[Xander]

I'm sure most of you would of heard of this at some point during the past week.

Fears are growing that a deadly human strain of 'swine flu' that has claimed 81 lives in Mexico has arrived in Britain. A British Airways cabin crew member yesterday complained of 'flu-like symptoms' midway through a flight to Heathrow from Mexico City, where the virus first surfaced. Last night the unnamed man, understood to be a British national, was in isolation in a West London hospital and was being treated by staff trained in infectious disease controls. Earlier, panic spread throughout Mexico, where those who died were reported to be the first victims of a pandemic with the potential to kill millions. Experts said the virus posed the biggest threat of a pandemic since bird flu began to spread in 2003. That has killed 256 people in 15 countries.

Rest of the article here

I'm not that concerned at the moment, but it does sound quite serious.

Any thoughts on this?

[Ross]

Omg. I have been ill for 12 days now :/ it's not shifting. I'm constantly coughing and being sick. My mum, dad and one of my brothers are ill too.

[Xander]

Originally posted by Ross
Omg. I have been ill for 12 days now :/ it's not shifting. I'm constantly coughing and being sick. My mum, dad and one of my brothers are ill too.

Have you been to a doctor? & did they say what you had?

Hope you feel better soon though.

[Ross]

No because I thought it was just change of season I always get ill around these times when the weather changes because of my asthma.

[Novo]

Mmm this is a new strain of flu, no vaccines and yet potentially contageous and dangerous.

If you feel ill go and see your Doctor. OK so who will treat the Doctors when they become sick?


Good point

LOL


There is only one way this doesnt spread and thats to stop Mexicans From entering this country and to stop planes/Ships going over there

[Xander]

Originally posted by .Andy.
Mmm this is a new strain of flu, no vaccines and yet potentially contageous and dangerous.

If you feel ill go and see your Doctor. OK so who will treat the Doctors when they become sick?


Good point

LOL


There is only one way this doesnt spread and thats to stop Mexicans From entering this country and to stop planes/Ships going over there

I agree, I think all flights etc to and from Mexico should be stopped, to stop it from spreading.

What I'm confused about though is whether the cases they are reporting are just the ordinary influenza or the Swine Flu, as I read that those who were affected in California are now better and that is has cleared up. But then they so many of the people they have died have had the Swine Flu... I'm not really sure as each article I read is saying something different.

[Ross]

Well I've been ill so if I die you know it's here

[John.]

mehh. they will just try to panic us like Bird Flu again...

[Xander]

Originally posted by Ross
Well I've been ill so if I die you know it's here

Aw don't say that.
You haven't been to Mexico so its unikley.

[John.]

Originally posted by Ross
Well I've been ill so if I die you know it's here

Have you been to Mexico recently??

Have you been in contact with the one infected person uk?

[Ross]

Originally posted by Xander

Aw don't say that.
You haven't been to Mexico so its unikley.

[Xander]

Originally posted by JD.
mehh. they will just try to panic us like Bird Flu again...

Ah I remember there was a lot of hype and media attention over Bird Flu a few years back, the media totally blew it out of poportion and the TV stations focused on the dead swan in Scotland for about a week.

[John.]

Originally posted by Xander

Ah I remember there was a lot of hype and media attention over Bird Flu a few years back, the media totally blew it out of poportion and the TV stations focused on the dead swan in Scotland for about a week.

yeah and it turned out that it had bobbed along in the Sea for ages from Germany!

[Novo]

DR. MARC SIEGEL: The Most Powerful Virus Is Fear Not Flu

With a new swine flu strain spreading among close to 1,000 people in Mexico and at least eight in the U.S., and with 61 reported deaths in Mexico, the most powerful virus pushing out its tentacles is not flu but fear. We are afraid of what we don’t know and what we don’t understand.

We hear about an unseen killer and we worry that we will be next. The best antidote for this kind of fear is the facts.

So let me take on the fear-laden terms. The first is pandemic. A pandemic means a new flu virus infecting people in several areas of the world at the same time. It can be mild, moderate, or severe. Everyone knows about the 1918 Blue Death that killed over 50 million people worldwide, but how many people realize that the last pandemic, in 1968, ameliorated by vaccines, antibiotics, and public health measures, killed only 32,000 in the U.S. and 700,000 worldwide, less than many yearly outbreaks.

The current swine flu outbreak is not a pandemic, as the outbreak is confined mainly to Mexico, but if it does become one, it is far more likely to be the 1968 variety because of modern public health measures and because we have been exposed to several parts of this virus before and have an immune memory to it.

Precautions like isolating sick people and use of the anti-virals Tamiflu and Relenza in order to decrease severity are wise precautions.

