After a long time..!!

Well I finished my thesis with a 2.0 (German grading system). I would give a special thanks to my guide Dr. Stefan Lankes for guiding me through out the thesis. Along with my bachelor thesis I was also able to manage a pass in all my exams held at RWTH, thus completing my B-Tech.

I came back from Germany on 30th July and was really busy in completing the formalities at Amrita. It was a bit difficult and confusing situation but all in all, its done now and I got all my certificates and degree.

My convocation was on 27th August. It was in pure traditional Kerala style with Kerala outfits. I was extremely happy to meet all my friends after exactly 1 year. It was kind of nostalgic feeling..love you all MY ITians. Good to see you guys after really long tme…

I have applied for my visa and I am expecting to fly back to Germany for my regular masters by Oct mid. Oh..btw, my application for MSc in Software Systems Engineering is accepted by RWTH and thus will continue in RWTH with my masters. And and and…I will not be called as Erasmus anymore….Erasmus tag is removed..hehe

For now I am going to visit my native place and looking forward to enjoy with all my cousins. Gonna enjoy my vacations till Oct mid and then….GOD BLESS ME!!!

Exam in 3 days

Well guys, its little strange that I have got my exams starting from 1st feb and I feel like blogging…!!

I never liked the field of Securities. The main reason are those complicated cryptographic algorithms. But to my fate, IT-Security is a compulsory subject for my bachelors back in Amrita, so I had to take it up here in RWTH. But must say the slides prepared by RWTH faculty, are simply great and easy to understand.

In Amrita, CSE-Btech had FLA and Automata but IT-btech don’t have it. Fate playing a major role in my life, I had complier construction as my next core subject. The minimum requirement for this course was FLA and Automata, which I never had, but thanks to all my mates here in Aachen who helped me understand the basics of it. Slides have definitely geared my interest in compilers and I have already completed 13 slides(out of 20) so far.

Now I have started finding faults in the design of user interface of day to day things. I can clearly make out the defects and ways to improve it. This fault finding is certainly becoming a common topic of discussion among us. Thanks to the subject Designing Interactive System(DIS). I must say, this is indeed one of the most interesting subject, I have ever come across so far. The professor is amazing and the way he teaches is simply great. Moreover we have video lectures and thats the reason, I don’t regret missing any of his lectures or sleeping in his class hehe…

To understand the concept of virtual world and virtual environment, we took the subject Virtual Reality. Though I never liked anything related to graphics but I though of giving it a try. The professor here took special classes for us, as we were English speaking group. Though we had only very few lecture (3-4 hours each), but he was amazing in conveying the basic ideas in a very simpler manner which is much more easy to understand.

Theory of computation is supposed to be one of the royal but difficult subject. I always liked coding in various programming languages. Well the subject Theory of Scientific Computing provided me a platform to do so. This course includes Mathematica, Matlab, Python and C. The programming assignments in this subject was intended in writing the program in the most efficient way by keeping various factors in mind. While I always struggled to get the final output, other nerds in my class, fought to win the challenge of coding the assignment programs in an efficient way reducing the time of complexity.

Finally, first semester in RWTH is over and I just realized that, I have also spent half of my Erasmus Mundus India4EU scholarship duration too. Remembering those sleepless nights due to our assignments, projects and many more, I must say it was an amazing experience so far.

Well enough of blogging for now let me go and bang my head against my laptop with the hopes that I will perform well in my exam…!

Finest Moments In Germany – Part 1

Hey pals I have reached Aachen, Germany safely and with a glass of coffee and cold climate of Germany just thought of sharing some of the finest moments took place in past few days.

Outside RWTH Main Building

My flight schedule was Calicut, India to Dubai, UAE and Dubai, UAE to Frankfurt, Germany. From the day I knew that I will be changing my flight from Dubai, I felt quite sad that even though I will be landing at Dubai I will not be able to go out and visit one of the beautiful city in the world. But to my fate, I found lucky enough. My flight ( Emirates Airline ) on 26th August 2010 got delayed by almost 4hrs from Calicut Airport itself. So I missed my connecting flight at Dubai. Emirates provided me accommodation, food and travel free of cost in hotel( I guess it was 3 star ) in Dubai. No wonder why Emirates are best airlines in world. I stayed in Dubai for a night. My uncle’s (Alok Saboo) business is set up in Dubai so he asked one of his staff to show me Dubai and unexpectedly we saw most of the landmarks of Dubai in one night itself. Dubai is very beautiful. A big thanks to both of them.

