Possible flu pandemic starting

BlueFox

Let's hope not, but this has the potential to be nasty. I believe this is the first time we are seeing swine flu in humans. If it has mutated then it is a big source of concern.

It sounds as if someone has been playing with their home genetic engineering kit.

"The new virus has genes from North American swine and avian influenza; human influenza; and swine influenza normally found in Asia and Europe, said Nancy Cox, chief of the CDC's Influenza Division.

The new strain of swine flu has resisted some antiviral drugs."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/24/swine.flu/index.html

Systems

Yikes,this is not good.

fossy

While at work today( I work in retail), a shopper had a horrible cough that just sounded terrible & swine flu was the first thing that came to mind .......

Glad im not in Mexico city. gotta be bad if they are shuttin down schools but 2 cases in the San Antonio area is kinda close to home. Yikes

Sherardp

Just saw this on the news here in Japan, got my mask on. I'm traveling next week and will be for the next upcoming 3.5 months. My schedule is hell and I'm hoping to steer clear of this crap.

avelanchefan

OKay so this is all hearsay so be patient with what I have to say because a little of it seems a bit far fetched.

I live in Tucson, and work in the medical field. I have a fellow co-worker/friend that has a lot of family in Rocky Point Mexico. So I see her last night and start making fun of her, telling her not to be going to Mexico and bringing back the swine flu to Tucson.

She proceeds to tell me her mother had called that afternoon (Friday) and told her not to bother coming down to visit for a while. That people were really afraid and staying indoors. Her mom also said that she had spoke to her niece in Mexico City who is a Nurse at a hospital there. The niece said the number of dead they are reporting is way off. That she had accounted for over 100 dead at her hospital alone.

No again this is all hearsay, and I know Mexican women love to gossip. Lord knows I have seen my mother and aunts do enough of it to take there words with a grain of salt when they all get together. But a few things bothered me by what my co-worker had told me:

1) Mexico City is a metropolis of 22+ million people. So actually seeing a few thousand dead instead of 68 seems a little more plausible at this time. So I really do not believe the governments numbers.
2) Mexico City is a major international hub. So by this point in time the swine flu is probably incubating on most if not all continents.

Do I believe it? I'm not sure, but I do know one thing, if its not the Swine Flu now, it will be another flu down the road. And sooner than later. We have been on borrowed time, and luck. But eventually a new outbreak will occur, and when it originates in places like Mexico City the consequences can be very severe.

BlueFox

"The new virus has genes from North American swine and avian influenza; human influenza; and swine influenza normally found in Asia and Europe, said Nancy Cox, chief of the CDC's Influenza Division.

Ever since I read this yesterday, I have been thinking of the movie 12 Monkeys. This seems like something someone has created in the lab, and let loose, either intentionally or accidentally. Of course, the end result is the same, whether it is a natural mutation or man-made.

fatchowmein

U.S. declares public health emergency which means (per the Washington Post) they ramp up on civilian and military anti-viral drugs which are meant to stop the development of the virus but does not kill it. Sorry, I don't know enough to elaborate. The emergency also means closer scrutiny at the borders.

State # of laboratory confirmed cases
California 7 cases
Kansas 2 cases
New York City 8 cases
Ohio 1 case
Texas 2 cases (San Antonio)

TOTAL COUNT 20 cases

I went and bought a box of surgical masks just in case. Walmart sold out or they never had it. The two spots on the shelf nestled between the 20+ rubber gloves were empty. Wife is a school teacher so I packed her a couple in case of an emergency since we're in DFW, just a 5 hour shot north on I35 from San Antonio. Can't use it without causing panic though which kinda defeats the purpse but I understand.

Hopefully, this isn't a repeat of 1918.

george daniel

Must be new,, as I also work in the health care field,,I asked our IC nurse about it,and he was not aware of anything ,,,yet,,I'll find out more today,,as he's got friends @ the CDC.If you really want to come up to speed,just google the 1918 pandemic,,,guys/girls---remember,,Wash Your Hands,,,alot. Hope no one gets ill.

bobman1235

I love how 20 cases is now a pandemic. Jesus people like ot overreact.

BlueFox

bobman1235 wrote: »

I love how 20 cases is now a pandemic. Jesus people like ot overreact.

Dumbass alert.

bikezappa

Wash your hands as someone already said.

Avoid large crowds.

Keep your hands away from your month before washing.

Masks probably won't help because most are cheap and are put on wrong.

bobman1235

BlueFox wrote: »

Dumbass alert.

