The world is scared of the Swine Flu. It shouldn’t be. There are many easily obtained, effective remedies available.

However, the sheer number of 162,000 cases worldwide has some countries scanning the body temperatures of travelers to pinpoint fevers and using other types of scrutiny to detect potential cases of Swine Flu.

Some travelers have been quarantined for up to a week, even though they had no symptoms. Schools and businesses around the world are debating whether or not to keep their doors open.

But do the figures support these kinds of responses?

How Many People Are Dying?

According to CNN, as of August 5, 2009, deaths from the Swine flu worldwide total 1,154. This number is no higher than the number of people who die each year from seasonal flu strains.

Even these numbers are up for debate, as the Center for Disease Control has claimed that 36,000 people die per year from the flu, but only 1,000-2,000 cases on average have been reported per year. The British Medical Journal pondered this discrepancy in its 2005 article, “Are US flu death figures more PR than science?” concluding that the numbers are inflated to scare the public in order to sell more vaccines.

Lets compare the above numbers to the estimated number of people who die in America from errors and infections from hospitals and adverse effects of medication. In the year 2000 the Journal of the American Medical Association published an article entitled, “Is US Health Really the Best in the World?,” which estimates that doctors and drugs could be the number one cause of death in America, causing almost 500,000 deaths every year.

That’s more deaths per day in America from conventional medicine and pharmaceuticals, than has been caused by the Swine flu, worldwide for it’s entire existence. We may want to change our focus and decide if it’s wise to combat flu with more conventional medicine.

Problems with Conventional Drugs

As a society, we look to big pharmaceuticals for the solutions to scary problems. Right now the drugs being used to treat people with the H1N1 virus or Swine Flu are Tamiflu, Relenza and Laninamivir. Each of these drugs has questionable effectiveness, along with mild to serious side effects, especially for children.

Side effects from the vaccines, which are being produced by the millions, are not even known yet. Mercury is only one of several potentially toxic ingredients and animal byproducts, which are often found in vaccines.

Many detrimental effects of vaccines are suspected to occur in the long term, and have been indicated as the cause of many autoimmune diseases. Are these therapies true cures for the swine flu or are they billion dollar scare tactics? One must wonder, is using the drugs and vaccines really worth the risk?

Safe Treatments for Swine Flu

There are many safe defenses that have been used effectively against influenza. In multiple studies, elderberry extract has been shown to eliminate all symptoms, without side effects, within 2 days in 93% of influenza A and B patients (those taking a placebo recovered in about 6 days). These findings of lead researcher, Erling Thom of the University of Oslo in Norway, were presented at the 15th Annual Conference on Antiviral Research.

Other treatment agents, which have been used and studied for decades include super nutrition (this means eating whole foods and supplements, not processed products of the westernized diet), Garlic (a clove is equal to an adult dose of antibiotics), Onion, Echinacea, Astragalus, and Oregano (essential oil).

Oregano oil outperformed 18 other antibiotics against antibiotic resistant MRSA (a strep infection found in many hospitals). Many essential oils have powerful anti-viral properties. These oils can be taken internally (if pure) or just applied to the bottoms of the feet and will kill infection throughout the body.

There are alternatives to pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines that have unknown efficiency and detrimental side effects. We don’t need to be held hostage to scare tactics, or forced to take “necessary” vaccinations.

Lets educate ourselves about tried and true therapies, get aggressive with what we know is safe, and make our own informed decisions so we don’t have to live in fear.

Start learning now.