Swine Flue [maybe] hits my area

[vping]

I wonder why May 11th. Most news reports I've seen have stated that schools are closed or sports have been canceled until the 11th. What's the significance?

 

[drooartz]

For us, that's a week from when we got confirmation of our first case.

 

[PAUL161]

As in the days of the plague, nature will take it's sweet time and it's due course. Man can start and stop a lot of things, but that fact that we still don't have the cure for a common cold should tell us all something about what nature can do better than us.

I agree %100! There will never be a cure for the common cold in our time. Reason. Think about how many company's who sell drugs, potions and witches brews pertaining to the common cold that would be out of business over night.

but, we need to keep them in business at the present time, as their helping to strengthen the economy.

 

[Tinster]

First case here in Puerto Rico.

A texas teen visits Mexico, returns home and boards a
jet for New York city, ill in NYC but transfers jets
and flies to San Juan.

They are now trying to locate ALL passengers on both
planes the teen flew on.

Several uninhabited, small islands off the coast of PR
are looking might inviting for the short term..

 

[Nunyas]

Last I heard was this new strain of flu is weaker than the regular flu... Gotta love the media and their way of spinning everything into the worst thing ever or the best thing ever...

 

[DNK]

Actually the biggest concern is for next flu season. They really don't know yet how it will mutate and the impact could be 100 times worse.

 

[Tinster]

Actually the biggest concern is for next flu season. They really don't know yet how it will mutate and the impact could be 100 times worse.

That's real scary, Don.
I'm on the primary, critical list for flu shots
because of my lungs. Puerto Rico got almost no quantity
of flu vaccine from the States this season. I got no
shot but I did get the flu in early January.
Almost didn't make it when combined with the chemical burn
my lungs also suffered at the same time frame.

d

 

[tony barnhill]

Guys! What a hoax this thing is! Sure, there's another strain of flu out there but its not a pandemic...what maybe a cdouple hundred people areinfected & 1 or 2 have died? How many people die in the US every year from the regular flu? 30,000? And we don't make a big deal out of those deaths - or hundreds of thousnads of illnesses.....

Just the media having something to talk about (& scaring people along the way!).

 

[DNK]

1 or 2 have died?

Better check again

 

[tony barnhill]

So, how many are confirmed to have died? Who really knows - not many actually once all the tests are done & confirmation is made! Way less than 50 worldwide, I just learned!

"Mexico's Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos said on Thursday that the number of confirmed swine flu deaths has increased to 12, from eight on Wednesday, adding that a total of 270 cases of human infection had been confirmed.

Cordova said late Wednesday that 17 people died that day with symptoms consistent with influenza A/H1N1, bringing the total deaths believed to be associated with the disease to 176."

...."symptons consistent with" & believed to be associated with" isn't the same as "confirmed".

Oh, to date, "Mexico has reported 25 confirmed deaths from the virus, while the United States has one."

"The World Health Organization says more than 1,000 cases of the swine influenza A-H1N1 have been confirmed in 20 countries."

Still a drop in the bucket compared to annual deaths from flu here in the US:

"An estimated 100,000 hospitalizations and about 20,000 deaths occur each year from the flu or its complications. (Source: excerpt from Focus On The Flu: NIAID) ... average of 20,000 to 40,000 deaths per year. (Source: excerpt from Microbes in Sickness and in Health - Publications, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases: NIAID) ... in the United States more than 100,000 people are hospitalized and more than 20,000 people die from the flu and its complications every year. (Source: excerpt from The Flu, NIAID Fact Sheet: NIAID) ... In an average year, flu leads to about 20,000 deaths nationwide and many more hospitalizations. (Source: excerpt from What to Do About the Flu - Age Page - Health Information: NIA) "

"Death rate extrapolations for USA for Flu: 63,729 per year, 5,310 per month, 1,225 per week, 174 per day, 7 per hour, 0 per minute, 0 per second. Note: this automatic extrapolation calculation uses the deaths statistic: 63,730 annual deaths for influenza and pneumonia (NVSR Sep 2001); estimated 20,000 deaths from flu (NIAID)."

Again, why are we so concerned with this when we brush off 20,000 deaths per year? Answer: the media!

 

[NutmegCT]

Hmmm - maybe before we all start laughing too hard ... we might want to actually stay aware of what's going on.

A "new" strain of influenza that's popping up in countries all over the globe at once - doesn't sound like the "regular flu" to me. Especially because it's popping up in late spring.

OK - so millions of people haven't come down with it. But it's only been recognized for less than two weeks.

So comparing "regular flu" with this new strain, and saying "no big deal", may be a bit premature.

'Fraid I can't join in blaming "the media" for reporting what's happened so far, and how folks react to it. And by "the media" I sure hope we're talking about more than local and network TV and blogs. There's a *lot* of sources out there.

Besides, I don't think most folks "brush off" 20,000 deaths a year from *anything*. Even one death brings tragedy to someone.

T.

 

[tony barnhill]

Even one death brings tragedy to someone.

Completely agree with you on that one!

 

[aerog]

Sometimes it's a matter of perspective. Something like 96 people die in car wrecks in the US <span style="font-style: italic">every day</span>. I'm not worried in the least about the flu.

 

[Tinster]

Tom's right on correct with his opinion.
This flu is a much different apple from
the orange flu we get every year. Until we
get more data, the media is simply reporting.

Directly from the World Health Organization web site:

<span style="color: #990000">"Why are we so worried about this pandemic possibility when
thousands die every year from seasonal epidemics?

Seasonal epidemics occur every year and we are able to treat
the virus with seasonal vaccines.

A pandemic is a worldwide epidemic. It is a new virus and one
to which the populations will have no immunity."</span>

 

[drooartz]

I'd much rather see much ado about nothing than the other way around. As noted earlier, the school district I work for is closed all of this week -- all staff and students are to stay home. With 1 confirmed case and 9 probable, there really wasn't another choice.

Had we not closed and someone got really sick, we'd be in trouble. Can't win either way on this one. I have been pleased with the way our school officials have handled this with the public, though. They've been very calm and explained the whats and whys in a professional manner.

I don't watch TV, so I miss the most of the hype. On the truly local level here things seem to be fairly reasonable. Your mileage may vary, of course.

ps: A benefit for me is that I got quite a bit done on my Bugeye today. Not bad for a Monday.

 

[tony barnhill]

So, now its 1,100 'reported' cases worldwide & the WHO is thinking about raising the threat level to the highest possible!?!

What happens when we have a real pandemic?

How do you spell "WOLF"?

& the old <span style="font-style: italic">"I'd rather err on the safe side"</span> is just a way of not taking responsibility for your decisions!

One of our local private schools chose to not close when all the public school systems did & continued on as usual...the principal, a PhD, knew his students & decided there was no imminent threat - requests for applications to his school have gone up!

 

[mailbox]

A pandemic is a worldwide epidemic. It is a new virus and one
to which the populations will have no immunity."[/color]

But is that not what flu shots are for? I realize that this strain has not been out long enough to make a vaccine, but come on. No one is naturally immune to the flu anyway. You either get a flu shot of the dead flu bug or you get the flu. Either way your body builds up antibodies to that strain of flu and makes fighting the bug eaiser, but NOT immune to.

 

[terriphill]

How could this all of started?????

 

[aerog]

How could this all of started?????

Yup - pretty sure that's how the pigs got it!

 

[GregW]

Wasn't there a big swine flu scare back in the late 70's?