Deadly Swine Flu Outbreak
 

Anyone keeping an eye on this? We probably should.

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNe...53N22820090425

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N24449988.htm

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090425/D97P8SD00.html

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N24524032.htm

I heard about it on the news this morning.
Grim.

This is the scary part.

This stat would seem to indicate to me that those who are more active and likely to be out and about socializing are at greater risk. Or I could be completely wrong. The stat as posted doesn't really reveal whether or not this age range is dying more than younger or older people who have been exposed, or if there are simply more members of that demographic who have contracted the flu.

That's true but influenza viruses usually only kill the young and old because of a weaker immune systems. Since the majority of people that have died are middle aged, it hints that this is a strong strain along with its never before seen avian, swine, and human hybrid makeup.

I hope the pigs are stocking up on Theraflu.

In a lot of cases, the immune response of the host itself is what is deadly in a flu infection. Those with the most aggressive immune response are young and middle-aged adults. Children and the elderly can squeak by.

The same was true for bird flu.

Friend of mine that lives around the corner notified me that I haven't heard from him this past week because has been shut in for some days now with high fever, aches, chills, dizziness and minor breathing issues. Hope he doesn't mind if I keep my distance from him for another seven days or so. :thepain:

My cousin just got back from south america. She came back with dengue fever and some blasto(something) virus. Since she had to give samples of everything to determine her illnesses, I'm assuming she's safe, but I hope she gets checked out anyway.

We can expect a flood of illegals as a result. Some of them will be infected. May God have mercy on our souls.

there has been a flood of illegals for decades - this will not change that.
except in the media coverage.

It's already making headlines here.
Yawn, yawn - the NHS Trusts will have to waste time and money answering media questions, reassuring the public, drawing up plans in the event of a pandemic...

We had it with ebola, a flu pandemic, SARS, avian flu... now we go through it all again.

I was interested and concerned originally. Now I'm tired of it already. Sorry, how many have died? Less than in an hour from hunger in some parts of the world? Okay, I'll zone out for a bit then.

B-b-b-but... what are you going to do? You can't just continue to live your life!

I stopped taking this seriously when I was forced by my company to sit in on a DHS presentation back in '08 concerning business continuity in times of disaster. I found it a bit odd that despite giving this presentation in Florida, they didn't once talk about the obvious issue: hurricanes. Instead, they spent a full hour talking mostly about what the world was going to be when the bird flu hit and how we were to prepare for it. The usual two weeks of supplies, we were told, would not be enough and so we would have to plan for a possible full 3 months of being disconnected and shut in our houses and away the outside. Two medical respirators per person per day would be needed, along with all prescription drugs, food, and water needed for the entire duration of just one wave of the disease. "Tuna and spam", the DHS rep said, were perfect because the low profile cans would "enable you to fit many cases of it under your bed." 3 months of all supplies was the minimum, 6 was the suggested.

Right.

That presentation was when I realized how fucked up and unrealistic it all is. The same agency that told me to seal up a safe room with duct tape and plastic so that I could suffocate to death in the event of a bioterror attack on my home town was trying to suggest I needed to stock up a half year's worth of canned meat and clean out my local Home Depot of N95 dust masks while not once ever suggesting I consider the ramifications of living and working just six miles from the Gulf of Mexico or have a plan in place for when the next major storm arcs in off of Cuba and turns the area into a gigantic sand bar.

Disaster preparedness, indeed. Were we not living above limestone aquifers, I would expect them to suggest constructing a backyard bunker to live in perpetuum to protect against all threats. Wouldn't want to take any chances, would we?

From the Associated Press: [quote]

U.S. Declares Public Health Emergency For Swine Flu

WASHINGTON – The U.S. declared a public health emergency Sunday to deal with the emerging new swine flu, much like the government does to prepare for approaching hurricanes.

Officials reported 20 U.S. cases of swine flu in five states so far, with the latest in Ohio and New York. Unlike in Mexico where the same strain appears to be killing dozens of people, cases in the United State have been mild — and U.S. health authorities can't yet explain why.

"As we continue to look for cases, we are going to see a broader spectrum of disease," predicted Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We're going to see more severe disease in this country."

At a White House news conference, Besser and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano sought to assure Americans that health officials are taking all appropriate steps to minimize the impact of the outbreak.

Top among those is declaring the public health emergency. As part of that, Napolitano said roughly 12 million doses of the drug Tamiflu will be moved from a federal stockpile to places where states can quickly get their share if they decide they need it. Priority will be given to the five states with known cases so far: California, Texas, New York, Ohio and Kansas.

Napolitano called the emergency declaration standard operating procedure — one was declared recently for the inauguration and for flooding. She urged people to think of it as a "declaration of emergency preparedness."

