I'm sure my wife loves me, but she insists that she will never give me a foot massage. Now what's that about? Not too long ago she informed me that would happen "when pigs fly!" Well Barbara, guess what? The swine flu.

So what is all this ruckus about the coming pandemic of swine influenza? Is this the end of modern civilization as we know it? As you read this, the matter may have been resolved and drifted to the back pages of the newspaper. But maybe not. Maybe it will get a lot worse and explode into a great plague involving many countries and continents. At the moment though, that doesn't seem very likely.

Let's think about this for a moment, and try to put things into perspective.

In the first place, the old garden-variety flu has killed many more people in this country and around the world this year than the swine flu has managed to do. The excitement may be that this is something new, that the virus has jumped from one species to another, and that humans seem to be especially vulnerable at this point.

But this has happened before, so it's not really a new occurrence. And we've managed to survive as a species.

And is this really such a virulent virus? There have been deaths reported due to this infection, too many. But apparently not anything out of the ordinary. There are more dangerous bugs out there.

So what should you make of this? What should be your level of concern? Well, I personally feel our elected officials are doing us a disservice when they pronounce that public traffic in airplanes, buses, and subways is potentially unsafe. Certainly we need to be aware of what's going on around us, and we need to know the level of potential infection in our own area and the area to which we may be traveling ( the CDC website provides excellent up-to-date information and it's easy to access ). And if we have chronic diseases that impair our immune systems, we should judiciously avoid large groups in crowded areas. But again, this applies only to areas with a significant known infection rate, and we need to apply a little common sense. We need to be doing this anyway.

By now, you must have heard or read that hand washing and covering your mouth when sneezing or coughing are important considerations in limiting the spread of this or any other infection. That makes sense. But again, common sense is required.

And how do we approach this problem in our medical clinic? I can tell you that we get a lot of calls and a lot of questions regarding this issue. And we see a fair number of people who think they may have contracted swine flu. Yet, most have not been traveling or have not been exposed to anyone from high prevalence areas and who are now sick. When that does occur though, when we see someone with fever and the flu symptoms and with a potential exposure to someone with the swine flu, we will do a nasal swab in the office, testing for the virus. If that test is positive, we will send a sample to Columbia for culturing and a specific determination as to the exact viral type. In the meantime, we will treat the patient with one of two anti-viral medications, both of which are known to be effective. That's an important point. This is a treatable infection.

So my advice would be to pay attention to your news source, and check in on the CDC website periodically. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. And make sure you are doing all of the appropriate things - plenty of rest, plenty of water, eat well, and wash your hands if you are out in the public. Of course, should you develop a fever, aches and pains, and the symptoms of the flu, you will need to be seen. But don't panic. Just make sure you're seen by a health professional.

Oh, and Barbara, if you're reading this, do you want to start with my right foot or with my left?