Swine Flu Questions

[TDK1044]

Originally Posted by sharkbit

I am a mechanic for a aircraft charter company and I just overheard this at work today:

Some people want to charter one of our aircraft out of Mexico City because they are having a hard time getting out of Mexico and our CEO, Dir. of Safety, and Dir. of Operations are having a big discussion about safety factors, CDC restrictions on travel to/from Mexico, and if it is worth the $$$$ to fly these people home.

This is funnier than 'The Russians Are Coming'.....that reminds me, I haven't seen it in a while...time to dig it out.

[FIREWALL]

Originally Posted by TDK1044

Uneducated panic is far more dangerous than this flu.

And a Cavelier attitude can put you 6' under.

[TDK1044]

Originally Posted by FIREWALL

And a Cavelier attitude can put you 6' under.

In a few months time, when all of this nonsense is put in the correct medical context of what actually happened, instead of a lot of not very bright people reacting to CNN headlines, then we'll have the truth....and the truth will be more painful than the event for most people.

This mass hysteria is NONSENSE. Get a brain and research this subject.

[Max2147]

Originally Posted by TDK1044

This mass hysteria is NONSENSE. Get a brain and research this subject.

I've got to say, the more research I do on this, the more worried I get. This flu is a heck of a lot scarier than your average flu, especially for a healthy young adult like me.

[Frame57]

My concern over this flu is what will happen after it mutates. That is when it will be the most virulent. Remember it is the complications of the virus that kill people. Pneumonia being the most prevalent of these.

[longam]

Originally Posted by TDK1044

During a typical year in the US, 30,000 to 50,000 people die as a result of influenza viral infection. About 5-10% of hospitalizations for influenza lead to fatal outcome in adults. Although most influenza infection is in children, the serious morbidity and mortality is almost entirely among elderly people with underlying chronic disease.

I would love to see the data you found on that. This is interesting to see the difference.

[Platapus]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/29...flu/index.html

Good advice from the Acting Director of the CDC


"However, he [acting director of the CDC] stressed that people should maintain their perspective on the swine flu outbreak.

"Seasonal flu each year causes tens of thousands of deaths in this country -- on average, about 36,000 deaths," Besser said. "And so this flu virus in the United States, as we're looking at it, is not acting very differently from what we saw during the flu season."

[Platapus]

I think it is high time we cut the pigs a little slack here. They are getting a bum deal

http://www.oie.int/eng/press/en_090427.htm

A virus circulating in Mexico and the USA and involving person to person transmission appears to cause in some cases severe disease in certain people infected by this virus. There is no evidence that this virus is transmitted by food.

It is not a classical human influenza virus called seasonal influenza, which causes every year millions of human cases of influenza worldwide but a virus which includes in its characteristics swine, avian and human virus components.

No current information in influenza like animal disease in Mexico or the USA could support a link between human cases and possible animal cases including swine. The virus has not been isolated in animals to date. Therefore, it is not justified to name this disease swine influenza. In the past, many human influenza epidemics with animal origin have been named using geographic name, eg Spanish influenza or Asiatic influenza, thus it would be logical to call this disease “North-American influenza”.

Urgent scientific research must be started in order to know the susceptibility of animals to this new virus, and if relevant to implement biosecurity measures including possible vaccination to protect susceptible animals. If this virus would be shown to cause disease in animals, virus circulation could worsen the regional and global situation for public health.

Currently, only findings related to the circulation of this virus in pigs in zones of countries having human cases would justify trade measures on the importation of pigs from these countries. The OIE will continue its alert function and will publish in relation with its Members, Reference Laboratories and Collaborating Centres all appropriate information in real time.

OIE and FAO underline the great value of the influenza veterinary laboratory network called OFFLU, in charge of the surveillance of the evolution of influenza viruses in animals. There is a strong need to reinforce this network whose members are urged to put immediately in the public domain any genetic sequence of influenza virus they obtain.

This influenza event underlines in all countries the crucial importance of maintaining worldwide veterinary services able to implement in animals early detection of relevant emerging pathogens with a potential public health impact. This capacity is fully linked with veterinary services good governance and their compliance with OIE international standards of quality.

[Skybird]

Maybe I miss a vital point, but somehow this swine flu thing leaves me totally unimpressed currently.

I will start worrying when the virus mutates and the new form proves to be very dangerous, and/or indicates a higher resistance against the currently functioning drugs there are.

Mexico has reduced the number of related deaths drastically (from over 150 to below 10, they said on TV this evening), due to possible misdiagnosing patients. That may explain why the death rate is so high there, while the virus did little lethal damage in other countries so far.

The thing may be highly infectous, but keep your perspective. A real lethal monster pandemic is something very different. When the virus mutates, then we talk again.

[TDK1044]

Yes. Back in 1918, it was the second wave in the Fall that caused all the trouble. That strain had mutated into something far worse than the initial outbreak.

Hopefully, we've learned a lot in the 90 years since then.

[Frame57]

They cannnot do anything until they have a culture of the mutated form. Guessing what genetic extrapolation from a human host is redundant. It will become more virulent and be a stronger virus for certain. Even still it is the secondary bacterial infections and the degree of inflamation that occurs in the lungs that kill people, so no matter what happens it is those areas of concern that have to be combated with antibiotic and prednisone. Anti virals might help a bit, but should be taken early on.