In reality, it's not that easy

There is also a risk if the infected sneeze or cough into their hands and then greet others with a handshake. "Basically, it is the trivial things and the normal hygiene measures that are important now," says Wutzler. "So you should sneeze or cough into your handkerchief and then throw it away, and if you don't have one, in your sleeve if necessary, but never in your hand."

Wash your hands thoroughly

The viruses also stick to door handles or other objects, but they do not remain infectious for long. For the reasons mentioned, the professor also considers it extremely important to wash your hands thoroughly with soap. It should also be a matter of course not to have too close contact with travelers returning from the affected regions.

Infection is possible even before the outbreak

"The great danger is that the patients are infectious a day before the illness, but not yet show the symptoms," says Wutzler. He goes on to describe: The viruses are absorbed and multiply in the person's body. This can take hours, maybe a day, before the sudden outbreak occurs. During this time, the affected person, who has not yet been noticed, already excretes the new viruses and can infect others with them. The outbreak manifests itself as fever, chills, cough, runny nose, shortness of breath, headache and body aches. Vomiting or diarrhea can also occur. The risk of infection lasts for up to seven days, with the day before the outbreak being the most dangerous.

Preventing with pills doesn't help

Wutzler explains that it cannot yet be said whether a flu infection or a vaccination offers a certain level of protection. Corresponding drugs such as Tamiflu or Relenza are not available in pharmacies. They would have to be prescribed by the doctor. So you can't take them as a precaution and then lie down, says Wutzler.

Pork is harmless

In view of the swine flu, Federal Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner says that neither pigs nor pork pose a threat. The term swine flu is a "misleading term" because the disease is transmitted from person to person. The virus type that is currently spreading has not yet been detected in pigs. It is only very similar to a flu virus in pigs.

More about health: Don't blow your nose! Twelve tips for sniffing nose Risks with snuff remedies Is nasal spray addictive? Warning, viruses How strong is your immune system?

The Chancellor is trembling - and doesn't really want to say what's going on. Angela Merkel's trembling is a public matter that can have repercussions. 

It happened again. Angela Merkel is trembling. For the third time. When the wind instruments of the Bundeswehr play the German national anthem and Merkel stands next to the Finnish Prime Minister, it shakes her body. For seconds.

"I'm doing very well," she said a little later.123helpme.me Nobody has to worry. Is everything okay then? If anything, is it a purely private matter? Just leave the poor woman alone?

Merkel suffers another tremor

Photo series with 4 pictures

Merkel's trembling is public

It is not that easy. Not only Angela Merkel trembled, Merkel as a private person. The German Chancellor, the most powerful woman in Europe, even in the world, trembled, if you believe the US magazine "Forbes". And publicly, in office and repeatedly. That makes the tremor a public matter.

There is a book by the German historian Ernst H. Kantorowicz, a very old book from 1957, which deals with the political theology of the Middle Ages. That was long ago. Nevertheless, it is still used today when famous or powerful people are sick or show weaknesses. The title of the book: "The Two Bodies of the King".

Merkel is not a queen and she does not live in the Middle Ages. But if you leave all that aside, the book can still explain something today. Kantorowicz differentiates, so to speak, between the public function of a person and the concrete person himself. The two bodies. While one is private and ultimately fleeting, the other is precisely because of his office.

The two bodies of Angela Merkel

Merkel also has these two bodies. Smart people can theoretically tell them apart in books. In reality, it's not that easy. Because when Angela Merkel trembles, the Chancellor always trembles too, especially when it happens in public.

And the tremors can have tangible political ramifications. Politics is tough business. Weaknesses are exploited, including physical weaknesses. Merkel knows that only too well. She is actually known for her constitution and stamina. It is often said that she is fit longest on long nights in negotiating rooms around the world. And therefore goes home with the best results.

In a world of Putins and Trumps, the macho alpha men, this kind of physicality becomes even more important. Merkel has already experienced this herself. In 2007, when she had been chancellor for two years, Merkel traveled to Russia to meet President Vladimir Putin. He had brought his dog Kony with him.

Angela Merkel visited Vladimir Putin and the dog Kony in 2007: "And you can see how I bravely try to look towards Putin and not towards the dog," she later said of the meeting. (Source: CommonLens / imago images)

Photos show a Merkel who feels uncomfortable. Since she was bitten by a dog, she is no longer the animals' greatest friend. "Although I think the Russian President knew very well that I wasn't exactly eager to greet his dog, he brought him with me," she said later. "But that's the way it was."

A classic show of Putin's power - on the one hand. On the other hand, there is also the attempt to possibly gain an advantage in negotiations through Merkel's uncertainty.

The speculation will continue

Merkel now emphasized after her third trembling attack that she was "very firmly convinced that I am able to perform well". She is still in the "processing phase" of the first attack in mid-June. "It is obviously not quite finished, but there is progress." That was how she had justified the second attack. She claims to have treated the first tremor with a couple of glasses of water in the heat. 

