Mexico swine flu deaths spur global epidemic fears

[tfujiwara]

I"m mexican, I hope my family dosent get sick over there, thats all I'm worrying about...

 

[YSSMAN]

This is able to transmit from human to human, so it has nothing to do with pigs at this point. It was already spreading fairly wide throughout Mexico, but tourists have been bringing it home with them over the weekend. By the time they are catching on it has already spread to a handful of people. It hasn't become serious in a few hours, we just figured out who might have it in the past few hours.

Guess they should have kept this promo playing...

 

[FoolKiller]

Guess they should have kept this promo playing...

I just hope that everyone remembrs this before we over-react.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/WNT/AvianFlu/story?id=1794656&page=2

In 1976, three American soldiers at Ft. Dix, N.J., died from swine flu, raising fears of a pandemic. Unlike bird flu, the swine flu virus was transmitted person to person.

The administration of President Ford mounted a national campaign urging Americans to get swine flu shots. In a famous photo opportunity that year, Ford himself rolled up his sleeve and was inoculated.

But the vaccine was unsafe. Thirty-two people died and hundreds of other developed paralysis from Guillain-Barre syndrome.

Patty Tipton was 32 in 1976, when she was inoculated.

"I didn't know anything about the side effects," she says today at her home in Owensboro, Ky. "It has been such a life-changing event."

After being inoculated with the swine flu vaccine, she developed Guillain-Barre and is confined to a wheelchair. She has lost her fine motor skills and can no longer sew or embroider, things that once gave her pleasure -- let alone play softball or ride a horse, her main outdoor pursuits in 1976.

Her constant thought is what might have been had she not had the vaccine.

"I could have survived the swine flu," she says. "I was young, I was healthy."

 

[arora]

I have a hard time stressing my life away, while I know these things are serious and deserve some concern, I look at this as the 'bird flu'. BTW I live very close to the Mexican border.

Hope it's no biggie.

 

[Moglet]

The UK media are loving this.
It won't be long before people in this country are panic buying everything and panicking as soon as they sneeze or get a sniffle.

 

[Sureboss]

If British Pork wasn't already stuffed (With sage, onion and breadcrumbs obviously!) then it will be now. The uneducated fools will think eating a fry-up will turn you into a pig with the sniffles.

 

[icelt]

I just hope that everyone remembrs this before we over-react.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/WNT/AvianFlu/story?id=1794656&page=2

Exactly. Another good article on the '76 scare:
The last great swine flu epidemic

by Patrick Di Justo

"This virus will kill 1 million Americans," declared the U.S. in 1976. The panic then has a lot to teach us today.

April 28, 2009 | There is evidence there will be a major flu epidemic this coming fall. The indication is that we will see a return of the 1918 flu virus that is the most virulent form of the flu. In 1918 a half million Americans died. The projections are that this virus will kill one million Americans in 1976.

-- F. David Matthews, secretary of health, education, and welfare (Feb., 1976)

In January 1976, 19-year old U.S. Army Private David Lewis, stationed at Fort Dix, joined his platoon on a 50-mile hike through the New Jersey snow. Lewis didn't have to go; he was suffering from flu and had been confined to his quarters by his unit's medical officer. Thirteen miles into the hike, Lewis collapsed and died a short time later of pneumonia caused by influenza. Because Lewis was young, generally healthy and should not have succumbed to the common flu, his death set off a cascade of uncertainty that confused the scientists, panicked the government and eventually embittered a public made distrustful of authority by Vietnam and Watergate.

(see link for continuation)

 

[nk4e]

Yahoo News:

NEW YORK – At least seven people were in U.S. hospitals with swine flu Tuesday as the number of cases nationwide rose to 64 and a federal health official warned that deaths were likely.

Most of the nation's confirmed cases were in New York, where the city health commissioner said "many hundreds" of schoolchildren were ill at a school where several students had confirmed cases of swine flu.

Now people wear surgical masks
Though some residents believe that it started in a local farm.

As early as February, residents began complaining of unusually strong flu symptoms. They blamed a farm that lies upwind, five miles (8.5 kilometers) to the north. By late March, roughly one-sixth of the community of 3,000 began suffering from severe respiratory infections.

