Anyone Worried About H1N1/Swine Flue?

Ahh, viruses are my bread and butter. I agree with this talk about it being over-hyped. We have to have a good viral scare every couple of years - get everybody scared about the next pandemic flu!

I remember a couple years ago when I was in Birmingham, AL, and people were sure West Nile Virus was going to be the death of us all. Every dead bird sent people running scared. Kind of fizzled out.

The biggest danger when you get the flu is the complications, not the virus itself. People that die usually had other complications - dehydration, secondary infections like pneumonia. The one death here in the U.S. was actually a kid from Mexico whose parents drove him all the way to the U.S. for treatment when they really should have taken him to their local hospital.

Bottom line - exercise good personal hygiene. Try to avoid people who have outward symptoms. If you are sick, don't "suck it up" and go to work and infect everybody around you. Drink lots of liquids, get lots of rest, let your body work. For young kids (who are most at risk, as their immune systems are not yet as fully developed), monitor them, keep in contact with your pediatrician (ours has a nurses' line, and they are good at calling back within an hour) should your child start to show symptoms, and get them to the doctor if things worsen.

 

Yea, the WHO probably just raises the threat level for kicks...

 

Is that its real name H1M1?

 

H1N1 is the real name of it.
That's the real name of it. The pork industry is really trying to get people to call it H1N1 because some people have actually stopped buying pork because they think it will make them sick. Of course, this is because the media continues to refer to it as 'swine flu'.
Eating pork is not how you contract the swine flu, but apparently a lot of people think it is.

 

uhh, actually...

dang, beat me to it!

"supposedly", they were here to visit family, and the kid just happened to have it....could be true, but I'm skeptical

 

Yeah, H1N1 is the correct name.

There are 2 proteins on the flu virus surface, abbreviated H and N - the particular strain is identified by the particular H and N proteins on the surface. In this case, they are the variants designated "1."

For example, the strain that is commonly referred to as "bird flu" has the designation H5N1.

The reason they are so concerned is that the strain that caused the "Spanish Flu" pandemic of 1918/19 was also H1N1, but a particularly nasty strain. That doesn't mean that all H1N1 flu is going to be that bad - in fact, H1N1 is fairly common, and was responsible for half of all flu infections in 2006.

Keep in mind the statistics of that horrible pandemic - worldwide, the infection rate was 20% of the global population. Of those infected, the fatality rate was 2-2.5%. So even if you were infected, you had a 98% chance of coming out fine. That is a worst case scenario. So far we aren't seeing anywhere near those levels. There is also the interesting point that, thus far, no actual Americans have died from it, just a Mexican boy who had been brought to the U.S. Perhaps the virus is more virulent as it first makes the jump from animal (potentially pigs) to man, but as it then passes from person to person, it decreases in virulence, so that the more it is spread, the less harmful it becomes.

The WHO is concerned in terms of how far it has spread. They want to contain it in case it does prove to be more virulent.

 

Exactly right.

It's a great time to be buying pork, though. All of the local groceries have pork on special right now (went to all three in the area searching for something a day or two ago).

 

happy102happy102happy102
Never thought of that!!!

 

The H1N1 Swine flu is something to watch, but there's no reason to go nuts about it yet. It's prudent to close some schools, particularly the lower grades because dangerous complications are more common in young children. The reason it has people alarmed is because it is a somewhat novel virus. We have no group immunity to it because it is a new cross species jump. Add to this that it is an out of season flu and people notice it more. The lack of group immunity causes it to infect a much larger portion of the non-young or elderly populations than a normal flu. This means that it is hitting the people with the strongest immune systems by and large. The 1918 pandemic was a similar type of strain, but had one major difference. It caused an overactive immune response called a cytokine storm which caused hemorrhaging in the lungs and mucous membranes. There is no indication that this current H1N1 strain has this dangerous characteristic.

Soap and detergents will kill the flu virus outright (that's actually how they deactivate the virus when making the vaccines), so washing your hands often is a very prudent thing to do. Avoid people who are wheezing and coughing and crowded places in general. Tamiflu and Relenza are effective against this strain, so if you come down with flu symptoms, just go see your doctor like you would for a normal case of the flu.

 

nope................

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Is that you, Rick?

You let little kids lick you? :happy102

 

Eeeewwwww who knows where that kid has been! :happy102

 

I'm not too worried about it.

 

i went into my local home depot today to pick up some masks to wear while i mow my yard. If i don't wear one my allergies go bonkers. i couldn't believe every single mask had been sold. Funny thing is I don't think this type of mask will stop the virus. Just dust particles.

govt website says to wash hands.....eat healthy foods. get plenty of rest
and exercise. sound familiar at all?

 

You are correct, sir. They won't stop the virus. The simple paper ones certainly won't. The more rigid ones that are meant to control exposure to tuberculosis might help a little more, but not really. They help if the virus is in particularly large droplets, but one of the ways that scientists were originally able to distinguish viruses from bacteria was based on the fact that viruses passed through most filters that excluded the much larger bacteria. And they used pretty fine filters. Will they add some protection? Sure. But practicing good hygiene is going to be much more effective.

 

There's a company that's selling designer surgeon's masks. The masks were actually developed for doctor's who work with children, but why not cash in on the opportunity.

www.flufashion.net

I got a good laugh out of it. There's also an artist in California selling masks with some really crazy designs, but they're not actual medical grade masks.

 

http://blogs.chron.com/sciguy/

THe above is about the only resource I'm using for now. I can't stand the media hype and this guy keeps a level head and reports facts.

 

recent anecdote:

was at the dentist yesterday, while the dentist was working on me, the secretary came in and asked him how many boxes of masks he wanted to order.
Bear in mind this was apparently part of a previously ongoing conversation where they apparently had to search around and get prices from other companies since their usual source was sold out.....yup, you guessed it, due to swine flu knee-jerk reaction

I just found it funny and sad at the same time

 

My wife said the little old ladies at the grocery store the other day were panicking that they wouldn't be able to buy their fresh produce, since it had all come from Mexico. I guess they don't wash their veggies before they eat them!

If people actually looked at how common a global pandemic with high fatality rates is, they'd be really surprised.

 

Local school closed for several days due to the flu. Confirmed
NBC-2