Eat me. I don't count any outbreak in Mexico City as relevant to anything, have you ever SEEN Mexico City? It's amazing they don't have the plague down there. There are sewer systems cleaner than that place. In the US there have been 20 confirmed cases. Twenty.

Every year there's some localized outbreak of something that everyone thinks will be the next thing to end humanity and it ends up being nothing. Ebola. Bird flu. Mad cow disease.

Ron-P

It's been here a lot longer then you think...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj4LnfkdJDM

Face

Who here has seen "12 Monkeys"?

george daniel

Face wrote: »

Who here has seen "12 Monkeys"?

twice,,probabally three,, now that you just mentioned it;)

zingo

Just one more reason I have never had an interest in going to Mexico.

NotaSuv

Damn does this means we need to get rid of our pet pigs?

tonyb

zingo wrote: »

Just one more reason I have never had an interest in going to Mexico.

The coastal towns are decent as they make an attempt to keep them clean for tourist.Some small towns too,but for the most part,going too far inland is like going to Haiti.
As far as swine flue goes,since the common denominator in all these cases is Mexico,why keep the border open? Our state dept. has just restricted all non essential traffic going to mexico,but not a word about restrictions comming in,as far as I know anyway.

bikezappa

bobman1235 wrote: »

Eat me. I don't count any outbreak in Mexico City as relevant to anything, have you ever SEEN Mexico City? It's amazing they don't have the plague down there. There are sewer systems cleaner than that place. In the US there have been 20 confirmed cases. Twenty.

Every year there's some localized outbreak of something that everyone thinks will be the next thing to end humanity and it ends up being nothing. Ebola. Bird flu. Mad cow disease.

Don't forget the Killer Bees coming up from Mexico.

They turned out to make more honey than any other bee, I think.

bikezappa

Problem is that it only takes one pandemic to kill you and your family.

Also remember Bomb Shelters from the 50s.

BlueFox

bikezappa wrote: »

Problem is that it only takes one pandemic to kill you and your family.

Yes. And the same dumbasses talking about overreacting will be the first one's to start yelling why didn't the government do anything to prevent it.

"Seventy-three cases of swine flu have been confirmed worldwide, the World Health Organization said Monday. Forty of those cases are in the United States, 26 in Mexico, six in Canada and one in Spain, a WHO representative said.

Later Monday, health officials in Scotland said two cases of swine flu had been confirmed there.

Hundreds more cases are suspected, especially in Mexico, where as many as 103 deaths are thought to have been caused by the virus, the country's health minister said. More than 2,000 cases have been reported but not confirmed in the country.

Federal officials confirmed 20 new U.S. cases on Monday.

A federal official said they were at the same school in New York in which eight U.S. cases were confirmed earlier. More than 100 students at the school were out with flu-like symptoms last week."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/27/swine.flu/index.html

Jstas

U.S. Human Cases of Swine Flu Infection
(As of April 27, 2009 1:00 PM ET) State # of laboratory
confirmed cases
California 7 cases
Kansas 2 cases
New York City 28 cases
Ohio 1 case
Texas 2 cases
TOTAL COUNT 40 cases

Human cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection have been identified in the United States. Human cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection also have been identified internationally. The current U.S. case count is provided below.

An investigation and response effort surrounding the outbreak of swine flu is ongoing.

CDC is working very closely with officials in states where human cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) have been identified, as well as with health officials in Mexico, Canada and the World Health Organization. This includes deploying staff domestically and internationally to provide guidance and technical support.

CDC activated its Emergency Operations Center to coordinate the agency's response to this emerging health threat and yesterday the Secretary of the Department Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, declared a public health emergency in the United States. This will allow funds to be released to support the public health response. CDC's goals during this public health emergency are to reduce transmission and illness severity, and provide information to assist health care providers, public health officials and the public in addressing the challenges posed by this newly identified influenza virus. To this end, CDC has issued a number of interim guidance documents in the past 24 hours. In addition, CDC's Division of the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) is releasing one-quarter of its antiviral drugs, personal protective equipment, and respiratory protection devices to help states respond to the outbreak. Laboratory testing has found the swine influenza A (H1N1) virus susceptible to the prescription antiviral drugs oseltamivir and zanamivir. This is a rapidly evolving situation and CDC will provide updated guidance and new information as it becomes available.


What Can YOU Do?


There are everyday actions people can take to stay healthy.

* Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
* Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hands cleaners are also effective.
* Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread that way.

Try to avoid close contact with sick people.

* Influenza is thought to spread mainly person-to-person through coughing or sneezing of infected people.
* If you get sick, CDC recommends that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.


In short, there's nothing you can do except to refrain from freaking out and don't be a dirtball.