"Really that's what we're doing right now. We're preparing in an environment where we really don't know ultimately what the size of seriousness of this outbreak is going to be."
:eyeball::eyeball::speechls:

___

Yabut, doesn't everyone in Florida already know about hurricanes? If they started telling you about them wouldn't most Floridians start yawning?

We used to start planning the party. Stock up on the necessities. Whiskey, beer, ice, and cocaine.

I think you'd be really surprised at how most people here react when a storm threatens. The stores get slammed, everything sells out, and people don't evacuate. Generators, food, and plywood are fought over like they were items people didn't know existed until the day before. People hoard gasoline, stations go dry. Bottled water, of all things, actually flies off the shelves and people panic when there isn't any. They act like they wouldn't be able to do anything other buy Dasani to prepare no matter how many times the news tells them to fill bathtubs, get water out of the hot water heater or, you know, just fill up containers with water from the tap before landfall. I've seen people resort to cartloads full of Diet Coke and Gatorade once the last of the gallon jugs of distilled water are gone.

My company still doesn't have a proper disaster recovery plan for a hurricane even though we talk about it every year, usually around June 1st. For the first couple years I worked in this department, they told me they were simply going to back up everything to tape and put them with me on a plane bound for Texas 12 hours before landfall. ...which, you know, might be difficult when the airport shuts down well before that time, not to mention that no one would be too interested in leaving their family behind during a major evacuation just to ensure that company data stayed dry. Today, we push data over the network and cross our fingers before everyone gets the hell out of town.

If this flu goes pandemic, we'll wish all we'd had was a hurricane.

Ok, I'll step in and be the lone shoulder-shrugger. I think this is much ado about little. Sure, it's a new strain. Sure, it's (possibly*) taken the lives of 80-some people in Mexico. But the flu was the cause of death in 36,000 people in the U.S. last year. Eighty people is statistically meaningless. Not to mention that *they don't even know that it was the swine flu that caused the deaths of those 80 people!

More info, for a bit of perspective.

I don't think you're the lone shoulder shrugger Jill

Apparently you are reading too much fear into it. A disease that can cause a pandemic has been detected. You and everyone around you should know that - nothing more. Nobody is hyping it into fear. It is simply reported as a fact so that, should it personally affect you, you can at least recongnize it or be informed enought to act responsibily.

Would you instead prefer we all stayed ignorant and uninformed? That is, after all, what so many tried to do in 1985 with AIDs. To instead blame it all on Haitians, then on gays, then on evil people having sex. Insisting that we should not discuss it because it cannot affect us. Because it is god taking revenge on evil ones.

Nobody is even suggesting the world is threatened. Just that the disease has appeared AND that public health officials want you to know something new and potentially dangerous has arrived. Be informed; not fearful.

Meanwhile, what makes it more interesting: the viruse usually only appears among people in contact with pigs. These outbreaks occured where no pigs exist. A curious science story.

I'm wearing a rubber pig nose to work tomorrow.

Don't waste your breath, or typing, I have tried already. It is no one's statistic until it is your own, then it is 100%.

They are scared of not acting. Seems premature to me as well, but maybe they know something we don't. :shrug:

Then again at this rate they'll be killing flies with sledgehammers soon.

Jill, Merc, Ali... there are plenty of alarmists who want to just keep predicting everything will go bad, we have one here. Then when one of his ramblings comes close to being true he calls himself a genius. Never mind the dozens or hundreds (who knows how many) that were total bullshit.
I agree - this may be a very serious threat, but it is far too early to tell.
Then again, better safe than sorry...

Look dude. My response is not one of an "alarmist" it is one of a health care provider. All I said is that we should keep an eye on it. The regular yearly flu kills enough people in this country, and as I stated it is nothing but a statistic until it is yours or someone you love.

yea, Janet Napolitano said today they would probably be testing people at the border, and I wondered what the hell they were going to do with all the people who crossing illegally. :eyebrow:

Next come the zombies.. you all just wait and see.
:drool::drool::drool::drool::drool: :magnum:

My sentiments exactly.:right:

What makes you think they are going to do anything with them? Why would they? They are just poor souls looking to better their lives.

True that. It's gonna be crazy. :rattat:

OMG teh 1918 economies!

Well, kind of. Honestly, I haven't seen the media freaking out like I thought they would. Most everyone is actually pretty restrained with only the typical survivalists hyping it up and spreading crazy rumors/conspiracies. So far, so good.

Kudos to the CDC and WHO for being on top of this. I wouldn't have expected as fast a response, nor updates as quick as they are coming in. It isn't possible to isolate this kind of disease, but the precautions being taken, including readying stocks of antivirals, is pretty impressive in this short amount of time. The avian flu panic was actually good for something!

Just got an email warning at work:

I live in and work near Dallas BTW. I'm not freaking, I don't go out, but if I was a socializer, I think right now I would not be so much. Really all the suggestions are what a person should be doing normal to avoid any sickness.

