Stop the flu misinformation! Loosen your TFH's!

The Tin Mom · #41 04/26/09, 12:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Willowdale

The husband in the Kansas couple had attended a business meeting in Mexico. He upon his return he infected his wife. Pretty good catch by his doctor in Kansas!

This is what I had heard, too.

We just got back from Orlando this past Friday and my dd16 is sick with flu symptoms.... I am keeping a pretty close eye on her - she got sick yesterday morning and so far just fever, aches and pains and a headache. I am not worried too much yet. The fever has been manageable and she says she feels better today than yesterday... Still, I am watching her closely.

Pouncer · #42 04/26/09, 12:24 PM

Confirmed in Ohio, and suspected in MN and Massechuesetts as well.

I dunno, I think a little tin foil might be in order

If I had a family member recovering from flu symptoms, you can bet I would be calling the health dept to ask about testing.

pickapeppa · #43 04/27/09, 01:11 AM

I spoke with a friend in IL a couple of weeks ago who had a bad case of the flu. She was pretty sick, and called her doctor to ask if something was making the rounds and was informed that yes indeed, there has been a bug going around.

Maybe it spread from here to there, or maybe it has already been here for some time.

manygoatsnmore · #44 04/27/09, 03:20 AM

Well, I am an RN on the medical floor, and we typically get the isolation cases, so it'll be interesting to see how this plays out. I can't just ditch work because I might catch something, so I guess I'll just trust that my immune system is healthy and that if I do get sick, I'll be at work already where someone can put me to bed and take care of me...and pray my dd doesn't catch anything from me.

jessepona · #45 04/27/09, 06:28 AM

When I worked in a lab one of the things we did was create lamda viruses to help make copies of large gene regions. They were bacteriophages so they only attacked bacteria, but the relative ease of the process always left me a bit queasy.

But the swine flu, I just don't know what to think. I've been away from the news this weekend and I'm waking up to a lead story about a possible pandemic. Scary stuff. According to one website, swine flu can't transmit from one human to another. Is this true? It seems that the flu is transmissible between people, otherwise how would there be worry of an epidemic?

LOL, my local news caster is coughing as he relates info about the flu. Maybe he's infected

Wisconsin Ann · #46 04/27/09, 06:47 AM

jessepona, simple swine flu is supposedly on from swine to human...not human to human. This is not a straight forwart swine flu. It's a combination of swine flue, avian flu, and human flu viruses. That it can apparently go from human to human is what has them worried.

It seems that the outbreak from located in or near Mexico City, and started to infect those who worked in the area...then travellers were exposed and brought it back to their regions.

Lots of info and misinformation out there. The CDC is trying to sort through everything and says they'll keep on top of it....

Randy Rooster · #47 04/27/09, 06:58 AM

I got a feeling everyone here is more likely to die in some kind of farm related mishap, than from this latest health scare.

jessepona · #48 04/27/09, 06:59 AM

Thanks Ann! I'll check the link to the CDC and try to learn more about it. The morning news info hasn't been overly informative or helpful :-/

ETA: @randy Yeah, possibly that or cancer. But still, it doesn't hurt to learn and do what you can as far as prevention. I try to be safe around farm equipment, I don't drink ethidium bromide and when I'm not in full garden mode (like this weekend) I try to keep abreast of world events. I'm not panicked but I also don't like being ignorant on possible health threats out there- especially considering I'm in the age bracket it most direly affects.

chris30523 · #49 04/27/09, 07:02 AM

It is a scary thing. Having had a bad case of the flu once I am not in a big hurry to get something worse. Unfortunately I will be exposes as dh drives a school bus,DIL is an RN,Son is a Paramedic. I am particularly worried about sons and DILs as they are in the right age group. My other son and DILl live in NM. I am really hoping this turns out to be nothing much..

ginnie5 · #50 04/27/09, 07:46 AM

Does anyone know if the flu shot protects against this?

**ladycat** · #51 04/27/09, 07:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ginnie5

Does anyone know if the flu shot protects against this?

The CDC has been saying that the flu shots have NO protection against it.

Ruby · #52 04/27/09, 07:59 AM

Gov. Perry it taking this serious.

Also they just announced on chanel 4 news that there are more confirmed cases of it in north Texas.

People we need to take this serious.

http://www.kwes.com/global/story.asp?s=10252261

timfromohio · #53 04/27/09, 08:22 AM

I'm in Cleveland/Arkon area - a nine year old has a confirmed case up in Elyria - they shut down the school.

Wisconsin Ann · #54 04/27/09, 08:33 AM

You know...I've been reading some of the posts, both on various threads here in HT and on other sites...poo-pooing the whole thing. it's all a scare tactic...it's media hype...i'll worry when i get it.....it's just another flu....more people die from <whatever>....

and it saddens me. These same people would probably criticize the government if they'd done NOTHING...why didn't they tell us? they should have closed schools!...I should have been told not to travel to Mexico!...

