauces - with very prominent lymphoid follicles. Pulse is rapid. Leucopenia (2,000-4,000) per c. mm. 
Cough - Harsh unproductive (dry) - No signs over the lungs. Note : at this stage, clinically the case would be difficult to be distinguished from a severe respiratory infection due to respiratory viruses, which are : - (a) Non-specific toxaemia : malaise, fever, headache, muscular pain, shivering, prostration. (b) Upper respiratory Infection : Pharyngitis, rhinorrhoea, laryngitis, croup (children). (c) Lower respiratory Infection : Bronchitis, pneumonia, Bronchiolitis. (d) Specific features : In adenovirus infection keratoconjunctivitis; Herpangina. 

Symptoms and signs 1. Onset : Sudden fever. With symptoms similar to those of common cold or an acute bronchitis; aching in limbs and back. The symptoms tend to vary with different epidemics. Temperature 103°F. It is almost classical. 2. The general constitutional upset is more severe than one would expect with an ordinary cold : - Headache, chill, lethargy are common. 3. A cough, sneezing, running eyes and nose, and laryngitis. 4. Nausea, vomiting and abdominal pains are also found in some outbreaks. Not in all. 5. Tongue is furred. 6. Appetite is lost. 7. Great prostration. Complication Bronchopneumonia is the most important complication and is responsible for most of the deaths. The Pneumonia is usually caused by secondary infection with such organisms as the influenza bacilli, streptococci and staphylococci. Note : 1. Elderly people are more prone to develop Pneumonia. Caution the family. 2. Pleurisy. 3. Otitis media. 4. Meningitis Influenzal. 5. Oedema laryngis. 6. Raynaud's disease. Prognosis In ordinary cases which are uncomplicated the Temperature drops after 4 or 5 days but the prostration lasts a pretty long period (and is felt very early in disease). If complications develop, the prognosis would be grave. Imp. Note : If the case lasts longer than a week, it is probably not a case of influenza or else some complication has developed, which must be looked for very carefully. Differential diagnosis From Common Cold and Fever : 1. By abrupt onset of fever and other symptoms. 2. By catarrhal symptoms occurring after onset of fever. 3. By intolerable aching all over the body particularly 
the back and limbs and the severe sudden headache. In many influenza cases recovery is not always complete within a few days; many patients exhibit a rather marked "post-infection asthenia", characterised by weakness, dizziness, easy fatigue, palpitation and anorexia.
Allopathic treatment There is no specific treatment of influenza in Allopathic system. Simple influenza is self-limiting disease, and signs of recovery are usually evident in four or five days. *Aspirin or Codeine is usual for headache. After the complications have developed antibiotics like Penicillin are administered. It is said that by following this rule the unnecessary and possibly dangerous toxic and sensitizing reactions can be avoided. Some rely on COSOWIL or PHENICINE - all unreliable. So far most people who have contracted the new A (H1N1) virus have experienced influenza-like symptoms (such as sore throat, cough, runny nose, fever, malaise, headache, joint/muscle pain) and recovered without antiviral treatment. Antiviral drugs may reduce the symptoms and duration of illness, just as they do for seasonal influenza. They also may contribute to preventing severe disease and death. Influenza A (H1N1) is a new virus and only a small number of people with the infection have been treated for it with antiviral drugs. WHO is in touch with public health authorities and clinicians in affected countries and is gathering information about how effective the drugs are.There are two classes of antiviral drugs for influenza: inhibitors of neuraminidase such as oseltamivir and zanamivir; and adamantanes, such as amantadine and rimantadine. Tests on viruses obtained from patients in Mexico and the United States have indicated that current new H1N1 viruses are sensitive to neuraminidase inhibitors, but that the viruses are resistant to the other class, the adamantanes. 
Symptomatic measures may afford relief. Dover's Powder (10 gr.) and steam inhalation give relief. Cough syrups with or without codeine or morphine are often given.
