Swine flu pandemic fears

Surfer35 said:

Let's just hope this thing mutates faster than medicine can keep it in check. It's just what the planet needs. A nice pandemic to cut some of our numbers back since we appear too stupid to do it ourselves.

It's not going to be nice for those personally affected by it, but it's about time nature gave us the bitchslap we need.

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I wonder if you'll be quite so gung ho if you find yourself about to expire from this useful little virus? "No worries", you'll cheerfully say to yourself, "it's just what the planet needs", as you smilingly take your final breath.

Julia said:

I wonder if you'll be quite so gung ho if you find yourself about to expire from this useful little virus? "No worries", you'll cheerfully say to yourself, "it's just what the planet needs", as you smilingly take your final breath.

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Here, here!

Julia said:

I wonder if you'll be quite so gung ho if you find yourself about to expire from this useful little virus? "No worries", you'll cheerfully say to yourself, "it's just what the planet needs", as you smilingly take your final breath.

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Yes, if it weeds out the stupid, surfer35 will be the first to go.

Could be Darwins theory? Survival of the fittest and natural selection and all that stuff? Would certainly have a few Creationists scratching their heads if this turns into the Apocalypse.

The swine flu story just won't disappear, will it! Even though the people I know who have had it have only experienced a mild illness I am starting to think that perhaps there is just something that we haven't been told. Or is it all media and Govt hype to disguise other things. Normally stories like this fade away but this hasn't happened. And that surprises me somewhat. Not sure what to think really.

Is this the next big global flu epidemic that public health experts have long anticipated and worried about? Is this the novel virus that will kill millions around the world, as pandemics did in 1918, 1957 and 1968?

The short answer is, it's too soon to tell.

"What makes this so difficult is we may be somewhere between an important but yet still uneventful public health occurrence here - with something that could literally die out over the next couple of weeks and never show up again - or this could be the opening act of a full-fledged influenza pandemic," said Michael Osterholm, a prominent expert on global flu outbreaks with the University of Minnesota.

"We have no clue right now where we are between those two extremes. That's the problem," he said.

Prospector said:

The swine flu story just won't disappear, will it!

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There will be more to come about it as the northern hemisphere goes into winter in coming months, I would think.

So thinking about this again, I wonder if Swine Flu is the only thing that all countries can 'unite' on at the moment, so it is a globally accepted topic, with everyone agreeing on the causes and actions. So it makes it safe to talk about and not one Government will disagree. Hell, even Muslims and Christians agree!

Bring on global warming I say, at least that will stop this pesky virus combining with seasonal flu!:

The UK has announced that they expect one third of the people, 20 million, to have contracted swine flu by the end of next winter (March 2010). 14 have died so far which included one healthy adult and one child.

There has been no reported change in the virus so far.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swine_influenza


Swine Influenza

1976 U.S. outbreak

On February 5, 1976, in the United States an army recruit at Fort Dix said he felt tired and weak. He died the next day and four of his fellow soldiers were later hospitalized. Two weeks after his death, health officials announced that the cause of death was a new strain of swine flu. The strain, a variant of H1N1, is known as A/New Jersey/1976 (H1N1). It was detected only from January 19 to February 9 and did not spread beyond Fort Dix.[29]


This new strain appeared to be closely related to the strain involved in the 1918 flu pandemic. Moreover, the ensuing increased surveillance uncovered another strain in circulation in the U.S.: A/Victoria/75 (H3N2) spread simultaneously, also caused illness, and persisted until March.[29] Alarmed public-health officials decided action must be taken to head off another major pandemic, and urged President Gerald Ford that every person in the U.S. be vaccinated for the disease.[30]

The vaccination program was plagued by delays and public relations problems.[31] On October 1, 1976, the immunization program began and by October 11, approximately 40 million people, or about 24% of the population, had received swine flu immunizations. That same day, three senior citizens died soon after receiving their swine flu shots and there was a media outcry linking the deaths to the immunizations, despite the lack of positive proof. According to science writer Patrick Di Justo, however, by the time the truth was known — that the deaths were not proven to be related to the vaccine — it was too late. "The government had long feared mass panic about swine flu — now they feared mass panic about the swine flu vaccinations." This became a strong setback to the program.[32]

There were reports of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a paralyzing neuromuscular disorder, affecting some people who had received swine flu immunizations. This syndrome is a rare side-effect of modern influenza vaccines, with an incidence of about one case per million vaccinations.[33] As a result, Di Justo writes that "the public refused to trust a government-operated health program that killed old people and crippled young people." In total, less than 33% of the population had been immunized by the end of 1976. The National Influenza Immunization Program was effectively halted on December 16.

Overall, there were about 500 cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), resulting in death from severe pulmonary complications for 25 people, which, according to Dr. P. Haber, were probably caused by an immunopathological reaction to the 1976 vaccine. Other influenza vaccines have not been linked to GBS, though caution is advised for certain individuals, particularly those with a history of GBS.[34][35] Still, as observed by a participant in the immunization program, the vaccine killed more Americans than the disease did.[36]

I think the tabloids have done the right thing putting it in the paper, maybe not to the extent that they did, scaring everyone, but they didnt know what they were in for.

I still dont think they know what they are in for so they are moving with caution as they learn more about it..

I know a few that have had mild cases and some that have had it pretty bad

Really high fever and hallucinating, vomiting, this was a 10 year old child
He was playing sport the day before and by the night was out of it..

