|
Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2009 10:20:42 GMT
We're going to start talking about it sooner or later, so we might as well start a thread.
I figure that sooner or later, some pandemic is going to sweep the world again and wipe out a lot of people. We've worried about mad cow disease, SARS and a number of other things in the past, but so far everything has been mostly contained.
It's also true that authorities take this sort of thing a lot more seriously now and have been pretty good about limiting the areas of contamination.
Could this be the one that gets through?
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Apr 26, 2009 15:22:55 GMT
I mostly don't get excited about scares that sound media-generated, but am going to be very careful about this.
One thing everyone should remember all the time is to wash hands frequently. It's an easy way to ward off colds and flu. I have always washed produce in soap and water before using it as well. As your mothers used to tell you -- you don't know where it's been.
For the present I'm only going to avoid street food and air travel until the scare is over.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2009 15:29:01 GMT
Wasn't the very first death in Oaxaca?
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Apr 26, 2009 17:09:38 GMT
Yikes! I thought you were saying that for a cheap laugh to alarm me, but just checked & indeed it was. Oaxaca de Juarez is the capital of the state of Oaxaca, so people come to the Hospital Civil here from all over the state. The woman who died was from the Sierra Norte de Oaxaca. The Civil is a very over-burdened hospital, but it looks as though they picked up on the extraordinary number of cases of what were at first thought to be a strain of avian flu. Here is an in-depth article in English. (on the April 16 entry, it says the hospital is in "Reforma, Oaxaca". Reforma is merely the name of the neighborhood in the city of Oaxaca where the hospital is located.)
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2009 17:25:21 GMT
I think we all need to keep an eye on this.
In any case, the disease is exclusively airborne, which is why masks are being used.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2009 17:42:26 GMT
French media hype about the situation in Mexico City. ( Ville morte translates as "ghost town" in this context.)
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Apr 26, 2009 17:55:26 GMT
Interesting. People around here frequently use masks during cold & flu season, so it won't be that hard to convince them to use them now.
|
|
|
Post by gringalais on Apr 27, 2009 17:06:18 GMT
Here they were saying on the news this morning that there are a few suspected cases, but they have to send the specimens to a lab in the US to be sure because there are no labs here equipped to test for the virus. Now, El Mercurio, the biggest paper here says it is another type of flu that people have.
All travelers arriving from the Mexico, the US and Canada have to be checked out to see if they have flu symptoms. They are using some sort of scanner to see if people have a fever.
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Apr 27, 2009 17:10:37 GMT
In any case, the disease is exclusively airborne, which is why masks are being used. This may not be a correct statement K2, as on the Today Show this morning Doctor Nancy Sniederman (sp?) said it's spread mainly by shaking hands, and that hand-washing is the best way to prevent getting infected....
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2009 17:21:46 GMT
Okay, but 95% of the contamination comes from people sneezing and coughing and only 5% comes from licking your fingers after touching a dirty doorknob.
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Apr 27, 2009 17:36:34 GMT
The problem is touching your nose or eyes after touching something contaminated.
Wash your hands obsessively often, and don't pick your nose or dig crusties out of your eyes unless you've just washed your hands and scrubbed your fingernails...
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2009 22:00:13 GMT
How is all this going to play out with Cinquo de Mayo coming up? I mean,are celebrations being discouraged? Will people observe the holiday anyway despite warnings?
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on May 1, 2009 6:10:10 GMT
I read that Cinco de Mayo celebrations have also been cancelled in Mexico.
The WHO, meanwhile, says it will now call the virus influenza A (H1N1) rather than swine flu - which it says is misleading as pork meat is safe and the virus is being transmitted from human to human.
|
|
|
Post by gringalais on May 20, 2009 17:53:00 GMT
Well, it is now in Chile and the the paranoia is starting. The weird thing is that it is mostly school kids who haven't travelled recently or haven't had contact with any known other cases, who mainly got it when coming back from a trip. So, they have no idea how it was transmitted to them. Last I heard, 10 schools were closed indefinitely. Some of those don't have any reported cases, but had some sort of contact with kids from the schools where kids had the virus, such as one case where they played a football match against the first school to report cases.
A law student who is interning where my husband works has kids at that school and one of them was at the infected kid's house recently. She was told not to come into work until further notice.
|
|
|
Post by happytraveller on May 20, 2009 18:24:42 GMT
Oh dear, that sounds scary ! Here it is not so much in the headlines anymore. I think we still only had one confirmed case who was well again after a few days. Have you bought face masks ?
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on May 20, 2009 18:40:53 GMT
I finally found an article that fully explained why the medical authorities are so worried about this flu, which doesn't seem like much of a big deal.
It was explained that this new swine flu is not very dangerous but extremely contagious and it has not disappeared at all with the warmer season in the north. Meanwhile, the previous avian flu has remained well anchored in certain countries like Egypt and Vietnam. It is not very contagious at all, but it is mortal in 50% of the cases.
The big fear is that the two viruses are going to meet up and combine to make an extremely contagious flu that is extremely mortal. Viruses combine and mutate quite easily.
|
|
|
Post by gringalais on May 20, 2009 19:10:17 GMT
Kerouac - yeah, they were saying here that it is very contagious, moreso than seasonal flu, which is about to kick in here too. They were also saying that kids that have it are contagious for longer than adults, which would explain why it is mainly being transmitted in schools.