Germany ICE Train

The very next day ( 27th August 2010 ) I flew to Frankfurt, Germany by Emirates airlines ( next available flight ). I was excited as it was my first fight journey and I enjoyed it to the maximum. I came down to Aachen, Germany by train the same day. I traveled by ICE train till Cologne ( köln ) and then by Regiobahn train till Aachen. ICE trains are  high speed trains that runs all over Germany with connections to neighboring countries also. They run at a speed of 300 km/h. The distance between Franfurt to Aachen is around 250km and I completed the whole journey in less than 2 hours. It was exciting experience to travel at 300km/h on land.

The most interesting thing was when I came out from hauptbahnhof (pronounced as halfbanhof meaning railway station in German) I saw Mercedes, BMW and Odi as taxis. I was shocked for a moment and then realized that I am in Germany and most of the Germans like their BMW more than his son ( no offense ). I hired a Mercedes to my place. It was a 5 minutes drive and I had to pay 5 Euros for it. I was speechless for a moment and then consoled my self (hehe… )

Aachen streets at night

Well in the following days I have completed most of the formalities like registering at the STADTAACHEN ( city registration which is compulsory in Germany ), got my temporary ID, WIFI username password, library card etc. Currently I have only German classes ( A1 level ) which is one month extensive course and is compulsory for all the international students. Though I had learned German in my schools (7th STD and 8th STD), I must confess that I don’t remember a single bit of it. Its fun learning German in Germany.

We had a city tour which was the part of German course. It mainly focused on exploring the city and German culture. Aachen is very beautiful and it consist of lots of fountains. The building structures and streets reflects the typical European culture in a truest sense. There is a dome which looks amazing in night and is awesome from inside. It has beautiful glass paintings and you feel extreme peace once you go inside. Aachen is also one of the historic place in Germany. Lots of stories and historic events are associated with it.

There was also a trip organized to border triangle, which was again the part of German course. It is a place where you will be in three different countries simultaneously. This place is actually shared by Germany, Netherlands and Belgium. Though I couldn’t visit the place, I heard that if you turn to one side, you are in one country and If you turn again in another direction you are in a different country. They sounded exciting and I will be visiting it shortly. My German classes will get over by 8th October( approx) and my semester will begin by 11th October. Once semester begins, I have no idea about my time schedule will be. Anyways I need not worry for now…

INCAS UNO TABLE

We attended few get together ( more or less its parties) organized by INCAS ( an organization set up by the university to help incoming international students ). Every tuesdays there is a get together by INCAS. There will be tables arranged and you can just go, introduce yourself and get involved with the activities they are doing. The activities includes playing UNO, Moneyplay or discussion on ones countries, its clothing style, culture, dance forms, food, language, film industries etc. Must tell you that people here are very interested in bollywood movies.  Sometimes some group of students represents their country. They tell others about their country, for example last tuesday students group from Chile represented their country. This get together mainly focuses on interacting with international students so that we can get exposure and know them, their way of living and culture. It will help us to increase our contacts that can benefit us later. They also organize regular trips to various places covering Germany and some times outside Germany too. Last saturday they organized a trip to HEIDELBERG (RHINE river banks). It was a proper trekking of nearly 25 kms. The place is extremely beautiful and there was wine festival being celebrated. Wine festival was followed by wonderful fireworks. It was the same day when we had a trip to triangle border also and I was unlucky to go none of the place as I was not well. But we do have few trips coming up in the first week of October and I hope I won’t miss them.