He was brought into hospital, kept under surveillance, was going to be sent home the next day but vomited and started again, so they gave him the tamiflu and he has been ok since..

Rashes all over their bodies, that stay long over the week -- just to name a few things on the bad side

Must say, the hospitals do panic when they get a case..

Discovery Channel in July will be screening ... a controlled experiment to see exactly what it would take to survive and rebuild after a global catastrophe, specifically a worldwide viral pandemic scheduled to strike this autumn.



“The Colony is a controlled experiment to see exactly what it would take to survive and rebuild under these circumstances. For 10 weeks, a group of 10 volunteers, whose backgrounds and expertise represent a cross-section of modern society, are isolated in an urban environment outside Los Angeles and tasked with creating a livable society,” a description of the show explains.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOKO19BMPKk&feature=fvst


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Julia said:

I wonder if you'll be quite so gung ho if you find yourself about to expire from this useful little virus? "No worries", you'll cheerfully say to yourself, "it's just what the planet needs", as you smilingly take your final breath.

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I doubt he would, but that doesn't mean there's no value in what he said.

HEALTH experts fear the state's swine flu death toll could soar with six young, healthy people in Sydney fighting for their lives on last-resort cardiac bypass machines because their lungs are too damaged or diseased for regular mechanical ventilation.

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More on this story out now. It appears all six patients are pregnant or have just given birth.
FWIW, pregnancy is an underlying medical condition.

UP TO six new mothers infected with swine flu are on life support after giving birth prematurely because the virus was threatening the lives of their babies.

The women, all from the western suburbs of Sydney, are fighting for their lives in four hospitals, and at least two of the babies are also in intensive care because they were born with respiratory problems.

"This situation has become very, very grave," a midwife said.

Another two pregnant women were in intensive care at Westmead Hospital but were yet to give birth. Staff were trying to manage their conditions without inducing labour, said Brian Trudinger, a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Westmead Hospital.

"Usually we don't have any pregnant women in ICU with influenza so this is worrying," he said.
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/wellbeing/swine-flu-attacking-mothers-newborns-20090715-dlly.html

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This virus seems in a minority of cases to get deep into the lungs.
Does anyone have any figures on how many respiratory systems are generally available in hospitals?

There has been no reported change in the virus so far.

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A Tamiflu resistant strain of swine flu has been found in Denmark, Japan and Hong Kong. It doesn't seem to have spread forward from here, thankfully.

Pregnancy certainly is an important and serious matter for any virus. I wonder though, given the short space of time this has escalated, how much the virus was known to affect babies in utero, or whether this intervention was an educated guess.

On the radio today the head of SA Health said that swine flu was much more prevalent in Mexico than we have been told. But only the most seriously affected were ever tested and these were the ones most at risk of dying from its complications. Which is why the death rate in Mexico was much higher - the statistics were skewed.

And from another source why did Victoria get hit so hard? This hasnt been in the media, but a few weeks before the outbreak was 'reported' to have 'started' in Australia, it seems a Victorian school trip had returned from.....Mexico! Because it was a mild disease and not publicised in Australia as yet, a significant part of the Victorian school community was already circulating it well before it was publicised!

Relenza is used when Tamiflu is ineffective.

http://www.goldcoastunited.com.au/default.aspx?s=newsdisplay&id=28226





Gold Coast in swine flu scare
Thursday, 16 July 2009
by Sportal

Gold Coast players
Gold Coast players

Gold Coast United's preparations for its clash with the Central Coast Mariners on Saturday took a sever blow after medical tests revealed five players had contracted swine flu.

Although Tahj Minniecon was the only player to be officially confirmed with the H1N1 virus, the other four in Adam Grifiths, Joel Porter, Daniel Piorkowski and Matt Osman all displayed similar symptoms with tests on Thursday set to confirm that diagnosis.

Gold Coast United physiotherapist, David Battersby, said the club had taken all the necessary precautions to prevent further spread of the virus.

"Tahj is confirmed as having swine flu and the other players concerned are being treated as if they also have the virus," Battersby said.

"It takes four days for test results for swine flu to come back, so in the interim we take the highest common denominator and assume that all the players with flu-like symptoms have the same thing."

matty2.0 said:

"It takes four days for test results for swine flu to come back, so in the interim we take the highest common denominator and assume that all the players with flu-like symptoms have the same thing."
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Um, that is, dare I say it, Crap! It takes a couple of hours to get results that you do have an Influenza virus and then perhaps another two to get confirmation as to whether or not it is Swine Flu. They already know if they have it!

Swine flu deaths in the UK have risen to 29 and 55,000 new cases reported last week alone. Depending on the severity of the virus, deaths are expected to reach up to 65,000 next winter - Nov 2009/ March 2010.

noirua said:

Swine flu deaths in the UK have risen to 29 and 55,000 new cases reported last week alone. Depending on the severity of the virus, deaths are expected to reach up to 65,000 next winter - Nov 2009/ March 2010.

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Is that taking into account the vaccination which will be rolled out there next month?

UBIQUITOUS said:

Is that taking into account the vaccination which will be rolled out there next month?

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Got me there UBIQUITOUS, here are the links, UK swine flu deaths reach 29: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8154419.stm

Pandemic threat worse than Terror: http://news.aol.co.uk/pandemic-threat-worse-than-terror/article/20090716113640881432565