RFN my major disease paranoia is about flesh-eating bacteria. Why? Well, a friend of my mom's went to the hospital the other week with flu-like symptoms and the whole damn time she is telling the staff that there is an odd rash on her arm that needs to be checked out. The staff refused to call the doctor in to look at her for a rash (WTH?!) and by the next morning the skin on her whole arm was laid open from the flesh-eating bacteria its turns out that she had.

As far as I can tell, there is one Ohio boy with a confirmed case, in the Cleveland area, and he and his family had recently been to Mexico.

Well that sounds like a lawsuit to me. Stupid ass hospital staff. Don't they know they can be sued for refusing treatment?

When Janet Napolitano went on TV to issue the warning, she was sure to use language that wouldn't panic people. I respect her for that. She said, this is just to release the antiviral meds, in case we need them. Nothing to be concerned about at the moment, but, IF you get flu-like symptoms, especially with a fever, you should go to the doctor, just to be sure, and if you're sick, stay your ass home from work or school. :D

Drew Curtis of Fark has a great summary of media panic on this.

My current bet on why no one in the US has died or had a severe reaction, yet: the air quality in Mexico City is bad enough to cause lethal complications with anyone who has a case of the sniffles. Pneumonia is not difficult to develop when you're inhaling air as thick as soup.

A school in California has closed because a student has mild flu symptoms - until lab results show whether it's swinish or not.

...but does it taste like bacon? :yum:

Working in a hospital, I tend to worry about this kind of thing more than most people, especially given that my hospital is a non-medical one.

We were talking about this a little today, and I recalled back when I was in high school, when a bunch of people died from receiving the swine flu vaccine.

I think it has been said before, but it is worth repeating: just because someone dies with the disease, doesn't mean they died because of the disease. Kitsune's point about complicating factors is a very good one.

Yeah, from Guillian Barre - which is eerily similar to polio btw....

My dad was telling me about that. He said one person died from the swine flu, so legislation was rushed through to force drug companies to make and distribute the vaccine. Then the vaccine killed several people itself and caused neurological damage in others. Thats what he said about it atleast.

The family took pictures of the progression the whole night. I do believe a lawsuit is in the works, and deservedly so.

In Australia authorities are executing pandemic procedures at our boarders, which is mainly at international airports. They're quaranteening and then testing anyone coming into the country with flu like symptoms. Apparently the number being tested is quite high.

I ask you, who doesn't look and feel like shit after an international flight to Australia? We're a long way from pretty much anywhere.

1976 "Swine Flue" PSAs :)
As far as it all goes, I appreciate the info, but I wish the media would let me decide whether to panic or not.

MF. half of the people have backed out of our mexico trip for memorial day weekend. damn flu.

My mom's verging on insanity again. (If you know her, and I know someone on this board does, please keep this post to yourself. Please.) She's visiting us, and has heard some advance chatter that "OMG, the WHO is about to declare a stage-5 pandemic! I gotta leave RIGHT THIS MINUTE and get back to Arizona!!!"

1. Maybe your "sources" are wrong.
2. If it is a pandemic, it might blow over in a week or two. Chill out, hang out.
3. If it's ZOMG THE END OF THE WORLD, wouldn't you rather be with your daughter and son-in-law, your only relatives in this godforsaken hemisphere?

I can't take much more of her panic. She's bipolar to begin with and has a true love of panic and pathos.

And you want to deprive her of this golden opportunity? What kind of daughter are you?

j/k :D

Just remind her that Arizona is much closer to Mexico. Although then she might never leave. :eek:

The three cruise ships that depart Tampa for Cozumel and Cancun are reportedly pretty empty during what should be a busy tourist season. I can't imagine how much this must suck for those places that rely on tourist money so much -- all of Mexico has to be pretty miserable right now.

An interesting update on the deaths of young, healthy people by swine flu that has had a lot of people concerned:

And, of course, some of the theories as to why this thing puts people in the hospital or grave south of the border while stateside requires chicken soup and a mug of foul-tasting Theraflu includes:

There it is! That five bucks is as good as in my pocket. Gimme gimme!

The government of Mexico City just submitted a request for 5 million 4oz bottles of alcohol based instant hand sanitizer from the company a relative of mine works for. That's way more than they have stocked in the warehouse, and they don't know quite yet how long it would take to ramp up manufacturing to fill that order as soon as possible. That's over 156,000 gallons of Purell product.

I say we block the export on the principle that Mexico thinks we are the source of their problems.

Where it all came from:
Attachment 23128

Shit.

Beat me by an hour.

Oink

3 suspected cases in a town an hour from here.

23 Month old child dies from swine flu in Texas town.:eek::eek:

This link has some interesting stuff.

bacon's revenge :lol:

:biggrinba