Swine flu pandemic fears

[Prospector]

We know of a business where a client has delayed a workshop because the presenter was arriving back from overseas a couple of days before the event, and they want to delay the workshop for 2 weeks after the incubation period for swine flu!

This group are not in the private sector, as you may be able to guess! Seriously pathetic.

 

[Timmy]

A nine-year-old Victorian boy has become the second person in Australia to be diagnosed with swine flu.


Thank goodness for that, it was beginning to look like a media beat up ...

ps. "The boy is recovering at home as he was not ill enough to be hospitalised,'' Mr Andrews said.

 

[Happy]

Thank goodness for that, it was beginning to look like a media beat up ...

What is worrying , after initial higher fatality rate, all of the sudden it almost became regular flu with cumbersome 7 to 10 days quarantine attached to it.

 

[Knobby22]

What is worrying , after initial higher fatality rate, all of the sudden it almost became regular flu with cumbersome 7 to 10 days quarantine attached to it.

I am a bit scared. The flu may not be that virulent but it is still dangerous.

 

[Real1ty]

 

[Happy]

I am a bit scared. The flu may not be that virulent but it is still dangerous.

I am scared too, but luckily death rate of infections dropped considerably and its statistics do not vary too much from our regular flu.

This might change, as they said we could expect second wave.

What I like about this strong reaction is acceptance that if you stay away from other people it is good for them as you are already infected.

Until recently it was expected to 'soldier on', sneezing and infecting everybody around.

Maybe, just maybe we accept new way of behaviour.

 

[Real1ty]

.

 

[Knobby22]

Classic!!!

 

[rocket67]

Want to keep up to date with developments?

This virus is rapidly spreading world wide.

Coming soon to your neighbourhood.

Be aware, and be prepared - but not panicked.

I check out this site everyday for new information -Very interesting and reputable.

http://www.newfluwiki2.com/recentActive.do

Consider adding it to your favourites.

Of particular note for Aussies - read through the news reports for 23 May

Rocket.

 

[Julia]

Swine flu is now in every State and Territory.

The Chief Medical Officer has suggested the government's actions are excessive.

Apparently it's a fairly mild disease of three or four days' duration, pretty much like the ordinary flu which affects hundreds of thousands every winter.

To be ordering so many people into quarantine seems a bit unrealistic, doesn't it? Are people really going to obey this, unless maybe they want a week off work?

If the government continues to do this, even for those who have no symptoms, there's going to be an effect on productivity, not to mention the panic and anxiety proliferating throughout the community.

Wouldn't you expect the government to take the advice of its Chief Medical Officer?
Ah well, guess it takes the punters' minds off the deficit and creates in at least some minds the notion that the government is oh so caring and concerned.

 

[Dowdy]

the media is making too much of a deal about it.

NO ONE HAS EVEN DIED HERE

I wonder how many people have died from the common cold this year alone in Australia? Maybe the media should report something about that

 

[Prospector]

37,000 people die from seasonal flu in the US every year.
Swine Flu:
In Mexico the death toll is 97; almost three quarters of the people who died had other complications, such as diabetes, heart disease or respiratory problems, health officials said Friday.

The virus that has sickened more than 13,000 people in 48 countries and been linked to more than (I would say ONLY) a 100 deaths worldwide has largely subsided in Mexico, where it was first identified in late April.

 

[ROE]

I dont know what people are complain about ...the government is trying to contain a virus that we have no vaccine and our defense system is yet to be able to cope.

It may or may not be deadly but nothing wrong being cautious for virus we yet fully understood.

the Spanish flu didn't wipe people out until second round when it mutate and becomes a deadlier virus.

What government doing right now is try to contain and stop the spread and increase chance of mutation...nothing wrong with that.

Its stupid compare to this and the normal flu as we understood and have vaccine and can contain the normal winter flu

 

[saiter]

The conspiracy theorist in me thinks that the government is trying to engineer a sharemarket recovery through the XHJ...