Management of the case 1. Bed Rest is of primary importance, the sooner, the better. Continue even after recovery. 2. In order to avoid complications like pneumonia the patient should under all circumstances be protected from a draught of air. However, the room should be well ventilated. 3. Isolation is necessary to avoid its spread. It may not be possible as the disease is fast spreading. 4. Diet should be liquid - hot and sweetened. Hot milk. Fruit juice, nourishing soup. 5. The patient should not be given bath (cold or warm) since it causes further chilling, particularly the chest and head. 6. To avoid droplet infection, all the expectorations should be received in a pot and the excretions should be incinerated. 7. As the patient is left a physical wreck, he should be instructed to clothe himself properly and avoid chilling and fatigue at all costs. It is again stressed that convalescence being very slow, even after mild cases, several days of rest should be insisted upon before the patient is allowed to return to work. 8. The worst way to treat influenza is to ask the patient to walk about. It may bring about perspiration but an exposure would result in complications or prostration. Prevention It is said that controlled studies have revealed that influenza virus vaccines, given in two or three doses for the first year and then annually, protect about 80% inoculates. Therefore, it is being urged that the inoculation of whole populations, especially in the urgent conditions of epidemics should be done but this would present formidable problems. As such, at present at start of epidemics, immunisation can be restricted to workers in medical, nursing, transport and essential public services. 
Immunity Type specific immunity follows an attack which unfortunately lasts only a few months. There is no cross-immunity between the different types and the sub-types. The best immunity is improvement of general health of the people of the world or at least of a country so that there is no susceptibility to this disease. The correct physical training in schools and the wide development of sports are also important in increasing resistance. Correct nutrition should be a matter of constant care. Natural immunity must exist, since large number of individuals escape the infection during serious epidemics even. Antibodies against the virus can be demonstrated in the blood of the patients who have recovered from the infection, and similar studies upon the blood of contacts seem to indicate that many sub-clinical cases occur during the epidemics. Acquired immunity can apparently be induced in some individuals by the use of a complex vaccine mentioned already, but unfortunately influenza cannot be prevented in all cases by its use. The vaccine is prepared from the various viruses of influenza which have been inoculated into various growing chicks embryos or tissue cultures. When type-specific vaccines are used a relatively high degree of immunity is conferred and this may last for 6 to 8 months. In some cases, prostrating reactions, with (a) fever (b) aching, (c) nausea and (d) vomiting occur following such vaccination. Moreover, local reactions at the site of injection are common.

How to avoid influenza A(H1N1)
To avoid influenza in an epidemic persons should endeavour to live in open air as much as possible, well clad - and should keep away from crowded rooms, theatres, etc. The diet should be generous, containing plenty of raw fruit, green vegetables and dairy produce; every effort should be made to prevent any tendency to constipation. Nothing should be taken which might produce sore throat. A morning gargle with fresh or luke warm water is useful. 
Price's Text book of Medicine gives five clinical types of Influenza : 1. Febrile type. 2. Respiratory type. 3. Nervous type. 4. Fulminant type. 5. Gastro-intestinal type. This classification is perhaps more nearer reality and some prominent Homoeopaths agree with these types. Price has also given detailed description of these and of the complications and sequelae. (This classification is being mentioned here for we shall be grouping our Homoeopathic Remedies along with these types for the benefit of those who are converts to Homoeopathy or are institutionally so trained as to use Allopathic Text Books for their guidance).
Homoeopathic point of view on influenza A(H1N1)
Now let us try to know what the younger brother the Homoeopath (whom once Dr. Burnett used to call "the peculiar people") has to say and profess about Influenza. Since our aim is to aid the Homoeopath in his practice, we shall be dwelling on the subject rather in reasonable details. In what follows, therefore, we shall state the Homoeopathic view and allude to comparison where required of the prophylactics or remedies used by the two systems of medicine. That there are no diseases but sick people is what homoeopathy declares from top of its structure. The concept of diseases in the two (the Allopathic and Homoeopathic schools of medicine is quite different. Hahnemann once said to one of his patients, "The disease from which you are suffering is no business of mine and the drug that I administer to you is no business of yours." In the therapeutics, etiology or nosology has classified diseases and since the Homoeopathic physician is found using books on Therapeutics, he too is apt to use the terminology as is found in medical books and dictionaries. That the word "influenza" brings before his eyes a certain group of patients or symptoms constituting a sick person cannot be denied. As Dr. Kent has said the Homoeopathic physician should learn the pathological conditions and use their terms for classifying the cases in order to report them to the State Boards, etc. But in each case the method is individualisation and individualisation alone, which should be his guide. And it is a widely known fact which generations of experience has demonstrated that constitutional homoeopathic prescribing tends to raise the general level of health and in so doing almost invariably raises the resistance of the individual being treated to colds and influenza. Dr. Tyler once said that the "influenza" word is perhaps the best which more aptly justifies the Homoeopath's contention that the diseases are due to miasms, because the word "influenza" means "influence". The miasms influence the health of individuals and have a sway over them when there is susceptibility to a particular influence. 
