Swine Flu

[Daza]

Two people admitted to a Scottish hospital after returning from Mexico have been confirmed as having the swine flu infection.

More here from the BBC

So anyone else worries yet seems this virus has came from nowhere to international news in a few days.

[Diablo]

Is it possible to play devil's advocate? If I don't worry and everyone dies, noone is around to care I'm wrong, and if I don't worry and it doesn't kill us all, I was right.

I reckon its about time we had a pandemic (I don't want one I should point out), but I remain hopeful it will turn into another bird flu, in that it won't actually become one. I'm afraid if it does go pandemic, we are absolutely ****ed. The governments of the world won't be able to stop it, and if they could some civil liberties nut would prevent them. On the other hand, if loads of people die, does that mean that the benefit system stops being so overloaded and they can drop the tax?

[TopSecret]

I was going to dismiss it as just another flash in the pan, like mad cows disease and salmonella, until I read this bit on the beeb's website:

1918: The Spanish flu pandemic remains the most devastating outbreak of modern times. Caused by a form of the H1N1 strain of flu, it is estimated that up to 40% of the world's population were infected, and more than 50 million people died, with young adults particularly badly affected

1957: Asian flu killed two million people. Caused by a human form of the virus, H2N2, combining with a mutated strain found in wild ducks. The impact of the pandemic was minimised by rapid action by health authorities, who identified the virus, and made vaccine available speedily. The elderly were particularly vulnerable

1968: An outbreak first detected in Hong Kong, and caused by a strain known as H3N2, killed up to one million people globally, with those over 65 most likely to die

It shows the potential is there for this to become very serious and worrying. I read that the experts are unsure if the reason for the deaths in Mexico are just down to the new strain of flu, or whether there are some underlying factors too. Hope we manage to keep a lid on it here!

[Rastalovich]

Strike any1 else as weird (again) that although it's meant to be an initial outbreak in Mexico, that they have vaccines already.

That's b4 any real studying into what it actually is. I mean we all know how slow labs are.

[monkey7]

They have vaccines already? Piece in the paper I read said that the vaccines will never be in time to stop a pandemic, suggesting there isn't a vaccine yet.

I don't think I'm really worried about this. It might turn into a pandemic, but well... **** happens. I think the panic that's currently in Mexico just causes more problems. Healthy people are taking antibiotics, so when actually sick people need them it's going to be a pain to find them. Also, your body grows more or less resistant to antibiotics after taking them for an extended period, which causes more trouble if you actually become ill.

Taking more vitamin C is healthy, but above the daily recommended dose it doesn't have much of an effect anymore anyway, because it's all sent straight down.

[TopSecret]

Yeah I read today that there are anti virals that can ease the symptoms, but no preventative vaccines are available.

[Rastalovich]

Originally Posted by name='monkey7'

They have vaccines already? Piece in the paper I read said that the vaccines will never be in time to stop a pandemic, suggesting there isn't a vaccine yet.

In NewYork they were vaccinating kids in schools prior to the weekend.

[jiffz]

Wasnt there a bird flu that spread around in the last year or so which was supposed to kill millions?

That was hyped up to the max and it was thought a quarter of the would population would be killed by it, but it wasn't half as bad as the media made it out to be...

[prosser13]

They've got no vaccine specifically for the diseases, and it could take up to 6 months minimum for a bespoke one to be produced according to the BBC News at 10 =/

Anything which kills people is bad in my book TBH.

[PeterStoba]

We're all going to die!

Again...