Swine Flu is possble but hard to treat,  once you get infected,

Best you can do is to strengthen your immune system.

Get acquainted with the  the herb introduced in the following link (Ekinezya for Turkish speakers)

http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/echinacea-000239.htm

You can buy it as tablets to swallow, from phatmacies... or as a herb to brew and drink like a tea. Totally harmless, unless you have high blood tension problems (if you do, stay away from it)

See map below for current size of the epidemic, darker the color higher the risk.

Both of my kids have already had it but thanks for the info on the herb.  I will pass it on to some friends and family.

 Taking echinacea by tablet or drinking echinacea tea is quite common the the UK and is said to help prevent colds.  However, I never heard that it can prevent you catching a flu virus! 

If you take echinacea you need to leave a gap of a few months between courses - so its best to take it during the autumn to help fight winter colds

Brits think it is an afrodisiac....a tall tale, Turks sold them ages ago.

I´ve got the echinacea flower in my garden...if I chew them, will it be the same effect? They do seem a bit dead by now, I wonder if that ruins the effect...

Look it up in google and find out more about the ways it can be used. You can always make a tea out of your flovers,

 There is no better remedy than trying to avoid contact with those that might have it.......... hence I look forward to my trips to London and being crammed in underground carriages with people sneezing and coughing all around

I just wanted to add something:

My daughter got swine flu two weeks ago.  And believe me there was no sneezing, coughing or a runny nose... just diarrhoea and very persistent fever.  For your info!!

I think it is not as dangerous as they are saying, unless you have an underlying disease such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease...

But healthy people have died too!  Cases have doubled in the last week or so in the UK, so I think it is a problem especially when you are in a crowded space!  There are a variety of symptoms, of which you mention just two.  It is probably not as dangerous as they lead us to believe, but it can soon wipe out a premiership football team!!

 I mentioned just two, because there was nothing else... and I added this info, so you can be also aware that even though there is no cough, sneeze or runny nose, it could be there, and it could go undetected for days, and become more dangerous.  My luck was, I noticed it very early though the first doctor didn´t think it was swine flu, as there was no other symptom, but I went to another doctor.

Yes, it can be dangerous for high risk people, but it is very hard to avoid the infection.  It moves very fast.  So, look out for primarily very persistent high fever, the other symptoms comes afterwards.

no school on Friday because of swine flu

I LOVED seeing the Turkish news this last week on the swine flu. Nothing like a topic on the Turkish news to scare people With threatening music in the background, loads of flashy images, and people walking around with mouth-covers all the time. And only in Turkey....old guy selling bandages on the street to protect against the swine flu

As for the tea, Ekinezya generally doesn´t have a nice taste, I used to hate it when my mom poured some droplets for me and my sister to drink in winter (´when the month has the ´letter R´ in it ´, but there is a new tea on the Turkish market: Ekinezyalı karışık bitki çayı. İt also contains rooibos, lemon and orange zest etc. Im not a big fan of herbal teas, but this one has an acceptable taste Hope it helps! Still taking the dolmuş everyday.. :-S

You, Dutch, have it all wrong. If the month has an "R" in it, it´s good time for getting married In Poland we drink a lot of herbal teas and most of the time black tea is served with a slice of lemon (never milk!).

 A few years ago I never really saw lemon served with Turkish tea, but many places started to serve it with a slice of lemon now (maybe they did before, but I noticed it for the first time this stay). Dutch also don´t put milk in their tea, I tried once and it really is only fine in strong English tea. Atatürk Orman Çiftliği makes really nice milk, but haven´t found English tea here yet. Also there is a nice green tea with peach and ginger here, nice when you don´t feel like tea but do feel cold