RHINE River bank

I and my friends went for the trekking to the nearest valley. There is a cafeteria at the top from where we could see whole Aachen city. The whole city looks amazing. We could see most of the landmarks of the city including the famous Tivoli stadium, Dome and many more. In fact we can see some parts of Belgium too. All together it was a great experience so far and anxiously waiting for lot more…

Food is quite expensive here and so I have started cooking too. Just trying my hands on various dishes and I am proud that I did not burn anything till now . Actually I am hating pizzas and burgers, which is another reason for cooking. Thanks to my mother for teaching me and giving me come tips. Its a very pleasant weather as of now. But once winter starts ( some where mid October ) it will be very cold . Temperature is expected to go below -5 degree and it will snow too. It sounds exciting but will have to take some precautionary measures also and have to prepared for it.

Well well well lots more exciting moments are left out in this post, will cover it in the next one….so watch out my next post….till then Auf Wiedersein…

A sharp turn in my life – Scholarship in Germany

Now this is something never expected in my life. A sharp turn in my life. Well I came to know from my faculty that I have been selected for India4EU program and will be going to RWTH Aachen University, Germany. This was a surprise to me as I had never imagined even in my dreams that I will be getting this opportunity. I just thought to myself that “how can I get selected as there are people who had CGPA much more than me?”

India4EU is a section of Erasmus Mundus External Cooperation Window. It’s a scholarship program wherein students from partner universities in India can complete their part of graduation in partner universities in Europe. I came to know on Monday (don’t remember the exact date) but I was told not to tell anyone regarding this, as it was not announced officially. I was actually waiting for the official acceptance from Europe commission. I had a really tough and tensed time till Thursday when I got the official scholarship letter from the coordinating university.

All the 4days (from Monday till Thursday) I used to check my mail in almost every 2 hours. Well, when received the confirmation mail, I immediately ranged up my faculty to confirm if he had received any mail. He said no but confirmed me the email id. I felt extremely happy and I then called up my parents and told them. They were shocked and were very happy too. I explained them the whole thing. It was kind a surprise to both me and my parents. I didn’t tell any of friends at hostel, as I wanted to confirm it from CIR department in our college.

Next day I went to my HOD and asked her if she had any such information. With a shocked face she answered me no. I couldn’t follow what was going on, but I actually expected this to happen. I then called up Pradeep Sir, CIR Ettimadai campus. He confirmed me that yes I have been selected for India4EU program and the information is correct. I was overwhelmed and then I told my class rep to announce it in the class. It was announced during lunch break and as expected everyone was a stunned and was extremely happy. They congratulated me in a very unique way. I am not mention it here….: D. I can feel it even now…: D.

Well…I got lots of wishes from my friends, relatives, faculties members etc. I got numerous calls on next two days i.e., Saturday and Sunday( My battery will normally give a backup of 3days once fully charged…but I had to recharge it thrice in those two days hehehe… ) All my relatives in Kanpur(which is my native place) wants to see me. Whenever I talk to anyone over phone, first and last question used to be “When are you coming to Kanpur?” and finally I will be going Kanpur on 26th June.

On inquiring I came to know that, six more students from Amrita University will accompany me to RWTH. Three are from Bangalore Campus and remaining three are from Ettimadai Campus. I am in regular contact with them.

When I mapped the courses offered to me at RWTH Aachen University, I found that I have to complete Management Elective 1 here and so currently, I am doing a fast track course. The subject is Operations Research. It is quite easy subject and I think I can get good grade too. Well, till now everything is going really fine and smooth. I have also received my visa.

I just hope for the best and wish in future also everything goes well in a smooth manner…..

InCTF’ 10

InCTF’ 10 - This is my first ever experience to organise an event which is fully online. The total number of registrations were very high and finally, we have around 180 teams from 16 different states who have completed their registration by paying us Rs150 as DD. They are all actively participating in the contest. We are happy to see that teams are effectively using google group to share their knowledge on various things. Though I have coordinated many events in my college life but this is different from all. Few reason are:

1. As mentioned it is fully online, so its a different experience.

2. I persist very limited knowledge in the field of security as I am least interested. Thus, with this contest I am learning a lot about cyber crime, cyber wars, secure coding pratices etc.

