AOL Health just reported news that CNN medical reporter Dr. Sanjay Gupta got sick with H1N1, while preparing the next CNN fall health feature in Afganistan. H1N1 is swine flu which is more than a cold. Dr. Gupta described how his sickness started with a cough, but it was the kind of cough where simply clearing your throat would’ve been abequate.

This was the kind of cough that hurts when you do it. “A stinging pain that make you wince and guard,” said Dr. Gupta. Then he described in details how he and Scottie McWhinnie, a camera man, both had high fevers, sweating, the lack of appetite, terrible sinus congestion, body aches, and looked awful. Then he continued, “…yes–that hacking come out of the blue.”

There wasn’t much the doctors could really do for two journalists. Some Tylenol, a sinus decongestion and IV fluids. Now Sanjay Gupta is better and back to normal, but he concluded, “It was a lot like the flu — with a different name.” He warned that a lot of people will get the exact symptoms he described. “Most people will have a few miserable days, hopefully in their homes–and not in a war zone,” he said.

I observed, when people got sick with angina, they also experience the same kind of stinging pain as Dr. Gupta mentioned in his case. In the meantime, media sources report, there is no cause for panic. So far, hospitalizations and deaths from swine flu seem to be lower than the average seen for a seasonal flu, and the virus hasn’t dramatically mutated. However, we must be prepared by knowing the difference between common cold, H1N1 or seasonal flu and how it can be treated.

Read our next post about natural and effective treatments of common cold,

Source: Fall Health Feature CNN’s Gupta Gets H1N1 in Afganistan, http://www.aolhealth.com/health/fall-health/article/_a/cnns-gupta-gets-h1n1-in-afganistan/200909