Influenza then is an acute miasmatic disease - self limiting having a prodrome, progress and a decline. Psora is the main cause and it is Psoric constitutions which are influenced most by it. In Art.31 of the Organon, Dr. S. Hahnemann says : "The inimical forces, partly physical, partly psychical, to which our terrestrial existence is exposed, which are termed morbific noxious agents, do not possess the power of deranging the health of men unconditionally; but we are made ill by them only when our organism is sufficiently disposed and susceptible to the attack of the morbific cause that may be present and to be altered in its health, deranged and made to undergo abnormal 
sensations and functions; hence they do not produce disease in everyone, nor at all times."
Virus - is it the cause of influenza A(H1N1)
Now the question arises, "Does homoeopathy regard filterable virus to be the cause of influenza ?" The reply is an emphatic 'No'. Let us see what Dr. J. T. Kent has to say about it. In his Lectures on Homoeopathic Philosophy he says, "Everything that can be seen, that can be observed with aid of the finest instrument, is but the result. Nothing in the world of immaterial substance can be seen with any faculty that is capable of seeing things in the world of material substance. The employment of instruments of precision will enable us to see the finest disease results, which are the outcome of or result of things immaterial, the very finest form of vegetable life; but the cause of disease is a million time more subtle than these and cannot be seen by the human eye. The finest visible objects are but results of things still finer, so that the cause rests within. The morbific agents that Hahnemann refers to are simply the extremely fine forms of simple substance or to bring them down to human thought we might call them "Viruses" but viruses are often gross because they can sometimes be observea by the vision of man, and, therefore, we must remember that within the virus is its innermost and that its innermost is in itself capable of giving form to the outermost, which is the visible virus aggregated and concentrated. The coarser forms would be comparatively harmless were it not for their interiors. Disease products are comparatively harmless were it not for the fact that they contain an innermost and it is the innermost itself that is causative. Every virus is capable of assuming forms and shapes in ultimates. The causes of ultimates are not from without but the immaterial invisible centre. There is something prior to the virus which gives it form. Therefore, virus is also crude enough to produce disease".
What then is the cause of disease, if not virus or bacteria ? What ? If not virus ? We shall refer to Art. 16 of the Organon. "Our vital force, as a spirit-like dynamics cannot be attacked and infected by injurious influences on the healthy organism caused by the external inimical forces that disturb the harmonious play of life otherwise than in a spirit-like (dynamic) way, and in like manner all such morbid derangements (diseases) cannot be removed from it by the physician in any other way than by the spirit-like (dynamic, spiritual) alternative powers of the serviceable medicines acting upon our spirit-like vital force." Aura The cause of disease is therefore, not the virus but the causes are finer than the virus. They are dynamic. All such dynamic influences have an aura of their own. 
Take for example a case of small-pox - another virus produced disease. Now, if one swallows small-pox crust, "it will be digested and very little trouble come from it, but the inhalation of the atmosphere that contains the aura of smallpox upon a plane corresponding to the susceptibility of the individual, will bring him down with the disease 
having a definite prodrome, a period of progress and a period of decline, showing that the very foundation of man's nature has been struck. Such an operation is upon the internals of man; upon his invisible, immaterial substance and it operates from within out, producing ultimates in his tissues, establishing result upon the skin." Aura what it is Everything in the universe has its aura or atmosphere. Every star and planet has an atmosphere. The sun's atmosphere is its light and heat. Every human being has his atmosphere or aura; every animal has its atmosphere or aura. This aura is present in all entities. What may be said to be the aura of musk ? That is a strong physical aura which almost everyone can perceive. A grain of musk has been kept for experiment's sake, in a bottle for seventeen years, giving off a perceptible aura yet without loss of weight. As a further evidence of aura, take, for instance, the animals which prey upon their food and you know that they can discover by an extremely intense aura states and things that man cannot discover. This is not an ordinary nose, but it is really the very instinct of the animal, whereby he perceived what is prey. His instinct is analogous to man's perception, and by this instinct he discovers his prey, when man would not be able to discover it. Man can discover musk in a bottle but it is doubtful if man could discover the finest aura by its odor. This aura becomes useful and introduces a prominent sphere in the study of homoeopathics. There are two realms of worlds, the realm of causes and the realm of ultimates. In this outermost or physical world we can see only with the eye, touch with the finger and such is the realm of results. The world of cause is invisible, is not discoverable by five senses. All disease causes are in simple substance; there is no disease cause in concrete substance considered apart from simplesubstance. We therefore, study simple substance, in order that we may arrive at the nature of sick-making substances. It does not make much difference to the homoeopathic prescriber whatever strain of virus is present - "A" "B" "C" influenza A(H1N1) or "D" or Asian - 