How serious is swine flu infection?
Like seasonal flu, swine flu in humans can vary in severity from mild to severe. Between 2005 until January 2009, 12 human cases of swine flu were detected in the U.S. with no deaths occurring. However, swine flu infection can be serious. In September 1988, a previously healthy 32-year-old pregnant woman in Wisconsin was hospitalized for pneumonia after being infected with swine flu and died 8 days later. A swine flu outbreak in Fort Dix, New Jersey occurred in 1976 that caused more than 200 cases with serious illness in several people and one death.

Can I get swine influenza from eating or preparing pork?
No. Swine influenza viruses are not spread by food. You cannot get swine influenza from eating pork or pork products. Eating properly handled and cooked pork products is safe.

From: http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/?s_cid=swineFlu_outbreak_internal_001




As far as a pandemic, not yet. Does it have the potential to become one? Yes, yes it does. But 20-40 cases out of a population topping 300 million is not a pandemic. 73 cases covering 5 or 6 countries in isolated outbreaks and out of a world population topping 9 billion is not a pandemic yet either.

Even the Obama Administration is saying to cool your jets for now.

The current outbreaks are in locations where people are tightly packed like schools.

Also, this is not new. Swine Flu was blamed for a death by a pregnant woman in 1988. Even earlier than that was a Swine Flu epidemic at Fort Dix, here in NJ in 1976. Over 200 cases, only one person died.

As for freaking out, yes, people are freaking out. As for whining about the government doing or not doing anything about it, hardly. Swine Flu did not just recently jump species. There are records of possible infections going all the way back to the first influenza pandemic in 1918. That original outbreak was an influenza A outbreak and scientists have genetically linked all influenza A outbreaks since 1918 back to that original outbreak. Swine Flu, "Spanish Flu", Asian Flu, "Hong Kong" Flu, Bird Flu and so on are all influenza A. Some flus have yet to jump species in the horse flu and dog flu. So yeah, the government has been "doing something about it" since 1918. The problem with influenza is there isn't much you can do. Especially when it keeps mutating and jumping species.

bobman1235

BlueFox wrote: »

Yes. And the same dumbasses talking about overreacting will be the first one's to start yelling why didn't the government do anything to prevent it.

There are 6+ BILLION people in the world. In the time it takes you to read this sentence (probably minutes) dozens have died. Hundreds, or even a thousand deaths from a small outbreak is so insignificant that it defies logic to be so panicked about it. More people will die from falling down a flight of stairs or being struck by lightning than the swine flu has killed in the past week. The news just wants something new to talk about and people love to be afraid. And people like you love to rally the troops and berate everyone who doesn't fall in line with your panic parade.

organ

Remember SARS?

cnh

I agree, people should chill out a bit here. There aren't really enough cases to declare 'anything' in the U.S. And the fact that this stuff is coming out of Mexico, in this period of time may have more to do with the 'seriousness' and over-reaction taking place...It's not like Mexico has not been in the news as of late...?

Once we start getting to some true cases, other than a 'regular' flu--which is what almost ALL U.S. cases look like, then we can get out the masks.

12 Monkeys....I don't think so? I don't see Bruce Willis anywhere either!

cnh

bikezappa

Jstas good infomation +1

sucks2beme

Sooner or later, it's going to happen anyway. Something new pops up
and runs through the population. We are so interconnected, it's a wonder
it hasn't already happened. And the world is knee deep in people.
A bit of herd thinning is in order.

cheddar

Well, serious flu or not, it would seem a good time for the administration to work out their appointment problem...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090426/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_swine_flu_hhs_2

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the administration's response was competent even though the Senate has yet to confirm a secretary of human services, a surgeon general or a director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The absence of those officials left Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and an acting CDC chief to brief reporters on the swine flu outbreak.

POIDOG

Another Pandemic:

http://www.rr.com/home/home/article/9000/7570263/GM_to_cut_21000_US_factory_jobs_shed_Pontiac

NotaSuv

POIDOG wrote: »

Another Pandemic:

http://www.rr.com/home/home/article/9000/7570263/GM_to_cut_21000_US_factory_jobs_shed_Pontiac

so true in the loss of jobs and companies

love the s/n.. our flip neighbors on Maui BBQ'd one up every month after feeding it only rice for 3 weeks........

Jstas

POIDOG wrote: »

Another Pandemic:

http://www.rr.com/home/home/article/9000/7570263/GM_to_cut_21000_US_factory_jobs_shed_Pontiac

Uhhh...there's another thread here related to that.

Way to go, screwin' up other people's threads.