Swine flu, your opinion?

[njalli]

There have been over 400 confirmed cases, in 12 countries, and these numbers get bigger every day.

Do you think that there will be a pandemic?

Do you think that this is going to affect your life?

Are you anyhow scared about this?

Tell me about what you think.

[Petter]

Yes it's gods wrath, we're all done for. Bye earth.

[go12_3]

At least we don't get affected through the Internet!   But, seriously, viruses are going to happen and when ppls are aware and take the precaution to be careful, then it ought not to affect ppls.  However , in the usa, in Texas and Alabama, had to close several schools.  So 29 states now are reported as having this swine flu.  Indeed, those that are travelling abroad will think twice.  Thousands of Americans are fleeing from Mexico....so that won't be a tourist attraction. It's serious stuff going around.....take care....

best wishes,

go12_3

[njalli]

now there have been confirmed cases from 13 countries.

[thalbergmad]

I phoned the swine flu helpline today, but got nothing but crackling.

Thal

[weissenberg2]

I am not scared at all for some reason. There probably will be a pandemic but I don't think it will affect my life to much.

[thalbergmad]

I could do with a couple of weeks off work

[weissenberg2]

I could do with a couple of weeks off work

and if they are skeptic than bring in a bag of vomit to prove it.

[aslanov]

i doubt this is going to be any bigger than say......the influenza viruses that we would have without swine flu, which have and DO claim more lives than swine flu, MUCH more lives.

anybody else recall the ridiculously overhyped media coverage on say....bird flu, SARS, anthrax in your envelopes, legionnaires, lysteria...it goes on and on. its all the media coverage that hypes it up. I mean if you just look at the number of people confirmed with this you'll see that that number is a statistical certainty relative to the countries population. if that number of people didnt have it, swine flu wouldnt be much of a virus now would it, it would always get bullied by all those other viruses that at least have the balls to affect a minimum number of people.

[shortyshort]

I just think that it's a good job pigs don't get man-flu.

They would not cope.

[njalli]

Its possible that this is just something with the media, BUT i dont think so, because the WHO is really concerned about this. and that comes from WHO (world health organization) not the media.

[Bob]

I just think that it's a good job pigs don't get man-flu.

They would not cope.

They do.  Pigs and humans can share viruses, like this swine flu.  Pass them back and forth.  I was surprised.  Apparently pig and chicken farmers pass flu like this back and forth all the time.  Or have an immunity built up against it.  That's what I heard.

There seems to be a big concern about a flu strain every few years.  At least it's just before the summer so it will die away faster. 

I was thinking bird flu, and then along comes swine flu.  The real serious one will probably be monkey flu or something else like that.

I think the government is just following through on what it has to, but it's probably nothing.  If it does turn out to be big and they did nothing, they would be majorly critized for that. 

[ahinton]

I phoned the swine flu helpline today, but got nothing but crackling.

Thal

Nice one, old chap, but I cannot help but think that you're telling porkies here; in fact, so unlikely is your stroy that I am tempted to respond to it with an admittedly ungrammatical perversion of the old cliché "pigs might have flew" (though it snout to do with me, guv)...

Best,

Alistair

[njalli]

Flu viruzes dont often infect between different species. But they sometimes do.

[shortyshort]

Flu viruzes dont often infect between different species. But they sometimes do.

Thank you for that piece of information.

I feel enlightened.

[Bob]

Worst case is 1,700 people in the U.S.?  That's it?  Worst case?  (Good)  That's a percent of a percent. 
https://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090501/sc_livescience/worstcasescenarioforfluestimated;_ylt=Ajor2LZxEVdiMlX0RCwWupMDW7oF

https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090501/ap_on_he_me/med_swine_flu_virus;_ylt=AnrCgFUITdsT4Qnuks5Ch1wDW7oF


This is what we should be worried about.... mole people.  Don't be fooled with a "sea otter" label on the pic.  Those are sleeping mole people.
https://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/animal-trainers/photo//090401/photos_ywitness/9788df321527f6f8e237e50621ce90e0/;_ylt=ArkuO7CI6MaVosKO9JQn13IDW7oF

[njalli]

This i got from WHO:

2 May 2009 -- The situation continues to evolve. As of 06:00 GMT, 2 May 2009, 15 countries have officially reported 615 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection.

Mexico has reported 397 confirmed human cases of infection, including 16 deaths. The 241 rise in cases from Mexico compared to 23:30GMT of 1 May reflects ongoing testing of previously collected specimens. The United States Government has reported 141 laboratory confirmed human cases, including one death.

The following countries have reported laboratory confirmed cases with no deaths - Austria (1), Canada (34), China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (1), Denmark (1), France (1), Germany (4), Israel (2), Netherlands (1), New Zealand (4), Republic of Korea (1), Spain (13), Switzerland (1) and the United Kingdom (13).