I was just watching one of the CDC's leading influenza researchers being interviewed. No panic in the voice or words...just puzzlement over this virus. It's a totally new form..unexpected...and they don't know how it's going to react as it mutates. Influenza is so hard to treat because it mutates so rapidly. Starts out benign...and then mutates into something really nasty...or vice versa. They can predict (pretty well) what a single strain will do...that's how we end up with flu vaccines every year. But this one has genes from 2 strains of swine flu, 1 strain of avian flu and 1 strain of human flu. The first problem here is "how the devil did they manage to combine?" and from there you go to "what is it going to do?"

Complicating this outbreak is the fact that so far there's no explanation of why over 100 people have died from this virus in Mexico..and yet the same strain is causing "mild flu symptoms" in the other countries.

Certainly SE Asia is taking it seriously. They've gone thru SARS, Avian Flu (over 200people died from that one, and it's still around in SE Asia) and a couple of other minor health problems...They have permanent protocols in place for traveling that they can simply "turn on" when there is a threat.

This could well fizzle out quickly. I hope it does. But without people being aware of the problem, and taking steps to control it...who knows how quickly it could spread? Part of the reason that the flu of 1918 killed so many is that there was NO warning that it was coming. By the time they realized it was a problem...it was months too late. No TV coverage. No radio coverage. People got the news by word of mouth, newspapers. It was ignorance that killed many.

I remember my mother almost dieing from the Hong Kong flu in late 1968. She ended up in the hospital, and yet it started off as a typical flu bug. Holy FluBug, Batman...was she ever sick. and NO I'm not saying this is another hong kong flu. just sayin'....

Ernie · #55 04/27/09, 08:42 AM

On a lark, I went through an old box of books I've got around here and dug out a copy of "The Stand" by Stephen King. I don't really know when it was written, but it's somewhat amusing to listen to people's comments in the beginning portion of the book. They said the same things ... "if it's a problem the government would tell us" or "It's just the flu" or (my favorite) "there's nothing to be worried about".

I realize that these sorts of flu scares happen periodically, but I also think each and every one should be taken pretty seriously. The same as one would take each and every tornado sighting pretty seriously. It may just dissipate into some swirling clouds and rain, or it may take out your double-wide. You just can't tell in the early stages so you'd best be prepared.

Aintlifegrand · #56 04/27/09, 09:09 AM

I love The Stand.. it is my favorite Steven King novels...

I am becoming more concerned today as the WHO is meeting today instead of tommorrow as planned to discuss whether they should raise the threat level and change th e wording to Pandemic..

Normally, I am not one to panic ...I work in a hospital and see so much.. but I have to admit I am somewhat concerned for my Daughter/SIL and Grandson in San Antonio where two cases were identified ( who go out quite often in the public) and Las Vagas where my son/DIL and grandaughters live... both have heavy Mexican populations that travel to and from Mexico frequently..in fact my Son's nanny for our 4 month old Grand daughter travels to Mexico every couple of months... she was last there that I knew of in March...I called them both yesterday and as usual they listened with the attention span of 20 somethings " who haven't a care in the world"... so yeah it has me concerned...

wyld thang · #57 04/27/09, 09:52 AM

watch the body count, in the last ---->6 hours<----- it went from 80 REPORTED dead in Mexico, to 100 (like 83 to 101)/ per 1600 cases(I think that was the number).

WIHH, I have a friend with a similar heart thing, she got a freaky tropical bug that torpedo'd her heart. She went through training for handling pandemic/bioterror stuff and she is on personal code red. Put it this way, she'd rather deal with Ebola if this flu turns ugly.

wyld thang · #58 04/27/09, 10:00 AM

k, body count has risen by 5 in the past hour, just sayin...

"my friend" just sent me info this flu goes person to person...return your seat to the upright position!!!

akhomesteader · #59 04/27/09, 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ernie

1. This is a strain of swine flu similar to what infected over HALF the world's population in 1918.

That was when one of the first mass flu vaccination occured and millions of vaccinated soliders were returning home. Take it for what it's worth.

SunnyJim · #60 04/27/09, 10:37 AM

I took classes back around 2001 with a professor who studied flu virii her entire professional life and assisted at a company where they made the stuff that goes into your flu shots, so I learned a lot about the flu from her.

She predicted then that the next "pandemic" flu would be a combination of swine, bird, and human virii, but she got the origin wrong, sh thought it would come from China due to the domestic practices of keeping ducks and pigs in close proximity,

The thing to look at in this situation is that this virus will evolve to expand it's transmissibility, and usually a virus will sacrifice virulence for transmissibility. Hopefully that is what will happen here, as more people get the virus, it will 'pick up" more human flu factors and become much less deadly.

Another thing to consider regarding the mortality rate of this virus so far is that they have only the reported cases to get mortality numbers from, so the rate may be artificially high.