3. I used to make phone calls and speak to many teams regarding various issues, thus my contacts are increasing. It is helping me to improve my communication skills.

Well, First round is divided into 4 different tasks, of which many have finished first. There are few teams who have also finished all the 3 tasks and waiting for the last and final task for round 1. Final task(task4) is time bounded and so, we can’t send them as many teams have not yet completed task2 and task3 due their periodical exams. It is highly recommended that they finish it fast and report us at inctf@am.amrita.edu as we might not wait for long. All teams have been sent an email with the proposed dates for the first(final task) and second round. They need to choose and inform us asap.

We deeply apologise for not following the schedule, this is because the main motive of organising this contest is to make students learn more on security and secure coding practise. First round is the learning round and thus we want manximum student to get benifit from first round. Though final task for first round, second round and third round are time bounded and once the schecule is fixed(after concerning all the teams) will be followed strictly. I hope, teams will complete their task soon and report us. I also hope that all teams must be enjoying in learning new things in the same way we are enjoyng in organising this contest.

NOTE( FOR ALL TEAMS) : It is advices to complete the tasks asap and it is mandatory to confirm us via email on completion. If any team is stuck and are facing difficulty in completing any task, they can email their queries at inctf@am.amrita.edu and can even post their quries in google groups and get it solved.

InCTF – India’s First CTF style Ethical Hacking Contest…!!!

Now, this  is something which never happened in India. Amrita University and TIFAC – Core in association with VeriSign, is all set to host India’s first Capture The Flag style (CTF) Ethical Hacking contest. InCTF ’10 focus on students making them aware about secure coding practices .We will help you out, so that you can learn everything from scratch and participate in your University itself, under a faculty mentor who can help you out.

When :- InCTF ’10 begins from February 2010 to March 2010. 2months filled with hands-on experience in vulnerability identification, exploitation and patching with lots of fun and exposures in the field of hacking.

Pre-requisite :- You do not need to be a professional hacker to participate in this contest. All you need is to be familiar with any programming language and it is recommended to be familiar with the any standard linux distro.

Steping Stone :- Hurry..! make a team maximum of 5, choose a mentor from your University, click here to visit the website and register your team. Send a Demand Draft of just Rs150/- in favour of “Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham” from any nationalized bank and send to th mentioned address. Do not waste your time, you can start learning as soon as you are done with registeration.

WOW..! :- Winning team will recieve a cash prize of Rs 40,000/- . First Runner-up will recieve a cash prize of Rs 30,000/-, Second Runners-up – Rs20.000/-. Apart from this Top 30 teams get a cash prize, Certificates of merit and other goodies. Special prize for the University with maximum participation and faculty mentors of the top 5 teams. Also University with winning team will be awarded a “Champion University” award.

More Over you have a chance to called as “India’s No.1 Ethical Hacking Team”.

You still waiting…?? hurry-up register your team today itself and learn, hack and win..!!

Check out InCTF for more details. Also follow us on twitter @InCTF and Facebook

ACM ICPC Asia Regional Onsite-Amritapuri

Another experience in my life….After Vidyamritam it was time for me to coordinate another event-An International Programming Contest. Only 2 institutions are authorised to conduct the ACM ICPC Asia level Regional Contest of which one is AMRITA UNIVERSITY. It’s the third consecutive yr that AMRITAPURI Campus is hosting Asia Regional. It was held at our college from 31st Oct, 2009 to 2 Nov, 2009.

I was given the charge of Travel and Transport. As I do not hold any previous experience in ACM-ICPC, I strongly feel I was assigned this duty considering my organisational skills and mainly because of the great success of Vidyamritam, . This was the first time I was the part of it, with the bigger responsibility. Well, another student coordinator was my classmate and my dear friend Sarath Gopeenathan. We have worked together and organised many event for our departmental association VAASTAV. It was another great experience to handle an international event along with him. He was having an experience in it as he had already served as a volunteer before. The committee was headed by Binu Sir and Soumya Mam. We had around 21 students with 6 girls who were assigned as volunteer in this committee.