Further information on the situation will be available on the WHO website on a regular basis.

WHO advises no restriction of regular travel or closure of borders. It is considered prudent for people who are ill to delay international travel and for people developing symptoms following international travel to seek medical attention, in line with guidance from national authorities. There is also no risk of infection from this virus from consumption of well-cooked pork and pork products. Individuals are advised to wash hands thoroughly with soap and water on a regular basis and should seek medical attention if they develop any symptoms of influenza-like illness.

There is also no risk of infection from this virus from consumption of well-cooked pork and pork products. Individuals are advised to wash hands thoroughly with soap and water on a regular basis and should seek medical attention if they develop any symptoms of influenza-like illness.

Related links

[silverchair87]

how it'll affect you depends on where you live unfortunately. In the UK, we've stocked up on all kinds of antibiotics and antivirals and everyone seems to be recovering from it, but also helps that we knew what we were looking for. There's been a few cases just an hour from where I live, but nobody seems to be that bothered by it. They go into hospital and get medication, and leave a couple of days later. It's no worse than the normal seasonal flu, just that we haven't built up an immunity to it yet, so need help getting over it.

It has been hyped up somewhat, but rather that than not knowing what's going on!

I'm a little concerned as I have a genetic respiratry disease but I'll deal with it if I get it...more important things to worry about than getting ill.

[njalli]

i agree with you about it not being worse than a seasonal flu, but 1/3 of people that get sick in mexico die from this virus. I think mabie next winter, when this flu has adapted more to the other countries, then it will become more of a concirne

[concerto_love]

What do I think about swine flu?
I'm worry that my country won't be ready for it. Yes that they're already make warning or such. But if they found a case, I'm not sure they can handle it..

[njalli]

and where do you live?

[silverchair87]

i agree with you about it not being worse than a seasonal flu, but 1/3 of people that get sick in mexico die from this virus. I think mabie next winter, when this flu has adapted more to the other countries, then it will become more of a concirne

Well Mexico has apparently confirmed over 200 cases and there've only been around 30 confirmed deaths, so...not quite 1/3 yet. But Mexico was always going to be hit worse as they were first. They didn't know what was causing the illness and therefore couldn't treat it, hence the deaths. That's not to say that it isn't a terrible thing, but I think it's still a bit early to say how frightened we should really be.

[concerto_love]

and where do you live?

Indonesia

[cai hong]

Swine flu caused a big panic in all over the world. My country started to stock up tamiflu in a big number. There is still no official warning from the health department yet in my country, but everyone started to know that swine flu is not something to be called easy, especially that some people are reported passed away in Mexico, United States, and Europe because of swine flu. I hope the doctors would found the cure for it.

[njalli]

cai hong, where do you live?

my countrie has over tamiflu for over 33% of the nation and i live in iceland.

[cherub_rocker1979]

cai hong, where do you live?

my countrie has over tamiflu for over 33% of the nation and i live in iceland.

Indonesia

[csharp_minor]

anybody else recall the ridiculously overhyped media coverage on say....bird flu, SARS, anthrax in your envelopes, legionnaires, lysteria...it goes on and on. its all the media coverage that hypes it up.

Thats JUST what I was going to say! legionnaires disease that was in the 80s? SARS 90s, bird flu 2005? Not fogetting Mad Cow disease of the 90s! and Foot and mouth (But these may have been restricted to Europe ) . Anthrax and lysteria, I don't remember them maybe I'm too young to know about those ones.

 

[Petter]

All the old rich ladies who enjoy good contacts with their private doctors stocked up on Tamiflu. In the "posh" areas of Stockholm you can't get any at the pharmacy. They're probably eating it cause they suspect their pollen allergic is the swine flu, so if/when the flu reaches Sweden the disease probably has mutated into something like combined plague-leprosy. 

[silverchair87]

Thats JUST what I was going to say! legionnaires disease that was in the 80s? SARS 90s, bird flu 2005? Not fogetting Mad Cow disease of the 90s! and Foot and mouth (But these may have been restricted to Europe ) . Anthrax and lysteria, I don't remember them maybe I'm too young to know about those ones.

God, I remember nearly all of those! Foot and mouth disease and mad cow disease were absolutely ridiculous. Don't eat beef, don't go near farms, don't do this, don't do that. Well, I'm sorry but I love beef and I live in a small town completely surrounded by farms.

Yeh, it's not a nice illness, this swine flu, but it's always the same with these things. They need us to be aware of what could happen at worst.

I have what I would normally say is a cold, but maybe it's actually swine flu. As if, but I can imagine hundreds of thousands of people going to the doctors with a common cold because they think they might have swine flu. I feel for all the doctors, they must be having a hell of a time.

[Bob]

Now I start wondering when I have a dry throat oryes, allergies.  Could be swine flu. 