One thing I don't get is that they were giving antivirals to all the kids at the school that had the first cases among children, even if they don't have symptoms. I am wondering if there is a possibility of antiviral resistance developing due to overuse and use when they are not needed, like what is happening with antibiotics.
Happy -my husband bought a few masks and brought some disinfectant to the office to use on the phones, door handles, etc. He is kind of worried due to the intern, and also he deals with people that come into the office all day, so he is more at risk if it becomes more widespread than someone who doesn't have as much contact with people.
Some of the public hospitals are becoming overwhelmed by people who think they have it, even though in nearly all cases it was just a cold or regular flu. Last I heard there were only about 16 confirmed cases, with quite a few more being investigated.
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on May 21, 2009 2:45:31 GMT
The WHO, meanwhile, says it will now call the virus influenza A (H1N1) rather than swine flu - which it says is misleading as pork meat is safe and the virus is being transmitted from human to human. Only now there are a couple hundred pigs on a farm in Canada who got swine flu from humans!
|
|
|
Post by hwinpp on May 22, 2009 8:12:21 GMT
Not one case here yet.
|
|
|
Post by gringalais on May 29, 2009 14:22:51 GMT
There are now 2 cases that are really serious, as in other countries, otherwise healthy young adults. The total is around 200, putting Chile at something like 5th in the world.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on May 29, 2009 18:42:18 GMT
This disease strikes mostly young people -- that's what will make it so dangerous if it mutates.
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Jun 1, 2009 20:47:46 GMT
First case confirmed in Western Montana yesterday....
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2009 7:44:29 GMT
France finally has had its first independent non travel related outbreak. We were beginning to feel left out.
|
|
|
Post by BigIain on Jun 16, 2009 9:06:17 GMT
I assume that the Académie française will be giving this foreign intruder a French name now?
The first UK death occured in the last day or so... a woman in Paisley (near Glasgow) who had recently given birth 12 weeks prematurely and has "underlying health issues" which the family are keeping secret. I have my suspicions because I know Paisley.
|
|
|
Post by happytraveller on Jun 16, 2009 11:41:28 GMT
Meaning what Iain ? I know nothing about Paisley...
|
|
|
Post by gringalais on Jun 17, 2009 14:27:06 GMT
3 deaths here so far, now most of the serious cases and I think 2 of the 3 deaths are from the Puerto Montt area in the south. No one is quite sure why it is more prevalent and serious there. There were some experts here last week from the US CDC to study what was going on there. Last I heard Chile was 4th in the world as far as number of cases. Kind of surprising given the population is only 16 million.
My husband and I have been sick with a respiratory thing, but since we have no fever, they ruled out swine flu. The first doctor said it was just a virus that would pass in a few days, but after a week of getting worse we went to a good respiratory specialist and he said it was bronchitis and sinusitus, which had progressed over the week we were sick and not being treated for the real problem. Finally, 2 weeks on I am seeing an improvement.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Jun 17, 2009 14:53:45 GMT
Wow, Gringalais, that's a long time to be sick!
I guess the swine flu scare is at least prompting more people to check into any respiratory ailments they have. Still, it's odd that you & your husband had the same thing. Is it pollen &/or air pollution causing it?
|
|
|
Post by gringalais on Jun 17, 2009 15:43:51 GMT
Yeah, it really sucks. I don't think I have ever been sick this long in my life. The weekend before we went to the specialist, I started having shortness of breath, like there was pressure on my chest. Fortunately lung x-rays ruled out pneumonia. We think my husband had contact with whatever virus or bacteria started this thing at work then passed it on to me. He started to show symptoms first. A few days before we got sick he remembers a client coming into his office hacking and coughing all over the place. There's not much pollen right now, but I do have bad respiratory allergies and the air quality has not been so good, which may be adding to the problem. I seem to get bronchitis every other year here, but almost never colds or the flu.
Well at least we found a really good doctor for the future. He was really thorough, ordering sinus and lung x-rays and had us come back to show them to him the same day so we could start treatment right away. He also took plenty of time to explain what we had and what the different medications were for and told us to come back if we had symptoms like fever. I am definitely going back the next time I have problems like this. In my experience, the GPs here (we saw a GP my husband had been to before first) seem to assume it is the most common thing going around and don't consider other possibilities.
|
|
welle
member
Offline
om sweet om
|
Post by welle on Jun 18, 2009 12:11:38 GMT
Well, here are the WHO numbers from June 15th (check updated info here www.who.int/csr/don/2009_06_15/en/index.html). In the USA, 17855 cases 45 deaths as of June 15th. The cat is definitely out of the bag. I work in the ED in the USA. We are seeing a completely out-of-season Influenza A peak. Tons of people are sick, it feels like the middle of winter in terms of how many people are sick. When tested for flu, it comes up as influenza A. We just got an email saying that this influenza A peak is almost certainly the swine flu. Once you get a positive flu test for influenza A, in order to know if it's swine flu you have to do further testing in a special lab. The only testing that is really still done is on people who are getting hospitalized, so the really sick ones. And still the numbers are so high. So you can imagine how many cases are really out there... The good news is that it is not very lethal. Lots of people get sick, few die. Anyways, I can't believe I posted on a health branch-it's usually the last thing I like to do when not working Hope you get well soon, gringalais.
|
|
|
Post by spindrift on Jul 18, 2009 19:55:22 GMT
Just when I've booked my tickets to Switzerland I read that some countries (like China) are putting Brits in quarantine for 7 days when they arrive at the airports. Hopefully the Swiss won't do this.
|
|