Around 53 teams were confirmed to take part in this contest. These teams were from India, China, Bangladesh, Korea and Sri Lanka. We had a very good exposure with them and I am still in contact with many teams. We were supposed to make sure that teams were picked from various near by railway stations and airports and were comfortably brought at the college venue. That was the most difficult job and we had to be very carefull in that. Even one mistake made by volunteers will affect the reputation of our university. During the journey, teams asked numerous questions regarding college, event, accommodation etc..etc.. which we had to answer perfectly.

The main difficulty which I think was the departure timings. Many team’s departure plans were changed many time which actually created a confusion.Though it was resolved in much less time and vehicles were arranged. We had a pretty good communication among the committee volunteers, which I think can be improved for the next ACM ICPC 2010.

It was another stunning success and experience which was added to my life. I strongly feel that there are lot more on my way and I am looking forward to coordinate and volunteer more such events. Hope I will work as a team to deliver my best and serve with full energy and more enthusiasm….

Unforgettable experience at AMMA’s 56th B’Day – 2

click here to read the previous entry

[Contd...]

On 25th Sept, 2009 at around 7am first set of beneficiaries from Kozhikode arrived and our work started. They were all directed to the respective counters, got them registered and taken to the allotted room. Parents who  accompanied them were also allotted rooms. Slowly benificieries from other places also started arriving. Same process was done. Volunteers took them for breakfast, lunch and dinner, interacted with them, played antakshari and many more. All the volunteers had a great time with beneficiaries. In between there were lots of problem, some id cards were not there, some uniforms were missing, even some name itself were missing from the list. There was a tailor too, who was taking the measurement and was giving the clothes instantly. We had to take care of all these thing. As expected there were fights too. You won’t believe two groups Kasargode group and Kozhikode group were formed and were fighting for some silly reason. They took mats, rolled them and were hitting each other(WOW!!!). Volunteers took proper care. Though they also got enough from them, but they made them understand and solved the matter. Volunteers enjoyed a lot doing that. Meanwhile lots of beneficiaries fell sick who were immediately taken to the first aid room which was set up by AIMS(Amrita Institute of Medical Science & Research) Kochi.

Most of the time I was sitting at the information center. When ever a new set of beneficiaries arrived my job was to inform the corresponding faculty, so that they could take charge. In between many counters faced lots of problems and either  me or Aishwarya had to go to the respective room to solve it. We did a pretty good job. By night all the rooms were almost overflowing and even corridors were not left out. People were sleeping even in corridors. There was a huge crow gathered by then. At around 12 midnight me and Aishwarya went to each room and confirmed that there is no problem with any counter and that there is no missing cases. After finishing our job we went to public canteen and had our dinner. By around 2am I went bak to hostel and came back by 5.30am in the morning. I was damn tired and was just flat on my bed. Volunteers were alternatively taking group of 10 students for bathing. That day(26th Sept, 2009)every student had to wear uniform for AMMA’s public program in the evening. There was a confusion about whether after the breakfast they were supposed to be seated in the main hall to attend the final round of elocution or they were supposed to be taken to ashram for AMMA’s darshan. To avoid any missing cases we decided to bring all the beneficiaries back to their room itself after breakfast. Once we got the confirmation some of them were taken to main hall to attend the finals. After the lunch by 3.30pm all the students were seated in main hall for AMMA’s public program.

In morning around 20 students came from Calicut whose id-card were missing. So muself and Sharanya T L(S5 EEE) were checking out for their id-cards in internet cafe(place where all the id cards were printed). Mean while I got a call from Geetha Maam that I have to rush near main stage. There was a benificiery supposed to get prize from AMMA, who was not in uniform and was not having id-card too. I called Br. Manoj, who was incharge, to get more details but he said he immediately wanted to meet me. I then ran towards the stage(I ran as if i am taking part in Olympics). After reaching near stage I came to know that there were 2 students who were not in uniform instead of 1. One girl from Alappuzha and 1 boy from Tanur. Manoj Sir told that I just have 10 minutes and within this 10 minutes Both the children should be in uniform and id cards. I immediately took their details and contacted Geetha Maam over mobile. She contacted the tailor so that we could get the uniform as soon as possible. But tailor said he can not do anything until he take their measurement. I then took both of them and ran from stage till manufacturing lab. Tailor took their measurements and gave them uniforms. They immediately changed their dress and we again ran back to the stage. Manoj Sir was very happy to see them in uniform.WOW!!  you won’t  believe, these students were there in stage with uniforms and id cards in less than 10 minutes. This was a great achievement. I can never forget this.I then stood near the stage itself, expecting such cases. Thank God there were no more.