Siberian as he takes the reaction of the patient for his guide to the remedy. Sometimes widespread publicity is given of the approaching epidemics of influenza by Health authorities in order to warn the public of the impending evil. We know that it is done with the best of intentions; but fear is one of the most depressing factors and makes human beings susceptible to a great variety of diseases. "The human mind should be kept as placid and normal in its outlooks on life and the life-giving impulses as possible. When an epidemic actually does take place under such strain and apprehension the whole vital system is depressed and one is much more susceptible to disease and much more apt to contract the prevailing ailment than would otherwise be the case." "On the other hand if the principle "Similia Similibus Curentur" were better understood and its very great value in the healing art could be spread among the laity as industriously as this poison of fear, health and vigor would be the common lot and epidemics influenced by fear would become things of the past. If we could teach and spread abroad the facts that in the 1918 epidemics the homoeopathic physicians had the record of over 16,000 cases treated by Hahnemannian homoeopaths with a mortality of only one-quarter of one per cent, the fear of epidemics would be removed." H. A. Roberts. We shall presently see that Dr. Kent holds similar views, namely fear being a great source of attracting disease. Ds. Jahr of France in his 'Forty Years' Practice" while talking of Influenza says. "What distinguishes Influenza, which is really nothing more than a very violent catarrhal fever, from other fevers of this class, is the circumstances that Influenza attacks the whole nervous system at once,sometimes with rheumatic pains in all the limbs, more or less lameness, fever and inflammatory symptoms increased to a genuine acute Bronchitis or acute Pleuritis". Dr. Richard Hughes, one of the ablest exponents of Homoeopathy maintains, in his "Principles and Practice of Homoeopathy" : - "In my 'Therapeutics' I discussed this malady among those of the respiratory organs, assuming that was present when a severe fluent coryza was accompanied by headache, pains in the limbs, and great prostration, and advised Ars., and Eup. Perf. in its treatment. I expressed my suspicion, however, that such a condition was to true epidemic Influenza what English is to Asiatic Cholera, and advised consultation of the older Homoeopathic writers for their experience in the visitations of the thirties and forties. "My suspicion was well founded, and I do not now speak as one to whom epidemic Influenza is unknown. The wayes of it which since 1890 have passed over the world with almost un-varying annual persistency have made all practitioners familiar with its features, and have taught us much as to its nature and various manifestations. It is evidently an essential fever, as much so as Typhoid and Dengue, to which last it presents many points of resemblance, especially in its characteristics of pain of head and limbs. Catarrhal, nasal and bronchial, is (contrary to our former notions) a secondary and incidental occurrence only. When it does set in, however, it is very apt to run down the air tubes into the cells, and to set up a low diffuse Broncho-Pneumonia, which in aged persons and broken constitutions readily proves fatal." It would be seen that while Jahr considers it a mere catarrhal fever, Dr. Hughes classifies it as an essential fever. Though its action is primarily limited to the respiratory organs and here it is not a dangerous disease, but as far as its complications appear it is rightly classified by Hughes as an essential disease which might terminate fatally in the aged and infants. Dr. Kippax - R. John in his "Lectures on Fevers" states as follows : - "Influenza is a miasmatic-contagious disease of from three to ten days' duration, due to an unknown morbific agent and occurring in wide spread epidemics. It is characterised by suddenness of onset, by great and early prostration and by the development of general catarrhal symptoms. Usually there is intense frontal headache, coryza, sore throat, a tickling cough, dyspnoea, pains in the back and limbs, fever of varying intensity and great nervous depression. At times there is more or less catarrh of gastro-enteric mucous membrane, with hepatic disturbance. Inflammatory affections of the lungs are not rare 
complications. The disease is very rarely fatal except in advanced life. When death takes place it is generally the result of complications. Relapses are not uncommon." Dr. C. G. Raue in 'Special Pathology and Diagnostics with Therapeutic Hints" has written : - "Influenza is an acute infectious epidemic disease characterised by a series of catarrhal manifestations affecting the respiratory and frequently the digestive tract attended by prostration, pains in the bones and limbs, severe nervous symptoms and fever." It usually commences with a chill or chilliness followed by fever of a remittent character, anorexia, headache, apathy and prostration and may be divided into three forms i.e. (i) Catarrhal, 