Wise too is closing schools in Mexico to prevent spread (schoolchildren are notorious flu spreaders), provided that this measure doesn’t send the world the wrong message that a massive pandemic is in the offing.

The second scare term is the pig itself. Pigs scare us. They are filthy noisy creatures. They are also loaded with flu viruses. This strain occurred because a bird virus mixed with at least one human virus and two pig viruses. Flus are changing all the time so a new strain
isn’t really a surprise.

We also need to be cautioned by the lessons of history. Back in 1976 an emerging swine flu virus appeared to be responsible for the death of a military recruit at Fort Dix (this later turned out to be erroneous), sparking a massive public hysteria fueled by Center for Disease Control press conferences.

I was reminded of this Friday when the CDC again spread fear about an emerging swine flu. We need to remember that fear causes people to take less precautions, but fighting contagions requires more precautions.

In 1976 Gerald Ford, trying for election, ordered 40 million vaccinations over a three to four month period of time, probably leading to almost 1,000 cases of ascending paralysis from the hastily made vaccine (Guillain Barre Syndrome) and driving most of the vaccine makers out of business. We certainly don’t need a repeat of this performance, in advance of any real worldwide threat.

Thirdly, we are also afraid because this disease is emerging in Mexico, a foreign land to the south over which we have no control. But fear of an unknown land doesn’t automatically translate to an American health risk. We are wise to have our scientists and public health officials tracking the outbreak, but we are not wise to anticipate the worst.

Like all flus, this one causes great fatigue, muscle aches, fevers, sore throat, nasal congestion, stomach upset, but is generally curable. The greatest risk is from secondary infections like pneumonia or ear infections, especially in the chronically ill. But in the U.S., if it spreads here, these problems are much more easily treated than in rural
Mexico.

We should be comforted by the time of the year. This is the end of the flu season, not the beginning. Flu viruses thrive in the low humidity of winter, not summer. It is very likely that this outbreak will die out automatically as the summer comes. It will remain necessary to track it because it could reappear in the fall, but it is very unlikely that it will erupt into a pandemic this summer.

I am glad that this outbreak is a swine rather than a bird flu, not because pig viruses are intrinsically safer than bird viruses, but because the greater lesson to guide us here comes from the 1976 pig hysteria, rather than from the 1918 bird flu plague.

[Novo]

Flu viruses thrive in the low humidity of winter, not summer. It is very likely that this outbreak will die out automatically as the summer comes. It will remain necessary to track it because it could reappear in the fall, but it is very unlikely that it will erupt into a pandemic this summer.

[Xander]

Originally posted by .Andy.
Flu viruses thrive in the low humidity of winter, not summer. It is very likely that this outbreak will die out automatically as the summer comes. It will remain necessary to track it because it could reappear in the fall, but it is very unlikely that it will erupt into a pandemic this summer.

Thanks for that article, I guess I feel more reassured now.

[andyman]

It will be worse come end of this year and early 2010..

The bug will already be here, already hit new york plus many won't be ill but might carry it.

Many die from flu in the uk anyway, plus if it was that bad then millions would be ill in mexico..

Cancer is still a bigger killer.

[Xander]

Seems that the guy from the UK tested negative.

But seems like there are more cases being reported...

* Eleven confirmed infections in the US
* In addition, eight suspected cases are being investigated at a New York City high school where about 200 students fell mildly ill with flu-like symptoms
* Ten New Zealand students are among a group which travelled to Mexico have tested positive for influenza A - making it "likely", though not definite, that they are infected with swine flu, said Health Minister Tony Ryall
* In France, a top health official told Le Parisien newspaper there were unconfirmed suspicions that two individuals who had just returned from Mexico may be carrying the virus
* Spain's health ministry says three people who returned from a trip from Mexico with flu symptoms are in isolation and being tested
* In Israel, medics are testing a 26-year-old man who has been taken to hospital with flu-like symptoms after returning from a trip to Mexico
* But a UK hospital conducting tests for swine flu on a British Airways cabin crew member said the tests proved negative.

[Shaun]

I can see this becoming another bird-flu scare. And where did that go?

[Lauren]

I just finished watching 24 season 3. Scared.

[Captain.Remy]

I've just heard on the news that the WHO has spotted the first four European cases...and they're French. How cool is that.

[Magic]

Not suprised with Britney coming over.

Joke.

[Captain.Remy]

Message original : Magic
Not suprised with Britney coming over.

Joke.

LOL
Good one, I generally never laugh at your jokes but this one is funny.

[andyman]

Two people admitted to hospital in Scotland after displaying mild flu-like symptoms after Mexico trip.

[30stone]

My mums on the plane over to Heoustan now right next to Mexico.

I don't want to worry..