Swine Flu - the pig strikes back

[sparkindarkness]

We have swine flu. It's flu and a bit nasty.

No, there's no real need to panic. Yes some people will die - the die to regular flu as well.

Yes we should all look after our health. We should do anywhere. If you're sick, see a doctor. If you have the flu don't tough it out and go to work (assuming you have these options) because that just means you're sharing your pig germs with everyone else.

Keep clean, eat well. These have always been the best way to avoid disease. If you're filthy and a McDonald's afficionado then you're more at risk of illness - you filthy burger-muncher.


Are governments, the UN, WHO et al being a bit dramatic about all this? Yes

Did they overreact about SARS and Bird Flu et al? Yes

Did people panick with teh silly because of that? Yes

Should they stop? No... no no no

Because one day the next big squishy disease COULD be the ebola virus on steroids. It isn't now, but one day it could be. And in this age of planes, trains and automobiles a disease in one corner of the globe can reach pretty much every other corner of it in 48 hours. That is worth being a little paranoid about. It is worth playing safe.

See, I like paranoia in my emergency response. When I ring the fire brigade I want them to come, sirens blazing, hoses out, ripped hot firemen sweating (sorry, distracted there) even if when they get there they find that my toaster's on fire. I don't want them to think "Well, it may not be that bad. Do we really want to cause panic driving through the street like that? Can't we at least wait until a wall's on fire?" The same applies to the nice people trying to prevent the next Black Death. The fact that they seem to overreact makes it far far far less likely that the next scary plague is going to become worse than its hype.

Better to overhype them then ignore them... waaay better

Comments

[touchstone.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Though on the 'keep clean, eat well' point, I've seen various comments that the victims so far have been disproportionately young and otherwise-healthy. Given the relatively tiny population of victims, though, that could be purely a matter of sample size.

[gwailowrite.livejournal.com]

I just don't understand what the big deal is about a few pigs with the flu. Their noses are always running anyway and it's not like I go to pig bars or something. ;-)

[beladibaby.livejournal.com]

HUGS! Hope you both are better soon!

I work with seniors for the most part. Bless their hearts they were worried that I was going to get sick because it's being reported that people in my age and general health range are the ones getting seriously clobbered/dying from this. I pointed out people in my age range often work jobs they don't/can't take sick days off from when they are sick and will push themselves to the point of collapse on a normal day, let alone when they are sick. Probably why they are falling to this, if you don't take the time out to heal, your body will only go so far before it quits.

[mrmeval.livejournal.com]

More people killed by Dengue fever and aids than this.

They've now (idiotically imao) broken them into two pages.

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/

It is still cool.

[jerril]

I think the international sample is skewed heavily towards the population likely to be having a vacation in Mexico in March, ie young people who are otherwise healthy.

If they brought their parents, I would expect 40-50 something parents of teenagers to be more scrupulous than teenagers about washing their hands while on vacation in Mexico. If they didn't bring their parents, well, they're probably even MORE unlikely to wash their hands while unsupervised on a vacation in Mexico.

Kids come home from spring break trip to Mexico, get sick, infect the parents as they're stuck taking care of the teenager, and voilla, new locus of infection.

This is a personal theory, not an epidemiologist, etc. But I think we'll find the demographics standardize after a month or two.

[jerril]

More people killed by regular old flu, or getting hit by cars, or probably infection from house-pet bites (or just plain old being eaten by dogs). However, I still regard having a second flu season this year as the suck. I made it out of the first go round unscathed, damnit. Don't ask me to do two in a row, in the middle of freeking allergy season!

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

QWell; it can't hurt anyway I guess :) they're good general points

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Infected bacon! Do you not see the horror of this!

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

We live well, I mean "we" in general rather than us :)

Aye, younger people do tend to ignore their health more - either through carelessness or because they just don't have time to

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Now that's a cool map