(Bob coughs all over the thread.)  If I'm going down, I'm taking you all with me.  Muah ha ha....   

[Bob]

I think I'm catching a cold.  I *hope* I'm catching a cold.  Better be a cold. 

Here I'll be.  Slowly fading away on the PS forum.  Just my luck to die of a flu named after a pig too.  (Bob hacks and coughs.)

[muscleman]

Totally blown out of porportion!  There are around 36,000 deaths each year from the regular flu and we do not hear of that being a pandemic.  This scare has already begun to quiet down although there continue to be more confirmed cases.  Media hype!

[aewanko]

Of course it's nothing but media hype. And to add to this overblown situation, they changed the name to "Influenza A H1N1" so that it would sound even scarier.
And the usual exaggerated statistics.

[morningstar]

Influenza A H1N1 sounds like something out of a movie where a mad scientist makes a virus or something, just designed to freak us out. We just had our first confirmed Swine Flu case in Queensland, was all over the papers but no one here seems to be overly worried since the normal flu generally takes more of a toll here.

[tanman]

OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH! 
swine flu has just reached my island 



*panics... washes hands every 5 seconds... hides a bottle of hand sanitizer in back pocket

[gep]

OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH! 
swine flu has just reached my island 



*panics... washes hands every 5 seconds... hides a bottle of hand sanitizer in back pocket

So far, the CNN virus has caused 2 (=two) death outside of Americe (and a few hundred inside), both people already being severly ill. In my country a leading microbiologist has stated the the Mexican flu (not called swine flu as to not upset the islamic and jewish community) will "explode" coming fall, causing "up to 30% of the population falling ill" (that's some 6 million people) with "between 8000 and 12000 deaths" (that's 10-15 times what every year dies of "normal" flu).
I find that very clever of him, this being a new (recombination) strain of the H1N1 virus, that has as yet not fully stabilized, and thus mutates still fairly quickly (as viruses are wont, this one simply doing it a bit faster). This means that nobody can predict how it will develop, it may develop into something like the 1917/18 Spanish Flu (also a H1N1 strain) which was pretty mild the first 6 months after appearance but then mutated into something way more virulent. At present, I think it is fully unpredictable how this virus will develop. (“New”) viruses have the tendency to start mutating their virulence once they start transferring from people to people, usually either becoming much milder over time, or much more aggressive. The latter happened with the strain that caused the Spanish Flu outbreak. If this new strain should develop something similar, we’re in for something pretty horrendous; the 1918 flu, once it became virulent, spread very fast over the world despite worldwide traffic then being much more slow and less developed as it is now. So when this new strain should become as virulent as that 1918 strain one might expect it to travel across the globe way faster as then, perhaps a matter of days to reach pretty much everywhere. Combined with the deadliness of the 1918 strain the cost in human lives could be tremendous, with all associated troubles. Think Medieval Plague scenario. But at present I do not believe anyone could predict how this is going to evolve. Based on the present situation and information I do not think there is reason to panic. It might explode, but just as much might slowly evolve to become just one of the several hundred different flu viruses present. We will have to wait and see.

Unfortunately, perhaps, it’s summertime, always a slow time and the papers/talkshows/whatnot have to remain filled to draw buyers/viewers. And sensation(alism) sells….

Btw, washing your hands very often, especially when also using desinfectants, may actually increase your vulnerabillity to infections, since you start removing the residential bacteria on/in your skin that help protect you agianst transient (infectuous) bacteria and suchlike. You can be too clean!

All best,
Gep

[richard black]

The problem with swine flu is not thousands of people dying, it's millions of people being off work all at the same time and the economy grinding to a halt as a result.

[thalbergmad]

I thought ours already had old boy, so a lot of people who did have a job can suffer from home.

Thal

[kelly_kelly]

Lots of people in my area have gotten flu lately, and a few have been confirmed to have swine flu. But it's to the point that the doctors aren't even seeing people for flu anymore. And when they test, they often just say "Influenza Type A" (which includes swine flu), but they don't actually test for swine flu because people will just panic unnecessarily. In my area, it just seems to have been a severe-ish case of flu, unusual mostly because flu isn't usually so common during the summer.