Beloved AMMA was about to reach and all last moment preparations were going on. A huge crowd had gathered near the stage to see Actor Mohan Lal(A well known film star of Malayalam movies), because of the huge crowd I had to temporarily shift my department from Vidyamritam to Crowd Control. It was a tough time. People were shouting slogans for Mohan Lal, screaming, pushing. My God!!! A small action from Police Officers were also seen. They were also helping us to control the crowd. It was really a great experience. Crowd was in control only after Mohan Lal left.

At 8pm, after bhajans volunteers took them for dinner and then they were seated to their respective counters. Faculty and volunteers distributed the cheque of Rs 450/- to each beneficiary. After the cheque distribution volunteers took all the beneficiary for AMMA’s darshan. They were then taken to their respective rooms. At around 11pm everything was done and darshan was about to get over. Me and Aishwarya then went to each room and confirmed that there were no missing cases. Apparently we were all afraid of missing cases because of the crowd, but must appreciate the volunteers, they did a fantastic job.

Unforgettable experience at AMMA’s 56th B’Day – 1

I am sure those who read this will definitely enjoy this. Thus I am expecting lots of comments from all my friends. I know its huge but please don’t skip anything in between… . So let me start.

I am going to share my 4 days’ experience at AMMA’s(Mata Amritanandmayi Devi) Bday celebrated here in amritapuri. This time the main event for AMMA’s bday was vidyamritam. Let me tell you something about vidyamritam first.(If you know about vidyamritam you can very well skip and move to the next paragraph)

Vidyamritam is a scholarship scheme for students, initiated by Mata Amritanandmayi Math(MAM) about 2 years back in Sept 2007.About 35,000 students benefits under this scheme. These are students(here after termed as beneficiaries) from 6th STD till 12th STD and are from Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.These beneficiaries are selected on the basis of :-

1. Orphans.

2. Semi-Orphans.

3. Below Poverty Line(BPL).

MAM provides scholarship of Rs. 1800/- to each beneficiary every year in installments. Kerala alone covers nearly 12,000 beneficiaries. Apart from this scholarship various competition like elocution, pencil sketching, painting, poetry writing and essay writing were organized across the state of Kerala. This was first phase. Second phase was Semi-finals and Finals which was held at amritapuri itself. First prize winner was awarded a prize of Rs.5,000/-, Second prize winner was awarded with Rs.3,000/-, Third was given Rs.2,000/-. Apart from this there were 5 consolation prizes worth Rs.500/- each were also given.  Around 9,000 beneficiaries were expected to be here in amritapuri from all over Kerala. It was also expected that atleast 1 parent will accompany them. So in total we were expecting around 19,000 to 20,000 people for this vidyamritam program from all over Kerala. Beneficiaries were given their first installment of Rs. 450/-.

Many of us gave names as vidyamritam volunteers to the concerned faculty. Next day(22nd Sep, 2009), I was shocked to hear from my HOD that I was selected as a Student Coordinator from Amritapuri Campus for vidyamritam. Since I was knowing about vidyamritam I was having 2 expressions on my face. One was, I was extremely happy that I am given this opportunity and other was I was quite tensed thinking of those big numbers which were in thousands. Apart from vidyamritam there were 13 other areas like crowd control, plate washing, food serving, stage decoration, media, drinking water etc..etc.. where volunteers were required. For each of these department 2 student Coordinator were selected. On 22nd Sept, 2009, there was a meeting of all the student coordinators, where I came to know that my the colleague is Aishwarya from S5 BSc CS. We also came to know that the overall faculty coordinator for vidyamritam was Br. Anand shenoy. There were two more faculty co-ordinators. They were Miss Geetha M, HOD Department of Information Technology and Mr. Binu P K, faculty Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