(ii) Gastric, (iii) Nervous; depending upon the organs which receive the brunt of the attack." Homoeopathic treatment of influenza A(H1N1) In Homoeopathy there are no specifics for any ailment. There can be as many types of Influenza as the human beings, because each individual puts his own stamp on the disease and modifies it too to some extent in his own peculiar way. Almost any remedy in the Materia Medica could prove useful in any given case. But this disease being acute and coming in epidemics, we have for our guidance the incomparable Organon and Dr. Kent's Lectures on Homoeopathic 
Philosophy. (Articles 100 to 102 of the Organon refer.) This has been explained by Dr. Kent as under : Genius epidemicus

 The First Step. "If the epidemic is entirely different from anything that has hitherto appeared in the neighborhood, it is at first confusing. From the first few cases the physician has a very vague idea of this disease, for he sees only fragment of it, and gets only a portion of its symptoms. But the epidemic spreads and many patients are visited, and twenty individuals have perhaps been closely observed. Now, if the physician will write down all the symptoms that have been present in each case in a schematic form, arranging the mind symptoms of the different patients under "mind" and the head symptoms under "head" and so on, following Hahnemann's method, they - considered collectively - will present one image, as if one man had expressed all the symptoms, and in this way he will have that particular disease in schematic form. If he places opposite each symptom a number corresponding to the number of patients in which that symptom occurred, he will find out the essential features of the epidemic. For Example twenty patients had aching in the bones, and at once he sees that, that symptom is a part of this epidemic. All the patients had the catarrhal condition of the eyes and flushed face, and these must be recorded as pathognomonic symptoms. And so by taking the entire scheme and studying it as a whole, as if one patient had experienced all the symptoms, he is able to perceive how this new disease affects the human race, and each particular patient, and he is able to predicate of it what is general and what is particular. Every new patient has a few new symptoms; he has put his own stamp on that disease. Those symptoms that run through all are the pathognomonic symptoms; those which are rare are the peculiarities of the different people. This totality represents to the human mind, as nearly as possible, the nature of this sickness and it is this nature that the therapeutist must have in mind." 
The Second Step. "Now let us take the next step, which is to find in general the remedies that correspond to this epidemic. By the aid of a repertory he will write after each one of these symptoms all the remedies that have produced that symptom. Having in this way gone through the entire scheme, he can then begin to eliminate for practical purposes, and he will see that six or seven remedies run through the picture, and, therefore, are related to the epidemic, corresponding to its whole nature. This may be called the group of epidemic remedies for that particular epidemic, and with these he will manage to cure nearly all his cases. 
The Third Step. The question now arises which one is the remedy for each individual case ? When he has worked out the half dozen remedies, he can go through the Materia Medica and get their individual pictures so fixed in his head that he can use them successfully. Thus he proceeds from generals to particular, and there is no other way to proceed in Homoeopathy." "He is called to a family with half with half a dozen patients in bed from this epidemic, and he finds a little difference in each case so that one remedy is indicated in one patient and another remedy in another patient. THERE IS NO SUCH THING IN HOMOEOPATHY AS ADMINISTERING ONE OF THESE REMEDIES TO ALL IN THE FAMILY BECAUSE OF A DIAGNOSTIC NAME. Now, while one of the remedies in the epidemic group will most likely be indicated in many cases, yet if none of these should fit the patient, the physician must return to his original anamnesis to see which one of the other remedies is suitable. Very rarely will a patient demand a remedy not in the anamnesis. Every remedy has in itself a certain state of peculiarities that identifies it as an individual remedy, and the patient has also a certain state of peculiarities that identifies him as an individual patient, and so the remedy is fitted to the patient. No remedy must be given because it is in the list, for the list has only been made as a means of facilitating the study of that epidemic." (Things can only be made easy by an immense amount of hard work, and if the physician does the drudgery in the beginning of an epidemic, the prescribing for his cases will be rapid and the remedies would be found aborting cases of sickness, malignant cases made simple.) The alternative method "If the physician does not work out this scheme on paper he must do it in the mind, but if he becomes very busy and sees a large number of cases, it will be too much to carry them in the mind. You will be astonished to find that if you put an epidemic on paper you will fore-over be able to carry that knowledge of it in mind." "Of course, every now and then there will come up a rare and a singular case, which will compel you to go outside of the usual group. Never allow yourself to be so cramped that you cannot go outside of the medicines that you have settled upon as medicines of the disease." 
