Chill Out
The BBC tells us that the World ‘well prepared’ for virus
The international community is better prepared than ever to deal with the threatened spread of a new swine flu virus, a top UN health chief has said.
As the UN warned the outbreak might become a pandemic, Dr Keiji Fukuda said years of preparing for bird flu had boosted world stocks of anti-virals.
Canada is the latest country to confirm cases after as many as 81 deaths in Mexico and 20 cases in the US.
Washington has warned the flu may yet claim American lives.
“I do fear that we will have deaths,” Dr Anne Schuchat of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told reporters.
Eight cases have been confirmed among New York students, seven in California, two in Texas, two in Kansas and one in Ohio.
Several countries in Asia and Latin America have begun screening airport passengers for symptoms.
There is currently no vaccine for the new strain of flu but severe cases can be treated with antiviral medication.
All of the preparation for the possibility of a bird flu outbreak, a virus that is almost always fatal, has left us prepared to deal with this but people are in a panic, says the CBC, the ABC, CNN, et alia. People die from the flu every year, even some who have had their flu shots. It is not an unusual event. If this was human-transmitted bird flu, we should be worried, but it isn’t.
The current vaccine wasn’t formulated for this specific variant, but humans deal much better with swine flu, than bird flu. Everyone who is affected around the world has recently been to Mexico, so there is a single source.
Wash your hands, cover your nose and mouth, stay away from airports and airplanes, and stay home if you are sick.
12 comments
So it seems there are 20 reported cases of Swine Flu in the U.S.. In July of 2009, the U.S. will have a population of over 307 million (estimated… from the CIA World Fact Book). 20 out of 307 million is about 6.51 * 10 ^ -6 %. Must be a slow news day, considering it’s the headline on CNN.COM. Someone wake me up when we’re actually in danger from a credible threat.
I can figure out what the problem is. More people have died from tainted peanuts, but they waited until their was a recall to tell us, and now everyone has their knickers in a twist over this.
Risk assessment isn’t what it was.
Yes, ports of entry should be watching because we don’t need any new diseases, but, unless they are ready to start offering some low-cost health care in this country, there isn’t much that people can do.
Risk assessment isn’t what it was.
I REALLY gotta stop reading this blog when I have a coffee! Or at least mage sure I’ve swallowed and put the cup down first! 😆 😉
Yeah, agree… It’s crazy! I mean, it was even on the evening news here yesterday! Sheesh. We’ve had reports of 6 babies in Aus dieing from hooping cough and smallpox and they are worried about a polio outbreak in Qld. Because the extremist anti-everything types up there have sufficiently scared mothers into not vaccinating their babies. And the nut’s of course are saying the increase in sick and dieing babies has nothing to do with not being vaccinated.
Crazies are everywhere. When I see incontrovertible and verifiable proof, I’ll believe it. And that goes for everything. I don’t trust anyone any more.
All terror, all the time. Al Qaeda should sue, the media are stealing their shtick.
Whooping cough? I would have to think back decades to remember the last time I heard of a case of whooping cough.
I’m going to assume that the cases reported in Mexico are probably centered around the capital city which is at altitude with extremely polluted air. It makes sense with the air thin and bad, and health care as bad or even worse than the US, there would be a cluster of deaths in a region of over 10 million people.
This flu has an intestinal component, so it is definitely unpleasant, but I would be much more worried if it had started in the US with the over-use of pharmaceuticals in factory farming methods. Anything coming from the US is almost guaranteed to be drug resistant.
Doesn’t anybody think it’s a bit paradoxical that the CDC etc. always say that to avoid the flu you should (1) never touch your mouth with your hands, but also (2) always cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough? I guess I will carry a large board or frying pan with me and hold it over my mouth when I cough.
Didn’t I already get swine flu vaccinated back in the 70’s, not that it matters?
They should just advice frequent hand washing with soap, Torquemada. Most of these things start at kindergarten and trying to get kids to wash their hands, or keep them out of their mouths is nearly impossible. After the “pestilence pods” that crammed airliners have become these days, day care centers are the hot spots in spreading infections, followed closely by hospital emergency rooms.
Yes, we had a large outbreak in the ’70s and the military vaccinated everything in sight, but the resistance isn’t long term, Andante. If these things were good for a lifetime, I would be invulnerable to everything, because I was on world-wide flying status and had every vaccination known to science.
My Mother gets a flu shot every year and a pneumonia shot every 5 years.
I’m “up” on the flu & pneumonia shots…but I sure had pneumonia last fall.
I remember standing in line and getting the swine flu thing shot in my arm by a crappy air gun thing.
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I remember the the swine flu scare back in 1976. I was at the University of Illinois then and they wanted everyone to get the vaccine. For some reason I never got the shot… I don’t remember why, perhaps the lines were too long or I couldn’t be bothered. But it turned out to be a non-event.
It seems they are panicking this time too. Must be a slow news week.
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There are things that should be done, shipping anti-virals to Mexico, rather than Texas or California would be a good start, but there is no need to panic, which has become the default mode for the news media.
HEPA filtering on aircraft ventilation systems would be nice, as well as increasing the rate of circulation, and cleaning them more frequently. Since they are pressurized, disinfection is actually easy to do, and they might try deodorizing them occasionally. Someone should consider these steps for hospitals as well.
Exercise some caution, and avoid Mexico if possible. Send Mexico the assistance they need to knock this down.
That sounds eminently sensible Bryan. get the anti virals to Mexico… and don’t panic (although don’t be complacent either!) The first two cases in the UK were lead news at 10pm.
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It’s a problem, Jams, but so it the regular flu, with tens of thousands of cases every year, but this isn’t anywhere near as fatal as bird flu. It is hard to understand this reaction unless there is something that they aren’t telling us.