Swine Flu Ground Zero!

 

[Famine]

I couldn't be less concerned about this if I tried. Fortunately, I've managed to generate the same level of care in an inquisitive 7 year old who expressed an opinion that she hoped it wouldn't come here because it's bad. Thanks, News.

If British Pork wasn't already stuffed (With sage, onion and breadcrumbs obviously!) then it will be now. The uneducated fools will think eating a fry-up will turn you into a pig with the sniffles.

Oooh. More pork for me then

 

[Car-less]

I found this - I think it sums up the media panic nicely.

 

[Moglet]

I found this - I think it sums up the media panic nicely.

That's fantastic!

 

[Solid Lifters]

It get more serious for me since Claremont CA, where two cases may have been found yesterday in a mother-daughter that went to Mexico (who the hell goes to Mexico for vacation!? That place is a crap whole!), is the town next over. Eep!

 

[YSSMAN]

I think the CDC pointed out today that the incubation period is now at the stage where we'd be likely to see more people who have been exposed begin to show symptoms, which isn't exactly fun. The dude who was up there this afternoon mentioned that we should expect some deaths, but that he didn't know if it was going to happen.

Personally, I'm not all that worried about it until we start seeing young people (say, 16-25) becoming infected and dying because of it. If that starts happening on a larger scale in the US, then the Ess would have officially hit the Eff.

 

[nk4e]

Local TV newscaster came today to my local Target and started questioning the guest(s) about the Swine Flu.

 

[Mark T]

Not to mention that 5,612 people were executed in Mexico last year due to drug related gang wars. Think the media should be concentrating on that first and foremost.

I just heard on the radio this morning that the UK government has ordered 32 million face masks, even though the only two people have been confirmed to have had it.

 

[Omnis]

Considering you had a better chance of being struck by lightning than dying from bird flu, I think this whole swine flu scare is just another something. Big Pharma has to make their millions from fear-driven vaccinations.

 

[Keef]

I haven't had the flu in years now without any vaccinations. The media is making this out to be the next plague, jumping from person to person the little bunny in The Holy Grail. Besides, I don't know anybody who's been to Mexico within the last few years. If I was still at my old job or at home I'd be more comfortable, but the lot I work with now don't seem like the kind of people to take vacations to Cabo.

 

[Robin]

BBC news at 10 last night made is sound like we were all going to die! Now im scared to leave my house!

 

[Sureboss]

Not to mention that 5,612 people were executed in Mexico last year due to drug related gang wars. Think the media should be concentrating on that first and foremost.

I just heard on the radio this morning that the UK government has ordered 32 million face masks, even though the only two people have been confirmed to have had it.

It's for health professionals.

 

[Mark T]

It's for health professionals.

That's charming. Wouldn't it be wise to issue facemasks to the public going on public transport, especially the underground.

 

[FoolKiller]

That's charming. Wouldn't it be wise to issue facemasks to the public going on public transport, especially the underground.

From here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30464365/

"Very little is known about the benefits of wearing face masks or respirators to help control the spread of pandemic flu," the CDC notes.

The trouble, said Schaffner, is that whether or not face masks protect against viruses such as the swine flu depends greatly on what kind of masks people use and how well they wear them.

There are basically two kinds of face masks: loose-fitting surgical or medical masks made of soft, thin cloth that sell for pennies apiece, and form-fitting masks, also known as N-95 respirators, made of spun plastic fibers that filter small particles. They sell for a few dollars each.

“If people were careful about their use and used them consistently, could masks provide some level of protection? I would say ‘Yes,’” Schaffner said.

‘You could get a false sense of security’
But if any of those conditions aren’t met, people are better off tossing both kinds of masks and avoiding the illusion they’re protected at all, he added.

“You could get a false sense of security,” Schaffner said.

That hasn’t stopped Americans from stocking up on both varieties of face masks as well as other flu-related supplies, retailers and manufacturers say.

 

[Sureboss]

That's charming. Wouldn't it be wise to issue facemasks to the public going on public transport, especially the underground.