Thus is described the method of finding the Genius Epidemicus. In Homoeopathy, the physician first sees the disease in general as to its nature, and then when an individual has this disease, this individual will present in his own peculiarities the peculiar features of that disease, as he modifies the disease in his own peculiar nature. The homoeopath is in the habit of studying the Slightest shades of difference between patients, the little things that point to the remedy. If we looked upon disease only as the old - school physician 
sees it, we would have no means of distinction, but it is because of the little peculiarities manifested by every individual patient, through his inner life, through everything he thinks, that the homoeopath is enabled to individualise. Make the patient your friend or ward. Susceptibility is the cause of disease Disease causes exist among attenuated things, the infinitesimal or immaterial substances. In contagion there is practically but one dose administered, or at least that which is sufficient to cause a suspension of influx. When cause ceases to flow only in the direction of least resistance and so when resistance appears influx ceases, the cause no longer flows in. In the beginning of disease, i.e. in the 
stage of contagion, there is this limit to influx, for if man continued to receive the cause of disease (if there were no limits to its influx) he would receive enough to kill him, for it would run a continuous course until death. BUT WHEN SUSCEPTIBILITY IS SATISFIED, THERE IS A CESSATION OF CAUSE AND WHEN CAUSE CEASES TO FLOW INTO ULTIMATES, NOT ONLY DO THE ULTIMATES CEASE BUT CAUSE ITSELF HAS ALREADY CEASED. Disease causes, existing as they do as immaterial substances, flow into man inspite of him; he can neither control nor resist them, and they make him sick. But certain changes occur and man ceases to be susceptible, and there is no longer an in flowing of cause into his economy; a suspension has taken place, because susceptibility has ceased. Why all do not fall sick during an epidemic Because of varying degrees of susceptibility some are protected from disease cause and some are made sick; the one who is made sick is susceptible to the disease cause in accordance with the plane he is in and the degree of attenuation that happens to be present at the time of contagion. The degree of the disease cause fits his susceptibility at the moment he is made sick. In the thirty first (31) paragraph of the Organon Dr. Hahnemann says that disease causes are limited in their ability to effect changes in health, to certain conditions and states i.e. susceptibility. When a natural disease is taken it runs its period, and tends to decline, and the patient will not be susceptible until another change of state has arrived. When a violent epidemic is ranging we all know that, although the number of victims is large, they are few compared to those who go through the epidemic unscathed, and the question always arises, why is it ? We suppose, and probably rightly so, that a large number of the immense have escaped because they were unusually strong and vigorous, or in a state of very good order. But we find among those who have escaped the epidemic a number of persons who are anything but strong, really invalids, one in consumption, another in the last degree of Bright's disease, another with diabetes. The reason for their having remained unaffected with the epidemic is that they have sickness that it is impossible for the epidemic to suppress. The epidemic is dissimilar to their diseases and cannot suppress their disease because of its virulency. These things go to prove that dissimilars are unable to cure; they can only suppress. If the chronic disease is stronger than the epidemic disease, it cannot be suppressed. As such, it will be seen why some vigorous and some chronically sick people can escape the epidemics.

Homoeo prophylaxis of influenza A(H1N1)
Dr. Kent says, "Man is protected from sickness in two ways, by Homoeopathy and by use. The physician and the nurse who go into the district of epidemics who keep busy, who have, in the highest sense of the word, the true love of the use, who have gone into the work as mediums of mercy, will be largely protected just simply from their love of the work, from their delight in it. They have no fear. Fear is an overwhelming cause of sickness; those who fall prey to fear are likely to become sick, but those who face disease with no fear are likely to remain well; they do sometime fall sick, it is true, but I believe it is because they begin to have fear in the work." "The other and greater prophylactic is the homoeopathic remedy. After working in an epidemic for a few weeks, you will find perhaps that half-a-dozen remedies are daily indicated and one of these in a large number of cases than any other. This one remedy seems to be the best suited to the general nature of the sickness. Now one remedy seems to be the best suited to the general nature of the sickness. You will find that for prophylaxis, there is required a less degree of similitude than is necessary for curing. A remedy will not have to be so similar to prevent disease as to cure it, and these remedies in daily use will enable you to prevent a large number of people from becoming sick. We must look to Homoeopathy for our protection as well 
as for our cure." Dr. Clarke (J. H.) while speaking on the subject said sometimes, "The best prophylactic against an attack of influenza is Arsenicum. When a case of influenza occurs in a household, every person who has not already been infected should take Arsenicum Alb. 3 - a few globules, a drop of the tincture, a disc, or a capsule of pilules, for a dose - three times a day. In the case of persons who are very susceptible to influenza, and take it on every opportunity, I keep them constantly under the influence of Arsenicum, giving one dose daily whether there are cases in the house or not."
