Ahhhh....Swine Flu

I live in California and yeah I'm kind of freaked out right now. I saw on the news that there are a couple of reported cases around the Bay Area, which is where I live.

 

So, if I develop a cough by tomorrow morning, I'm going to the doctor



Also, I petition to have to name changed from 'swine flu' to 'Bacon Lung'

 

Fortunately no infections on my country yet. I kinda hate the amount of press given to the subject though. I mean, its ok to be alert, but everyone's in state of alarm, or so it seems, and they shouldn't. Panic is not a good way of dealing with things.

 

no one..yet

 

This is ridiculous. These flu cases are even milder than most influenza strains we see every year. 100 people died in Mexico, big deal. They are mostly rural residents who decided not to go to the doctor until the last minute when their fever was over 105.

Grandpa won't last long with that body temperature.

Anyway, until people start raising from the dead I'm not going to seal my air vents. That would make the story more interesting:

"Death toll in Mexico reaches 100 and then drops as victims come back to life."

"Swine Flu victim takes bite out of nurse's arm."

THAT's when you panic.

 

No, that's when it gets awesome.

 

Australia actually has large stockpiles of Tamiflu and Relenza both of which can treat the symptoms of H1N1 and H5N1 (The current Swine and bird flu strains). Meaning it will not kill you unless you are very unlucky (like any flu). I think we had 9 million doses made after the last bird flu outbreak so we're set XD. I'm not sure how many people in Australia have it since we don't have any confirmed cases (Last time i checked) but about 100 suspected though its unlikely many of these people have it....

The only scary thing about all the recent avian flu strains is that they kill healthy people between 15-35 just as commonly as the elderly or very young.

Hopefully swine flu's spread is slowed so that a much more mild strain evolves and immunizes everyone, but really in its current state it is not much to worry about.

The zombie situation would also be good =D

 

The problem with Tamiflu and Relenza is that it only treats the symptoms, not the actual sickness.

 

Well i was kinda incorrect in saying it just treats the symptoms. Both Tamiflu and Relenza stops cell to cell spread of the disease within your body which is the only "cure" we have for any kind of flu (Thus panic should have always been around for the flu =P) . So if you take them before severe symptoms appear you can cure it. However the majority of the time they are only given when the persons body has already begun to fight back.

There is however an even more effective cheaper treatment in development which makes you basically immune to the flu for seven days using the same method of blocking the spread of the flu in your body. Basically you could give one of these pills to everyone in the population and a pandemic would be stopped.

Swine flu is something of a matinee for the worlds anti pandemic procedures

 

no cases in Holland so far, and in all neighbouring countries it is contained.

So no worries for me

 

I lived through bird flu and crazy cows. It's just another disease that won't dare to touch me.

You sir win this thread.

 

*sigh* I just hate when the media takes something like this and tries to start a mass panic about it to pad their ratings.

Out of some 300 million+ people living in the US, ~50 of them have swine flu, and if you tally up the rest of the world there are 300 some cases outside of Mexico, but not one case outside of Mexico has even shown signs of being lethal, and not one fatality has occurred outside of Mexico. I don't think I'm gonna go out buying surgical masks any time soon.

 

@fenix: i like your jonny reco avatar

 

Forecasting the risk is about determining the infection rate:-

• If one person infects less than one other person on average, there is no pandemic, and the virus gradually fades out.
• If one person infects about one other person on average, it's a pandemic and the virus lingers on for a long time.
• If one person infects more than one other person on average, the virus spreads out of control.

That critical figure = number of people you have contact with while you are infectious * probability that you infect a person you are in contact with.



The first factor you can control with isolating people and restricting travel and improving sanitation. The second factor is a property of the virus and the organisms it is infecting.

That's the kind of formula that is used in epidemiology. With enough isolation, you can counter the spread of any virus, it's whether or not you're able and willing to enforce that.

 

I was watching the news last night and they had this guy who was higher up of W.H.O and he was saying that they do look at the rate it spreads and where it is spreading. So someone proves it's just not people coming from Mexico you have it, they won't upgrade it to a level 5 or the dreaded level 6.

 

I'm just wondering how it got all the way from Mexico to Germany.

 

Well according to the World Health Organization, it got there from some people who were in mexico and went to germany.

 

People vacationing in Cancun or what not.

 

I'm still not really sure why people are so freaked out about this, its just a flu that isnt treatable by the flu shot. I've heard this stated eariler: "you have an immune system, it's there for a reason"

I'm kind of seeing this as this year's news broadcaster's way to increase ratings. If Swin flu is really as bad as they say, then what about the regular flu or even chicken pox? I'm pretty sure those are far more common and kill more people annually.

 

They are more common and do kill more people. It's a big deal because it's a disease that normally doesn't target humans but it is.