Swine flu–>Take Precaution

Swine flu is spreading in a drastic manner. There is panic in almost all over the world. Many states and cities in India have been locked and no person is allowed anywhere without a proper medical check up. Even schools and colleges have been suspended for many days. It is a communicable disease and is effecting many. It is spreading in a rapid manner from person to person. I think everyone should know the symptoms of this disease and should create awareness about this. Everyone should take precautions against swine flu.

Its important to note that swine flu is just an influenza A H1N1 virus. It is just another type of flu virus, that causes our typical seasonal flu symptoms. Swine influenza A (H1N1) virus has components of pig and bird influenza viruses in it, so that humans don’t have any immunity to it. This is the reason why it would become a pandemic virus (have the ability to cause a global outbreak) because it could easily spread from person-to-person.

Swine Flu Symptoms :-

Symptoms of swine flu infections can include:

• fever, which is usually high
• cough
• runny nose or stuffy nose
• sore throat
• body aches
• headache
• chills
• fatigue or tiredness, which can be extreme
• diarrhea and vomiting, sometimes, but more commonly seen than with seasonal flu

Signs of a more serious swine flu infection might include pneumonia and respiratory failure.

Swine Flu High Risk Groups :-

With regular seasonal flu, infants and the elderly are usually thought to be most at risk for serious infections, in addition to people with chronic medical problems. Swine flu high risk groups, people who are thought to be at risk for serious, life-threatening infections, are a little different and can include:

• pregnant women.
• people with chronic medical problems, such as chronic lung disease, like asthma, cardiovascular disease, and immunosuppressio.
• children and adults with obesity.
• diabetes mellitus.
• people aged 65 and older.

Serious Swine Flu Symptoms :-

More serious symptoms that would indicate that a child with swine flu would need urgent medical attention include:

• Fast breathing or trouble breathing
• Bluish or gray skin color
• Not drinking enough fluids
• Severe or persistent vomiting
• Not waking up or not interacting
• Being so irritable that the child does not want to be held
• Flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough

Take Precautions Against Swine Flu :-

Everybody should be using some basic precautions to avoid swine flu. Here’s some ways to take precautions: 

• Stay home whenever possible. Ask your support team to get groceries, walk your dog, bring work home from the office, or whatever else you can delegate.
• If you develop a fever of 100.5F or higher, call your doctor right away and start drinking plenty of fluids. Stay well hydrated and get a diagnosis and treatment for whatever is causing your fever.
• If you cough or sneeze, cover your nose and mouth with a tissue and then toss it out. No tissues handy? Turn your face into the crook of your elbow, to keep germs from flying away.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water or alcohol sanitizer – this will kill most germs.
• Avoid people who have a fever, cough, or sneezing, or complain of any flu-like symptoms
• If you feel like you are developing flu symptoms, don’t wait to see if it will just go away. Call your doctor or nurse practitioner and ask for advice or an appointment.
• Follow all local health recommendations. For example, you may be asked to put on a surgical mask to protect others.
• Antiviral Medications: The recommended antiviral drugs for H1N1 flu treatment are oseltamivir (brand name Tamiflu) and zanamivir (brand name Relenza®). Both are prescription drugs that fight against swine flu by keeping flu viruses from reproducing in your body. Your doctor may or may not suggest you take them. It will depend on how serious your infection is and your related co-morbidities (for example chronic lung disease).

Please spread awareness about swine flu among your freinds and family. Please include articles on swine flu in your blogs also. Take precautions and consult doctor before you are effected.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”Prevention is better than cure“!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DISCLAIMER : All data and information provided in this post is for informational purposes only. I do not under take any responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, correctness, suitability, or validity of any information on this post and will not be liable for any kind of damages caused because of this post. Please check out any official website of any hospital or national government to keep yourself updated on details of swine flu and necessary precautions to be taken.