Non-medicinal protection of influenza A(H1N1)
Dr. Clarke, says, further, "So much for medicinal protection. I need not here go into details about common-sense protection. It will be obvious to every one that anything that brings about a lowered state of vitality - over-exertion, long fasting, chill, wetting, and the like, must be carefully avoided when influenza is about. In many a case it only needs the impetus of one of these lowering causes to set the infection alight, when the normal resistance would be amply sufficient to protect a person against it."
During an attack.what to do Dr. Clarke says, 'When an attack has definitely set in, it depends upon the severity of the attack and the degree of robustness of the patient, whether bed is to be enjoined. Thousands of the people have slight attacks which do not prevent their following their usual vocations, but only make then very uncomfortable. Those who are at all delicate should keep indoors, and if there is fever, should keep in bed. Whatever is the course adopted, it is very essential that the strength should be kept up with plenty of nourishment. It does not do to starve Influenza. If the digestion is in fair order, solid food may be taken, if it is relished. All food taken should have good food-value - co cold meats and no done-up meats. If there is distaste to food and difficulty of eating, concentrated liquid food should be given every hour or two. Warmth is also an essential. I do not advise "open air treatment" for influenza, though ventilation is necessary. But chill must be avoided in every case."
Bath ? "Another point which is of importance. NO BATH SHOULD BE TAKEN 
WHILST AN ATTACK OF INFLUENZA IS ON. In a debilitated state a bath is a great vital expense, and though it may stimulate for a time, the reaction is sure to be injurious." Walking ? The treatment of influenza "on foot" is perhaps the worst. Some people are of the view that if one walks about and gets perspired, influenza gets relieved. It is a wrong notion and injurious. Bed rest is the best. It is one of the donots of influenza state namely, 'to walk'. Let the patient be confined to bed. Otherwise greater exposures and complications, relentless suffering shall be the fate. Homeopathy Medicines for influenza A(H1N1)
Aconitum napellus -Sudden onset of fever, with chilliness, throbbing pulses, and great restlessness- from anxiety. -A remedy of cold dry, dry weather, bitter winds. (Reverse of Gels.). Gelsemium sempervirens -Heaviness and tiredness of body and limbs. 
-Head heavy, eyelids heavy, limbs heavy. -Colds and fevers of mild winters. (Reverse of Acon.). -Chills in back. "Chills and heats chase one another". -Bursting Headache, from neck, over head to eyes and forehead; relieved by copious urination. -No thirst.
Eupatorium perfoliatum -Intense aching limbs and back, as if bones were broken. -Dare not move for pain. (Reverse of Pyrogen.). -Aching in all bones, with soreness of flesh. -Bones feel broken, dislocated, as if would break. -Bursting Headache. -Shivering; chills in back. (Gels., Pyrogen.). -Chill begin 7 to 9 a.m. -Eyeballs sore. (Bry., Gels.). -There may be vomiting of bile. -Like "break-bone fever", 
(Dengue). Pyrogenium -For the fever of violent pulsations and intense restlessness. -Pulse very rapid; ratio between pulse and temperature disturbed. High temperature with slow pulse, or the reverse. -Chilliness no fire can warm. (Nux, Gels.). -Creeping chills in back, with thumping heart. -Bursting Headache, with intense restlessness. 