Third incident in three weeks: Merkel comments on the recent tremor Repeated tremors: Why do people get tremors?

 The Chancellor did not say more about the background today either. It is uncertain whether she can hold out for long. Rumors can be more incriminating than the truth. And of course there will be further speculation as to how Merkel's two bodies are doing. Because Trump and Putin are already waiting.

Sources used: Own researchInformation on the book "The two bodies of the king" World: What Merkel thought when Putin brought the dogWith information from the news agencies dpa and ReutersAdditional sourcesShow less sources

If a child is diagnosed with a serious illness, it is a shock for the entire family and not only pushes the sick child, but also their parents and siblings to their physical and psychological limits. So that the stressful phase of life for the young patients and their relatives is as bearable as possible despite all the worries, there are now aid associations in many larger cities that support affected families in parallel with medical therapy.

The association for children with cancer and chronically ill children in Darmstadt, founded in 1987 by a couple of doctors, also accompanies around 30 families through difficult times every year. The free and only donated help offers are extremely diverse. They range from handling formalities and organizing private tuition for siblings to financial support and family therapy measures.

The initiative has also set up a psychomotor center for the sick children in its spacious premises. Here, the little patients can let off steam between colorful cushions and foam elements under the expert supervision of a qualified teacher. Physical play becomes therapy and helps to reduce fears and to deal with bad experiences.

Help to accept the disease

Berti Stahlecker has been working for the Darmstadt association for 26 years. The trained nurse and family therapist knows the worries when a child suddenly falls ill. "For most fathers and mothers, it is particularly difficult to endure the suffering of their children during treatment - especially when the outcome of the disease, such as cancer, is uncertain," explains the therapist, who also works twice a week on pediatric oncology the University Hospital Frankfurt is busy. "It is not uncommon for the parents to find themselves in a diagnostic shock at the beginning, not wanting to realize that their child is life-threatening. I then become a kind of 'repeater' for the doctors to carefully explain the state of affairs to the parents and theirs To break up internal paralysis so that they can accept the disease. "

House visits are a special offer of help

Even with very pragmatic support, especially in the first acute phase after cancer diagnosis, the association can relieve families. Parents are advised directly when their child is admitted to the clinic about the organizational and financial support they are entitled to during therapy in the hospital, such as the right to domestic help or the assumption of travel costs to the clinic. But it is not uncommon for such offers, which are often associated with formalities, to overwhelm desperate fathers and mothers. "Then we can take a lot in hand and point the way ahead," says the family therapist.

It is always important to the helpers of the association that nothing is forced on anyone, but that the families decide what they need. However, these needs are very different and depend to a large extent on the social and economic situation of those affected, as well as on the respective diagnosis and the course of the disease.

Berti Stahlecker receives precise insights into the everyday life of the families through her regular home visits, which represent a special offer of help from the association and make up an important part of her work. Only in this way is it possible to really get to know the entire living environment and family structures in order to be able to help in the right place.

Do not lose sight of the needs of your siblings

During her visits, the therapist also focuses on the siblings, who often suffer extremely from the situation, feel put back and alone, because their parents almost exclusively care for their sick child. With joint activities and activities - be it handicrafts, reading or romping afternoons - the association's employees try to get the healthy children out of their spiral of mourning. In such undertakings, explains the expert, the siblings could finally once again be carefree in the center of attention and experience beautiful things, but at the same time would have the opportunity to communicate and possibly tell what worries them.

"The sister of a boy with cancer once confided in me," remembers Berti Stahlecker, "that her mother had absolutely no understanding for her when she expressed the wish to have a party with her friends during Shrovetide. 'How can you Thinking about Carnival while your brother is in the clinic? 'She accused her daughter. " The therapist's task is then to sensitize parents to not losing sight of normal life and the needs of the other siblings despite the stressful situation. "Often the fathers and mothers do not have the strength to recognize that their healthy children also need a lot of attention and also have to do a lot in difficult times."

Children have different ideas about death depending on their age

Although the chances of a cure for children with cancer have increased continuously in recent years due to the advances in modern medicine, the employees of the association also experience time and again that despite all medical efforts a child cannot be cured and will die: "When this time approaches When the time comes, the doctors first prepare the parents for the death of their child. But I also stay in touch during this painful phase and continue to be the contact person for the family at all times. This is all the more important when the child spends its last days at home. " However, Berti Stahlecker cannot clearly answer what her help will look like, because every family deals differently with such a severe loss.

The reaction of children to death depends primarily on the reaction of the parents and other adults in their environment, but it is nevertheless significantly different, as the therapist knows: Smaller children do not yet understand the finality of death and are more likely to see it as being away and sleeping temporarily while older children developed thoughts about immortality and transmigration of souls. "A seriously ill five-year-old imagined that after death he was sitting on a cloud, but his mother would come to him too and look out over the world with him. And an eight-year-old from a devout family, his sister during one of my house calls died, then sat by her bed for a long time and explained to me that his sister's soul was now in heaven.