Swine Flu

An infant in Houston......:( *cry*

The baby was to little to resist.....:( As a mother, my heart goes out to the family.......
 
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Unfortunate :( And a sad thing when a person so young has to go so soon. Can't imagine what the mother is going through.
Yeah but typical. Probably wasn't able to get treatment in time and like you said, too weak. But apparently the age group the virus is most potent against is young adults.
 
I see a conspiracy here already.

Ten years ago if you told Americans that they'll have a black president soon, they'd be laughing & telling you "when pigs fly!"

And now, today, we have a black president and a swine flu.

Come on 03, tell me there this is just a weird coincidence!
 
Hmmm said:
Ten years ago if you told Americans that they'll have a black president soon, they'd be laughing & telling you "when pigs fly!"
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Actually, I said something along those lines when avian flu crossed over into pigs about six years ago! :lol:

Seriously -- this is a nasty bug from an infectivity standpoint, but so far is proving to be very treatable. I agree that it's being way overblown (if you look at the WHO criteria for pandemic, we're technically in one for HIV/AIDS but no noise is being made), but our biggest concern is that it could turn into something REALLY nasty in the future. However, there's no evidence currently that it's anything worse than your everyday regular seasonal flu (and that currently kills about 36,000 people every year in the US).

We're not really sure why Mexico is having the issues they're having compared to the US. We have some hypotheses, but that's not for sharing at this point. One of the reasons we got all over this one is because there were a number of young, healthy adults getting really sick and/or dying in Mexico, which is completely out of the norm for regular flu. However, we haven't seen that in the US...yet.

The CDC site is an excellent source of information. I'll try to post up supplemental unclassified information as I can, these conference calls that I have to get on for this are just killing me (I average five calls a day).
 
Well, my buddies and I agreed and will go to Monterrey, Mexico in the summer as long as the border stays open or swine flu under control.

Chen, is it safe for us to go to Monterrey since there are no swine flu cases in that city yet.
 
We're not really sure why Mexico is having the issues they're having compared to the US. We have some hypotheses, but that's not for sharing at this point. One of the reasons we got all over this one is because there were a number of young, healthy adults getting really sick and/or dying in Mexico, which is completely out of the norm for regular flu.

I'll tell you why,..first of all Mexico has no desire to take care of it's people.. government is too damn greedy and only cater's to the rich and famous...second of all the people that did die, were dirt poor...you see in Mexico even to get medical shots is viewed as a luxury..were here in the USA is a point blank demand and requirement..for instance a child in school MUST have all required shots in order to enroll..in Mexico children are fortunate, enough to even attend school...so eventhough Mexico has the resources to provide..they simply dont..until an out break happends..which we have seen..
 
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This whole incident is media sensationalism. Remember avian flu last year? SARS before that? West Nile Virus before that?

It's just the next big thing.
 
Actually SARS was far more potent. out of around 8,000 people who got it, nearly 800 died. That's a 10% kill ratio.

But yeah overall this has turned out to be another case of sensationalism by the media.
Makes you wonder if you can believe any of the other stuff. We know the answer: you can't.
 
Sensationalism is different to lying, while it may not be as bad as the media is portraying it this influenza strain is virulent and will cause major issues for those who don't get treatment.

On the whole it seems like one of those no win situations because I could imagine the whining at outrage after the first couple of deaths if the media under played the problem.
 
Actually something like "the actual potency of the virus is yet to be determined" would have worked. But no, it was simply too good to resist.
 
That may be the case but lets be a little more realistic and say that the media is the whipping boy for everyone as no matter what it says there will always be people bleating on about how wrong it is.

If it writes in support of candidate A then candidate B claims bias, if it supports candidate B then candidate A claims bias, if says nothing then it isn't doing its job and if is says something then it is sensationalising the issue or taking sides.

Personally I just think people take themselves and their views far too seriously and get all butt hurt when a news report doesn't agree with it, are news outlets biased of course they are and so is everyone else but that doesn't mean they are lying and the basics of a story can't be believed.

When dealing with news reports I always recommend that people only take the core data of the report and ignore the fluff and padding.
 
"Well, my buddies and I agreed and will go to Monterrey, Mexico in the summer as long as the border stays open or swine flu under control."





i go to mexico often to see family i suggest not to go period unless you want to be some drug cartels *****
 
Not really MontyB. For the sort of definitive language the press use to convince its viewers, they are off the mark a bit too often. I think that's the point. Not so much that they disagree with me or anything.
At least with the case of Indonesia back in 98, it didn't matter what side of the political spectrum you were on, I remember we all agreed that CNN was off the mark. And it's the same criticism I hear from everyone else who is actually in the place of the news. Same deal with this case. I checked it out with a friend in Mexico City. Says the media is just blowing it out of proportion.
Whenever I give the media the benefit of the doubt, either someone or people from the actual area will tell me that's not how the situation really is.

Good advice that: look at only the data and ignore the fluff (which is about 90% of it).
 
It certainly looks as if it was overblown, but as Monty suggests the media (as well as Governments) are in a no win situation. The UK with enough Tamiflu to treat half the nation, has prepared diligently for new flu strains but is this a waste of money if neither Avian or Swine flu doesn't mutate to a more dangerous form, or was it just sensible insurance?

Bear in mind that the flu may not be spreading because of the spring season (in the North). Back in 1918 the Influenza pandemic began around this time and cases were minimal. It was only until around October that cases and fatalities rose sharply eventually killing more people than WW1. So the danger is being lulled into a false sense of security.
 
No I think the UK government's being sensible about it just in case.
You have a good point there Perseus. But what about all the other warm areas that already have the flu and aren't mounting heavy casualties?
 
I mean influenza usually spreads in the cold weather, hence it cannot easily take a hold in late spring or Summer. Autumn is the time it starts to increase (in the Northern Hemisphere) peaking a month or so later in the case of the 1918 outbreak.

1918_spanish_flu_waves.gif


One theory is that the virus strain originated at Fort Riley, Kansas, by two genetic mechanisms – genetic drift and antigenic shift – in viruses in poultry and swine which the fort bred for food; the soldiers were then sent from Fort Riley to different places around the world, where they spread the disease. However, evidence from a recent reconstruction of the virus suggests that it jumped directly from birds to humans, without traveling through swine
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic
 
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