The face masks become useless once damp, so it would be kind of pointless.

 

[boiltheocean]

I'd like to make a point about the whole First American Death thing.

IT IS NOT AN AMERICAN DEATH. The Kid was Mexican in the US for treatment. Because he died in the US doesn't make it an American death.

 

[Moglet]

I'd like to make a point about the whole First American Death thing.

IT IS NOT AN AMERICAN DEATH. The Kid was Mexican in the US for treatment. Because he died in the US doesn't make it an American death.

I said the exact same thing!
Did anyone in the UK happen to see the BBC news earlier when they were stood outside the school where the girl has it? A young kid ran into the background behind the reporter wearing a gas mask, screamed, then ran off

 

[boiltheocean]

Did anyone in the UK happen to see the BBC news earlier when they were stood outside the school where the girl has it? A young kid ran into the background behind the reporter wearing a gas mask, screamed, then ran off

No but I wish I did now

 

[Moglet]

We're not at alert level 5, one step away from a pandemic

Everyone is still panicking over here, my mum works in a pharmacy and they want someone to be on call 9am-9pm to deliver medication to people who are suspected to have flu. The manager has told head office they won't be taking part!

 

[YSSMAN]

Well, the idiot that runs the school district that I used to attend closed the elemetary school closest to my childhood home (not the one I attended). Apparently a kid has symptoms of H1N1 (what we're being told to call it here in Michigan), and tied to having had family members return from Mexico on spring break just about a week or so ago... Panic hit, they closed the school for the day tomorrow, and they'll be doing some disinfecting.

Meh. Until kids my age start dropping dead in their tracks, I'm not very worried.

 

[nk4e]

Visalia’s Mountain View Elementary School was closed this morning by school officials who reported a second child who attended kindergarten there had been diagosed as a having flu-like symptoms.
Advertisement
www.visaliatimesdelta.com

County health department officials said Wednesday morning that only the first of the two cases, reported Tuesday evening, was a "probable" case at this point. The school would be closed through Friday, and possibly not reopened until sometime next week, the officials said.


The child’s mother told the Times-Delta today that her son, who is 5, felt sick over the weekend and did not attend school Monday.

On Tuesday she sent him to school because he was feeling better. She said she was unaware of the possibility of swine flu.

On Tuesday evening, she said, the school nurse called and suggested she take the boy to the doctor. She said she took him to Visalia Health Care Center, where he was tested, and she was advised to keep him home.

School officials said they were notified at 8:30 this morning, 10 minutes after school opened, by the county health department of the second case.

The school district announced last night a first “probable” case, apparently a 5-year-old girl, also in a kindergarten class at Mountain View.

This morning, parents were lined up at the school, at 2021 S. Encina St., to pick up their children.

Somehow, ouch...

 

[Touring Mars]

We're not now at alert level 5, one step away from a pandemic

Unfortunate typo

 

[FoolKiller]

So far swine flu (yes, I will be politically incorrect and use that term) is not affecting the only things I care about.

The Kentucky Derby is still going on as planned this Saturday and E3 will still be happening.

http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/04/29/swine-flu-won039t-stop-e3-says-esa

Swine Flu Won't Stop E3, Says ESA
April 29, 2009

Sure, it's all fun and games - until swine flu decimates the ranks of the booth babes.

Joystiq reports that the ESA does not expect the swine flu bug to impact E3. The video game industry's big dance kicks off next month in Los Angeles.

ESA P.R. guy Dan Hewitt told the 'stiq:

The 2009 E3 Expo is progressing as planned. Public health officials are taking all appropriate steps and we continue to follow their direction on all measures. We look forward to a great event, and to seeing you in Los Angeles in June.

GP: This, of course, could change should swine flu turn pandemic...

UPDATE: ...which it apparently is close to doing as the World Health Organization has raised the pandemic alert level to 5 on its 6-point scale.

How are those contingency plans going, Dan?

If E3 gets disrupted it will figure as Sony is apparently planning to unleash all their might with multiple conference rooms and three booths booked.


Hey, I wonder if Nintendo will show off the next Trauma Center game?