Scitek balita (May 31, 2009)
Broadcast release:  Bago Yan Ah! DZMM

Sa nalalapit na pagbubukas ng mga paaralan para sa bagong school year, hindi maiaalis ang matinding pangambang nararamdaman ng mga magulang dahil nga sa mabilis na pagkalat ng h1n1 virus sa mundo.  Gaano nga ba kaligtas ang mga batang pilipino sa sakit na ito?  May paraan nga ba para maiwasan ito sa nagsisiksikang mga pampublikong paaralan sa Pilipinas?

Ayon sa isang huling pag-aaral ng centre for disease control and prevention sa Atlanta, Georgia, mas maliit ang epekto ng AH1N1 virus sa mga matatanda lalo na yung may edad sisenta hanggang sisenta’y singko,  dahil  mas developed na ang immune system nila kumpara sa mga bata.  mahigit sa 64% daw kasi ng tinamaan ng ah1n1 sa amerika ay lima hanggang dalawampu’t apat na taong gulang. dahil dito, dagdag na ingat ang kailangan para maiwasan ang pagkalat nito sa mga kabataan sa mga  paaralan.

Ayon sa mga eksperto, bukod sa madalas na paghuhugas ng kamay at pag-iwas sa matataong lugar,  napakahalagang maunawaan ng lahat, lalo na ng mga magulang, na kailangang palakasin ang natural na kakayahan ng ating mga katawan laban sa impeksyon, para makaiwas sa kumakalat na mga sakit.  Ang tao ay may immune system na binubuo ng mga natural na  pamamaraan ng paglaban sa mga impeksyon dulot ng bacteria, fungi, virus at mga parasites na nakakapasok sa ating katawan.

Ang immune system ay binubuo ng mga proteins, cells, organs at tissues na nag-uugnayan upang labanan ang impeksyon.

Mistula itong isang masalimuot na military defense system na may iba’t-ibang hanay ng depensa, at uri ng sundalo na lumalaban sa iba’t-ibang uri  ng infecting organisms na kung tawagin ay pathogens.  Ang mga pathogens ay binubuo ng tatlong klase ng  organisms:
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1) Ang bacteria ay single-celled organisms na microscopic at dumarami ng kusa  ng napakabilis.  Ang bacterial infections ay maaring magdulot ng throat infections (streptococcus pyrogenes), tuberculosis (mycrobacterium tuberculosis), food poisoning (salmonella typhimurium, escherichia coli), pigsa (staphylococcus aureus) at cholera (vibrio cholerae).

2) Fungi – dumarami ng kusa kahit walang nangyayaring fertilization.  Maaring magdulot ng sakit na tulad ng buni o ringworm (trichophyton mentagrophytes), alipunga (tinea pedis) o lung infection na dulot naman ng aspergillus. At ang pangatlo ay ang: 3) virus -  na di hamak na mas maliliit pa kesa sa mga cells ng ating katawan at binubuo ng DNA o RNA. Ito ay dumarami lamang sa loob ng isang host cell at pumapasok sa iba pang mga cells pagkatapos nitong sirain ang host cell.

Viral infection ang dahilan ng mga sakit na katulad ng SARS o severe acute respiratory syndrome, HIV na sumisira naman sa immune system ng katawan, ang human papilloma virus o hpv na maaaring maging sanhi ng cervical cancer, influenza virus, german measles, simpleng sipon, bulutong o chicken pox, at cold sores o herpes simplex.  Isa sa pinakamasalimuot na proseso sa ating adaptive immune system ay ang kakayahan  nitong markahan at tandaan o kilalanin  ang mga pathogens o infecting organisms upang sa gayon ay mas maging handa ito sa paglaban  dito sakaling umulit ang sakit.  Ang tawag dito ay adaptive immunity na pinagbasehan naman para makagawa ng mga bakuna laban sa iba’t-ibang sakit.

Kung nais nating lumakas ang ating depensa sa mga matitinding sakit na kumakalat, kailangang maging malusog at handa ang ating immune system para labanan ang mga pathogens na makakalusot sa mga pang-ibabaw nating proteksyon:

1. Kumain ng masustansyang mga pagkain lalo na yung may Vitamin C.  Mas maigi kung sasabayan ito ng Vitamin C supplement.  ayon sa mga pag-aaral, hindi lamang pinalalakas ng Vitamin C ang immune system, ito raw ay antiviral rin.

2. Uminom ng green tea. May taglay raw kasing polyphenols ang green tea.  Ito ay may antiviral effect raw  na mabisang panlaban sa influenza.

3. Gumamit ng turmeric (luyang dilaw)  bilang pampalasa sa pagkain.  Ang turmeric ay may curcumin na anti viral at anti oxidant din.

4. Siguraduhing may taglay na Vitamin E  ang inyong pagkain o di kaya’y uminom ng Vitamin E supplement.  May pag-aaral na tumutukoy sa Vitamin E para pahinain ang viral activity sa sandali ng impeksyon at maibsan ang epekto ng flu sa isang may sakit. Ang mga pagkaing tulad ng whole grains,  berdeng dahon ng gulay, sardinas, egg yolk at mga buto ay mayaman sa Vitamin E.