[ahinton]

So far, the CNN virus has caused 2 (=two) death outside of Americe (and a few hundred inside), both people already being severly ill. In my country a leading microbiologist has stated the the Mexican flu (not called swine flu as to not upset the islamic and jewish community) will "explode" coming fall, causing "up to 30% of the population falling ill" (that's some 6 million people) with "between 8000 and 12000 deaths" (that's 10-15 times what every year dies of "normal" flu).
I find that very clever of him, this being a new (recombination) strain of the H1N1 virus, that has as yet not fully stabilized, and thus mutates still fairly quickly (as viruses are wont, this one simply doing it a bit faster). This means that nobody can predict how it will develop, it may develop into something like the 1917/18 Spanish Flu (also a H1N1 strain) which was pretty mild the first 6 months after appearance but then mutated into something way more virulent. At present, I think it is fully unpredictable how this virus will develop. (“New”) viruses have the tendency to start mutating their virulence once they start transferring from people to people, usually either becoming much milder over time, or much more aggressive. The latter happened with the strain that caused the Spanish Flu outbreak. If this new strain should develop something similar, we’re in for something pretty horrendous; the 1918 flu, once it became virulent, spread very fast over the world despite worldwide traffic then being much more slow and less developed as it is now. So when this new strain should become as virulent as that 1918 strain one might expect it to travel across the globe way faster as then, perhaps a matter of days to reach pretty much everywhere. Combined with the deadliness of the 1918 strain the cost in human lives could be tremendous, with all associated troubles. Think Medieval Plague scenario. But at present I do not believe anyone could predict how this is going to evolve. Based on the present situation and information I do not think there is reason to panic. It might explode, but just as much might slowly evolve to become just one of the several hundred different flu viruses present. We will have to wait and see.

Unfortunately, perhaps, it’s summertime, always a slow time and the papers/talkshows/whatnot have to remain filled to draw buyers/viewers. And sensation(alism) sells….

Btw, washing your hands very often, especially when also using desinfectants, may actually increase your vulnerabillity to infections, since you start removing the residential bacteria on/in your skin that help protect you agianst transient (infectuous) bacteria and suchlike. You can be too clean!

All best,
Gep

Good to have some educated and informed common sense from a microbiologist! Any more of them here, by chance?...

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

Could be Dr Doris.

[gep]

Could be Dr Doris.

While there are certainly doctors and presumably a number of them are called Doris, I'm neither of the two. My job, however, is to search for harmfull bugs. And here I am, finding you again and again!

[ahinton]

While there are certainly doctors and presumably a number of them are called Doris, I'm neither of the two. My job, however, is to search for harmfull bugs. And here I am, finding you again and again!

But does your job entail only finding these things? - i.e., does your remit not extend also to finding antidotes thereto?

I have yet to meet a doctor or a microbiolgist called Doris, by the way...

Best,

Alistair

[gep]

But does your job entail only finding these things? - i.e., does your remit not extend also to finding antidotes thereto?

That would be more on the line of a medical microbiologist. As part of my study I did work for half a year at a hospital laboratory, and indeed there were made cultures with various antibiotics to find the right one. Currently I work at a food factory, and production should be under control to the effect that I would be unable to find any bug anywhere. My job is to kind of prove that wrong, i.e. find such places that are not under control, if they exist. That's probably the reason people go "oh bugger!", or "bugger off!" when they see me coming...

An antidote to Thal? A Thalectomy would do the trick (or remove the tick) too, I'd guess!

I have yet to meet a doctor or a microbiolgist called Doris, by the way...

The only Dorisses I'm aware of is Doris Day and a cat named such (Doris, not Day).

[ahinton]

That would be more on the line of a medical microbiologist. As part of my study I did work for half a year at a hospital laboratory, and indeed there were made cultures with various antibiotics to find the right one. Currently I work at a food factory, and production should be under control to the effect that I would be unable to find any bug anywhere. My job is to kind of prove that wrong, i.e. find such places that are not under control, if they exist. That's probably the reason people go "oh bugger!", or "bugger off!" when they see me coming...

An antidote to Thal? A Thalectomy would do the trick (or remove the tick) too, I'd guess!

A Thaloscopy beforehand would surely be advisable, though, would it not? Also, since you mention the making of cultures, let us not, for the sake of balance and fairness, ignore the contributions to culture that Thal makes...

Best,

Alistair

[Bob]

I'm curious about what will happen this fall, if the swine flu will survive and make a come back or not.  Supposed to be potentially nasty if it does.

Of crouse, there's some big epidemic about the wipe out the world every few years... Maybe one of those will come back.

[zheer]

I'm curious about what will happen this fall, if the swine flu will survive and make a come back or not.  Supposed to be potentially nasty if it does.

 I wouldn't worry, it will spread but there is medication. 

[nia_kurniati]

I cancel my vacation to europe this September because of this. Worry for having it in airplane. I hope I dont have to cancel it again March '10

[thalbergmad]

Mrs Blair has got it.

hahahahahahahaha

Thal

[ahinton]

Mrs Blair has got it.

hahahahahahahaha

Or so it has been reported (in the UK Independent newspaper, I think). Not to worry; even if it's true, the best possible private medical treatment will be immediately on hand for her (as will someone who'll probably find a way to charge its cost to the taxpayer as an expense) and, upon full recovery, she will doubtless use her expertise as a lawyer to sue whoever she may deem responsible for her contracting it (with the tab for this being likewise taken up by the same taxpayer)...

Best,

Alistair