-Hard bed sensation; feels beaten, bruised. (Arn.). -Better beginning to move (reverse of Rhus), has to keep on moving, rocking, wriggling, for momentary relief. [*] Copious urination of clear water, with fever. -[*] One very bad 'flu year, all the cases one came across cleared up in twenty-four to forty-eight hours with Pyrogenium 6 six-hourly. The symptoms, besides the thumping heart and the fever, were agonizing pain in lumbar and upper thigh muscles that made it impossible to keep still one moment. Baptisia tinctoria -Rapid onset. Sinks rapidly into a stuporous state. -Dull red face; drugged, besotted appearance. -High temperature, comatose. -Drops asleep while answering. -"Gastric 
'flu"; sudden attacks of violent diarrhea and vomiting. Great prostration. (In such cases Baptisia will ensure as sudden a recovery). -'Flu-pneumonias with this besotted appearance. -In the worst cases, mouth and throat are foul, and discharges very offensive. (Merc.). -(Curious symptom) Disturbance of body-image, feels limbs scattered over the bed and cannot be re-assembled. (Petrol., Pyrogen.). Bryonia alba -White tongue; thirst for much cold fluid. (Phos.). -From every movement, every noise, attacked with dry heat; (Reverse of Nux, Gels.). -Wants to lie quite still, and be let alone. -Especially with pleurisy, or pleuro-pneumonia. -Headaches and pain all better for pressure, and worse for movement. -(Eup. per.). -The anxiety, dreams and delirium of Bry. are of business; in delirium be "wants to go home". -Pains in head from coughing. Irritable. Rhus toxicodendron -Stiff, lame and bruised on first moving (reverse of Pyrogen.), passes off with motion, till he becomes weak and must rest; then restlessness and uneasiness drive him to move again. -The worst sufferings when at rest and kept without motion. (Reverse of Bry.). -Illness from cold, damp weather; from cold damp when perspiring. -(Dulc.). -Anxiety, fear; worse at night. (Acon.). -Restlessness, intense fever, thirst, great prostration. Weeps without knowing why. (Puls.). -Severe aching in bones. (Eup. per.). -A mental symptom of Rhus tox. is fear of poison. Mercurius solubilis -Profuse, very offensive sweat. -Very foul mouth. (Bapt.). -Salivation offensive. -Worse, or no relief, from sweating. -Colds extend to chest. 
Influenza: complaints after influenza A(H1N1)
Gelsemium sempervirens -Patients come to hospital who "cannot get well after 'flu a few weeks ago". They are found to have a temperature of somewhere about 99. -Not ill, not well. -If they are chilly, with heats and chills, if they feel a weakness and heaviness of limbs and eyelids, Gels. quickly puts them right.
China officinalis -Continued debility, with chilliness. -Anaemic, pallid, weak. -Sensitive to touch, to motion, to cold air. -Worse alternate days. -Weariness of limbs, with desire to stretch, move, or change position.
Kalium phosphoricum -General weakness and gloom. 
Arsenicum album -Chilliness, restlessness, anxiety, fear, Fear of death (Acon.), prostration. -Burnings, relieved by heat. -Oversensitive, fastidious. -Queer symptoms - red-hot-needle pains. -Sensation of ice-water running through veins. -Or boiling water going through blood-vessels. -Thirst for sips of cold water. 
Pulsatilla pratensis -Flitting chilliness, chills in spots. -Cold creeps in back. Chilly in warm room. -Profuse morning sweat. -Heat as if hot water thrown over him. -One-sided chilliness, heat, sweat. -External warmth intolerable. Worse in a close room. -Palpitation with anxiety, must throw off clothes. -Better out of doors. -Better for slow motion. (Reverse of Bry., Eup. per.). -Dry cough at night, goes on sitting up; returns on lying down again. -(Hyos.). -Thirstless, no hunger. Tearful, peevish.
Sulphur -Partially recovers and then relapses. -Frequent flushes of heat. Uneasiness in blood. -Very sensitive to open air, to draughts (reverse of Puls.); worse for washing and bath. -Oppression, burning, stitches, congestion in chest. -Heat crown of head with cold feet. -Soles burn at night, must be put out of bed. -Hungry - starving at 11 a.m. -Drowsy by day, restless nights. Starts from frightful dreams. Some throat remedies
Aconitum napellus -Throat very red, tingling. -Uvula feels long, comes in contact with tongue. -"Acute inflammation of all that can be seen and called throat". (Kent) Burning, smarting, dryness, great redness. -"Sudden onset in the night after exposure to cold, raw mind. -Plethoric person, wakes at night with violent, burning, tearing sore throat. -Cannot swallow. High fever, with great thirst for cold water. -Anxiety and fever".

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Dr. Binoy Vallabhassery M. D. (Hom)

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