 

[Prospector]

Because Roe, we are closing down the country for a virus that at best makes people unwell for maybe four days, and using our tamiflu supplies when all tamiflu is doing is shortening the ill effects by a day or so. They are being used preventively, (eg handing them out to school students where 1 student only may have the virus), just in case. If bird flu struck in the next few months, what do we do? We will have used much of our supply on a virus than even health authorities recognise as being mild, and is not spreading as quickly as everyone thought.

And if this does mutate, same thing. Saying that we are in the same position health wise as when the Spanish flu struck is just silly. Penicillin was not even around then. The World had just experienced a decimating war, people were ill fed, hygeine not understood - it was a different world.

 

[Aussiejeff]

the media is making too much of a deal about it.

NO ONE HAS EVEN DIED HERE

I wonder how many people have died from the common cold this year alone in Australia? Maybe the media should report something about that

I'm with you 110%

AFAIK from Googling, AROUND 2,500-3,000 AUSTRALIANS die each year from the COMMON flu & associated pneumonias.

NOT ONE AUSTRALIAN HAS DIED FROM PIGS MIGHT FLY FLU.

Yep.

Smells like a porky to me.....

 

[beamstas]

Maybe people need to stop running their mouths and think

The flu isn't a problem right now

But the real risk is we have no immunities to it

So if it does get any worse it will just spread through everyone.

 

[nunthewiser]

my drivers license expired on friday

i was pulled over on saturday morning by a RBT checkpoint on the highway

i blew clear .i was asked for my license , the young officer was disrespectful when i gave my reason for being expired by one day

i asked him if he would be automatically immune to the swine flue


he fined me 100 bucks , and made me leave car and walk home 500 metres away

moral of story

only make swine flu jokes when appropriate

 

[So_Cynical]

is not spreading as quickly as everyone thought.

LOL id like to know what u would consider to be a rapid spread.

• 24 April 2009 -- The United States Government has reported seven
  confirmed human cases of Swine Influenza A/H1N1 in the USA
  http://www.who.int/csr/don/2009_04_24/en/index.html
  
  
• 18 May 2009 -- 40 countries have officially reported 8829 cases
  of influenza A(H1N1) infection, including 74 deaths.
  http://www.who.int/csr/don/2009_05_18/en/index.html
  
  
• 29 May 2009 -- 29 May 2009, 53 countries have officially reported
  15,510 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection, including 99 deaths.
  http://www.who.int/csr/don/2009_05_29/en/index.html

Yep moving at snails pace from ground zero in Mexico to 53 country's and 15,510 cases
in only 35 days....and there the official numbers, reality is there prob 3 or 4 times that out there.

Just goes to show that when a really bad flu gets out, we are all totally doomed...the power's
that be wont shut the airports till there's passengers disembarking bleeding tears and looking
like extras from a Resident Evil movie.

 

[Julia]

Maybe people need to stop running their mouths and think

The flu isn't a problem right now

But the real risk is we have no immunities to it

So if it does get any worse it will just spread through everyone.

So what? The common cold 'spreads through everyone' every winter, as does the 'ordinary' flu.

There is different strain of the flu every year. The vaccines are adjusted accordingly.

Fewer than 3 million vaccines are administered each year, so most of the population manage to survive unless they have some pre-existing conditions which are exacerbated by the flu virus.

I never have a vaccination and haven't had flu for about two decades.

If you think the government is behaving reasonably, then would you support everyone who potentially might come in contact with the ordinary flu virus also be placed into quarantine for a week? And that is in addition to those quarantined for possible exposure to the pig flu.

If you were an employer, how are you going to feel if half your work force say 'oh sorry, can't work for a week. My next door neighbour might have been in contact with someone who is being tested for swine flu"?

And, as Prospector has pointed out, what are we going to do if all the stockpiled anti viral agent is used up unnecessarily on this apparently very mild disease, and something really nasty comes along?