5.  Magdagdag ng whey protein sa inyong diet.  Ito ay upang masigurong mas marami tayong mga protinang pangdepensa sa impeksyon at mas tumaas ang glutathione levels sa ating dugo.  Ang glutathione ay tumutulong na palakasin ang ating immune system.

Wala pang natutuklasang bakuna laban sa Influenza A H1N1, ngunit sa tulong ng ating immune sytem at mga pamamaraang nabanggit, maaari naman magkaroon ng natural at likas na panlaban ang ating katawan.

Gamitin ang ating kaalaman sa Agham para paghandaan ang mga hamon sa ating buhay. (Courtesy of novovizcayano.i.ph)

Why do we have programmers and companies who offer freeware? Here are some reasons:

1. Early-stage product commercialization (Personal and educational use versions)
- Software that are not for commercial or professional use have lesserfunctionalities. Hence, these are less-powerful compared to the commercial or licensed version.

2. Humanitarian or promotion purposes
- Software of this kind that have its full functionalities and with no restrictions. As a hobbyist, some people develop software for humanitarian reasons. On the other hand, big companies make and donate software for humanitarian reasons but also as promotional materials for the company. (e.g. McDonalds made an educational puzzle game program that illustrates the picture of their meal products)

In computer lingo, to be in particular, free software may be classified as:
1. Trialware vs. Shareware - these are software programs that can be played for limited number of usage or trial-period (e.g. 15-day or 30 times number of usage). Usually, some of the programs’ functionalities are disabled to attract the user to buy the full version. Shareware is an old term that is not applicable nowadays because of the misnomer that “sharing” which may connote that it is right to obtain the software then share it to others. It is not the same as buying a single licensed copy of the software, and then, installing it to several machines or PCs.

2. Freeware - software programs that have its full or basic functionalties that you don’t have to pay for. (e.g. PDF Readers, Image viewers like Irfanview, Anti-virus programs)

3. Open Source program – Unlike trialwares, this type of free software have no restrictions and the source codes of the program are ready for customization. It is a software that can be legally modified by the user for his or her own purposes and it does not have a copyright and ownership or license restrictions. Linux Operating System, MySQL database and OpenOffice suite are some examples of this free software.

4. Other Freeware software – these are software which may be similar from abovementioned but the user may not be aware of the main behavior of the software after installation. It may be fully functional but sometimes it may be harmful, for example, the PC-system configuration may be altered without owner’s informed consent. As a word of advice, do not download it if you are uncertain of the source. (e.g. PC games that has advertising-supported software (adware or malware). On the other hand, old software may be free because of re-engineering. IBM’s Lotus symphony version 1.2 was released in November 2008 after making some arrangements with Openoffice.org suite groups to use their open source software for development. To date, Openoffice version 3 has the ability to open document files formatted from MS-Office Word version 2007.

There are a lot of downloadable software from the Internet, but I think you must be careful in handling these programs. Just ask yourself if really need to have that software in order for you to be secured.

Below are some sites for you to browse on. Again, think twice.

http://www.downloads.com
http://www.filehippo.com
http://www.freeware4pc.com

1. You should have an agreement with the person’s name and number to be your ICE partner. The partner should know some of your medical conditions.

2. The ICE persons’ number should be accessible. For example, a home number is useless if the person works full time in the office. Thus, you can have more than one ICE partner and can be assigned as ICE1, ICE2, ICE# and so on.

3. If you are under 18 years of age, your primary ICE partner is your parent or guardian authorized to make decisions (e.g. Life and death operation).

ICE in my own way: “As Filipino”

I notice in our country, the ICE phenomenon is not very much visible. Even the awareness drive is not obvious. I even tried asking more than 10 professional filipinos about it and it seems the idea is new to to them. To think that this has been practiced in First World countries since May 2005. But as a cellphone user for more than 10 years already, I always put a contact number on my cellphone in case of emergency or misplacing it. I am familiar of more than 5 brands of cellphone and this is what I do:

a. During the analog era of mobile communication, I usually put a sticker name at the back of the cellphone for my ICE partner number.

b. When SMS was introduced, I usually put the ICE number at the Greeting screen as a heading. However, this is only seen everytime you switch on the phone. Some phone models have a feature wherein you can make a scrolling text together with your ICE number while the phone is in standby mode.

c. Today with colored phones, I created a wallpaper that indicates the ICE numbers within. But, what I usually do with my cellphone is to create a note message then show it while on Standby mode.

d. I think in a PDA or other sophisticated phones, you can make a screen saver showing your assigned ICE number.

“Be prepared: ICE your phone”

So, I guess you have your own way of saying to the world that this number on my phone is for your eyes only. I think we will agree that in one way or another, we must be a concerned citizen not just in ordinary days but especially during emergency cases. And, thanks to Mr. Brotchie who encourages people to enter emergency contacts in their cellphone address book under the name “ICE”, he has also urged cellphone manufacturers to put the ICE number as heading screen in every cellphone similar to what I’m doing now. I just hope others will do the same. For your reference, there are organization, blogsite, software and sticker campaigns on the Internet that support this idea of Mr. Brotchie .