Seriously thoughtful Run for the Hills! Swine Flu!

[rebarnmom]

I had been caring for my 10 yr-old daughter who was sick with the flu all weekend, before I ever heard the news about this swine variety. Unfortunately she saw the news when we did and it really scared her. I was nervous enough to call the local clinic and they promptly told me that no case of swine flu has been reported in Illinois. I would've thought they would want me to bring her in to at least be tested, but they gave me the impression that I was overreacting and I felt kind' embarrassed for asking. My daughter's doing much better, not totally over it, but I've lost my share of sleep over it.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I often wonder if people actually realise that wearing a face mask is to prevent them from infecting other people, and that it has zero impact on protecting the wearer against infection . Surgeons wear face masks to prevent them infecting the patient - not vice versa.

Actually, one of the vectors for flu infections is from touching infected material and then touching your nose/mouth. A mask will protect against that vector, if nothing else.

[dreams]

And it really doesn't help that we get TV and news reports like this... (after the emergency WHO meeting)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/swine_flu...9yYWlzZXNwYW4-

GENEVA – The World Health Organization has raised its pandemic alert for swine flu to the second highest level, meaning that it believes a global outbreak of the disease is imminent.

WHO says the phase 5 alert means there is sustained human to human spread in at least two countries. It also signals that efforts to produce a vaccine will be ramped up.

WHO has confirmed human cases of swine flu in Mexico, the United States, Canada, Britain, Israel, New Zealand and Spain. Mexico and the U.S. have reported deaths.

[tirsales]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Actually, one of the vectors for flu infections is from touching infected material and then touching your nose/mouth. A mask will protect against that vector, if nothing else.

Not necessarily - a mask is good to actually collect those little buggers and give them to you in nice little portions.

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by bhartman36

This is obviously a serious thing for the elderly and those with compromized immune systems, but it's beyond me why the American media is panicking like this. This is more of a concern for those countries where adequate treatment for the flu isn't available.

Slow news week?

[Moejoe]

Heard my first Swine Flu joke today.

Q: How do you know if you have Swine Flu?

A: You break out in rashers

[taosaur]

Originally Posted by bhartman36

This is obviously a serious thing for the elderly and those with compromized immune systems, but it's beyond me why the American media is panicking like this. This is more of a concern for those countries where adequate treatment for the flu isn't available.

The opposite was true during the 1918 outbreak:

Originally Posted by wikipedia

The Spanish flu pandemic was truly global, spreading even to the Arctic and remote Pacific islands. The unusually severe disease killed between 2 and 20% of those infected, as opposed to the more usual flu epidemic mortality rate of 0.1%.[29][26] Another unusual feature of this pandemic was that it mostly killed young adults, with 99% of pandemic influenza deaths occurring in people under 65, and more than half in young adults 20 to 40 years old.[32] This is unusual since influenza is normally most deadly to the very young (under age 2) and the very old (over age 70). The total mortality of the 1918–1919 pandemic is not known, but it is estimated that 2.5% to 5% of the world's population was killed. As many as 25 million may have been killed in the first 25 weeks; in contrast, HIV/AIDS has killed 25 million in its first 25 years.[29]

It is believed that cytokine storms were responsible for many of the deaths during the 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed a disproportionate number of young adults.[1] In this case, a healthy immune system may have been a liability rather than an asset. Preliminary research results from Hong Kong also indicated this as the probable reason for many deaths during the SARS epidemic in 2003.[4] Human deaths from the bird flu H5N1 usually involve cytokine storms as well.[5] Recent reports of high mortality among healthy young adults in the 2009 swine flu outbreak has led to speculation that cytokine storms could be responsible for these deaths.[6] However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) has indicated that symptoms reported from this strain so far are similar to those of normal seasonal flu,[7] with the CDC stating that there is "insufficient information to date about clinical complications of this variant of swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus infection."[7]

[ThomasMc]

Anyone want to list their favorite pandemic theme books?
A little something to read while we are all "social distancing."

[taosaur]

I'm still trying to figure out the alert system. Is 5 more than ORANGE?

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by rebarnmom

I had been caring for my 10 yr-old daughter who was sick with the flu all weekend, before I ever heard the news about this swine variety. Unfortunately she saw the news when we did and it really scared her. I was nervous enough to call the local clinic and they promptly told me that no case of swine flu has been reported in Illinois. I would've thought they would want me to bring her in to at least be tested, but they gave me the impression that I was overreacting and I felt kind' embarrassed for asking. My daughter's doing much better, not totally over it, but I've lost my share of sleep over it.

You did what any caring mother would do .... they should have been more sympathetic towards you than they were....

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by dreams

And it really doesn't help that we get TV and news reports like this... (after the emergency WHO meeting)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/swine_flu...9yYWlzZXNwYW4-

GENEVA – The World Health Organization has raised its pandemic alert for swine flu to the second highest level, meaning that it believes a global outbreak of the disease is imminent.

WHO says the phase 5 alert means there is sustained human to human spread in at least two countries. It also signals that efforts to produce a vaccine will be ramped up.

WHO has confirmed human cases of swine flu in Mexico, the United States, Canada, Britain, Israel, New Zealand and Spain. Mexico and the U.S. have reported deaths.

But the "alert level" says nothing about how serious the disease is; just how wide-spread it is. Level 4 means that the only cases outside the source country are due to travellers returning from the source country; level 5 (where we are now) means that there have been cases reported of person-to-person transmission in countries other than the source (this has now happened in the UK, for example). Outside Mexico, this really doesn't seem to be a very serious illness, even if you are unfortunate enough to get it.

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Outside Mexico, this really doesn't seem to be a very serious illness, even if you are unfortunate enough to get it.

Yes, it said on the radio yesterday that over 30,000 people die in the US each year from normal flu, and far more are killed on the roads.

I suppose it'd be good to contain it if possible, but it doesn't seem to be anything unduly alarming. (Unless they know more than we do. )

I'm more worried about the state of the Sun.

[pshrynk]

Quintana Roo, the state in Mexico where I'm headed next week, as of yesterday, did not have any reported cases. Just goes to show...

[lilac_jive]

One of my coworkers has been sick and I said, oh maybe you have swine flu. She got mad.

[columbus]

Originally Posted by Moejoe;

Heard my first Swine Flu joke today.

Q: How do you know if you have Swine Flu?

A: You break out in rashers

It's the 'aPORKalypse' now syndrome