Swine flu

[Myst and rain]

Do you worry about the swine flu affecting your life?

I've heard some different things from people. Some people, for instance, say that compared to a normal flu, the swine flu is a lot less harmless. More people die from regular flu, they say.

But I don't know what or who to believe anymore...

I have to say that I'm a bit worried.

[LonePhantom]

Plenty more people die from regular strains of flu every day. I wouldn't worry too much, just keep up your hygiene regime just like you would for regular flu, and you should be right.

[callen3615]

My immune system is strong enough to kill parts of my body, I think it could take care of the flu.

[ndhar]

The thing with swine flu is that its a new virus and its a virus which spreads very quickly which is why there is such a big hype, not because its deadly , just because its somewhat new and its spread all over the world.

[DavyH]

Originally Posted by ndhar

just because its somewhat new and its spread all over the world.

... and because it's proven itself to be mutable by crossing the species gap. Nevertheless, this is how viruses have always spread and there is nothing new about avian or mammalian diseases affecting humans (cowpox, anyone?).

It doesn't appear to be a particularly aggressive or lethal strain of influenza. I get the feeling that the concern is more that it could become more lethal, but in reality that isn't how viruses work. Only an unsuccessful virus kills its host.

[teokiatuan]

hmm, totally

[Myst and rain]

Well, that's reassuring. Thanks for replying, everybody.

[fretboardpyro]

The primary differance between seasonal flu and swine flu is that swine flu affects the lungs much deeper than seasonal flu would meaning that it is harder to remove the infection and there is a greater chance of getting pneumonia. Due to the flu being a new strain AH1N1 (bird flu was H1N1) There is far less immunity to it and so at present the likely hood of it spreading is greater. Tammi flu can be taken to assist with the symptoms, however this is not a treatment for the virus itself and so is a little bit hopeless. So in answer yes seasonal Flu will and does kill but the deaths caused by seasonal flu are nominal numbers throughout sustained periods and also its people usally in poor health as it always have been. Swine flu due to the low immunity most have to it has the potential to spread quickly and kill more due to how it affects your lungs.

[prydogga]

I'm not worried because according to my Doc I had it last week, it was alright...

[here.choo]

I used to not worry about it, but last week one of my work-mate infected this flu and she got serious and almost die. All of us in my department had to get the blood check and we found another 2 people more and they are now in the hospital.

After that we have a big cleaning day. We cleaned and sprayed the special gas from the government.

The worst thing if you infected the flu here in Thailand are
- We dont have enough medicines and
- After you got recover, you have to stay a week more out of the people, because you can still give the flu to other person!

This flu is a big problem in Thailand now. Many people died everyday and Our government can not control it anymore.... I have to be careful then.

[DavyH]

Originally Posted by fretboardpyro

The primary differance between seasonal flu and swine flu is that swine flu affects the lungs much deeper than seasonal flu would meaning that it is harder to remove the infection and there is a greater chance of getting pneumonia. Due to the flu being a new strain AH1N1 (bird flu was H1N1) There is far less immunity to it and so at present the likely hood of it spreading is greater. Tammi flu can be taken to assist with the symptoms, however this is not a treatment for the virus itself and so is a little bit hopeless. So in answer yes seasonal Flu will and does kill but the deaths caused by seasonal flu are nominal numbers throughout sustained periods and also its people usally in poor health as it always have been. Swine flu due to the low immunity most have to it has the potential to spread quickly and kill more due to how it affects your lungs.

Interesting stuff. We had our first confirmed death in the country from it, a student, and it followed the pattern of pneumonia followed by congestive (I assume) heart failure. The detail above is far more precise than I've seen in any local news reports or fact sheets.

Presumably this is the reason for traditional non-target/low risk groups being more severley affected?

[AxeHappy]

Every big sickness gets blow out of porportion by the Media nowadays. I'm still waiting for SARS to kill me, let alone West Nile, the Avian or the damn Swine flu. Has it even killed 100 around the world yet?

[here.choo]

Originally Posted by AxeHappy

Every big sickness gets blow out of porportion by the Media nowadays. I'm still waiting for SARS to kill me, let alone West Nile, the Avian or the damn Swine flu. Has it even killed 100 around the world yet?

160 already in Thailand. Updated 05.08.09 .. and more and more everyday.

[rickcard71]

The regular Fluenza kills way many more people! Only the uneducated, naive, brainwashed media circused people are afraid.

[eviltwin]

Originally Posted by here.choo

160 already in Thailand. Updated 05.08.09 .. and more and more everyday.

That sounds like a lot, considering the official worldwide numbers from the WHO are a bit over 1100, with most of them in the USA. Is Thailand accurately reporting these to the WHO? Official numbers for infections worldwide are at 160,000.

To put this in perspective, the 1918 pandemic infected 500million or >30% of the global population, of which over 10% died (IE >2,5% of the total opulation). Interestingly, there were some big differences in per capita deaths in 1981-1919, for example

Japan was just below average at ~2% (1in50)
The USA was over at 4% (1in25)
India (then including P akistan and Bangladesh) at over 7% (1in14).
The Netherlands despite housing a MILLION (yes 1,000,000) refugees from Belgium, France and Germany because of WW.1, "only" had 27,000 deaths. (1in250)

But having these kinds of numbers in this day and age would be totally unacceptable.


I'm still puzzled why we keep calling it Mexican Flu' though, as it most likely originated from the US, much like the 1918 "Spanish" Flu'...Swine flu' is as much a misnomer, when it's simply a variant of regular flu (also an H1N1 strand).