charlotte 0 Posted April 26, 2009 Share Posted April 26, 2009 Scary The disease has already spread to the United States and eight children in New York, two people in Kansas and eight more in California have reportedly been infected by the virus. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has given warning that the highly lethal mutant strain sweeping Mexico could create a global pandemic A member of a British Airways cabin crew was taken to hospital with “flu-like symptoms†yesterday after falling ill on a flight from Mexico City to Heathrow. The man, who has not been named, has been taken to Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow, north-west London. Public health officials gathered in Geneva for an emergency meeting and branded the outbreak “a public health emergency of international concern.†Link to post Share on other sites
HelperElfMissy 42 Posted April 26, 2009 Share Posted April 26, 2009 big worry. I really like the asian tradition of wearing a face mask when you are ill to stop spreading disease, but people over here do not embrace it - they think they need to take a few cold and flu tablets and 'soldier on' thereby infecting everyone around them! Was working in an adult education environment last month where the lecturer continued to come to class almost dead on her feet with viral pnuemonia. Cant tell you how many times she directly coughed on me, let alone just coughing into the enclosed space we had to share. A regular typhoid mary! I told her so too - but she felt that she had more of a responsibility to teach her class than she did to protect them from a potentially life threatening infection. Hope they develop a vaccine, get it manufactured and get ahead of the spread before it gets too bad. Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted April 26, 2009 Share Posted April 26, 2009 No Way!! I hate those face masks!! If you are sick just stay off and inside your house. Teachers and kids wearing it in class, can't hear a bloody thing they say!! I'm sure there are a fair few murderous rogues in Mexico but to call them ALL Killer Swine's is a bit much!! Link to post Share on other sites
HelperElfMissy 42 Posted April 26, 2009 Share Posted April 26, 2009 Originally Posted By: Tubby Beaver No Way!! I hate those face masks!! If you are sick just stay off and inside your house. Teachers and kids wearing it in class, can't hear a bloody thing they say!! But surely wearing a mask is preferrable to no mask when you are not going to stay off and inside your house. Plenty of sick parents drag thier butts out of bed to take thier healthy child to a sporting match (infecting all the other parents they stand near). Someone has to go to the store to get chicken soup, antibiotics and panadol for the ailing family - they are spreading it... really it is unavoidable to be exposing others to yourself when you are ill at times - so best to limit the germ spread I reckon. Working in hospitals I carry a Japanese Cherry Blossom scented antibacterial hand cream in my car - you can not avoid 'touching' chair arms, buttons on lifts, pens, and sometimes the patient - so I prefer to use it after being in that environment - far too many bugs that are multi-drug resistant lurking in that environment. I do not want to take any of THOSE bugs home to my kiddos. Would you prefer the kids were coughing in your direction TB? Link to post Share on other sites
rach 1 Posted April 26, 2009 Share Posted April 26, 2009 I know I sure wouldn't... I sometimes feel the masks get whipped out on the slightest sniffle here, but this all sounds very worrying. Link to post Share on other sites
foreversnow 5 Posted April 26, 2009 Share Posted April 26, 2009 Here here MB. I own my own business and HATE when people drag themselves in off their sick bed to get a few things, (that surely could wait until there better!!) coughing and sneezing all over you. Yeah thanks for that if I get sick who then comes in to look after my business. I like the idea of the face masks or if you are sick STAY HOME!!! Hey MB where did you get your Cherry Blossom Soap?? I am a bit anal about not touching escalator hand rails and shopping cart handles. Link to post Share on other sites
HelperElfMissy 42 Posted April 26, 2009 Share Posted April 26, 2009 Good friends sent me the entire Bath and Body Works Japanese Cherry Blossom range including the antibacterial hand cream. SMELLS DIVINE! Will be sad when it runs out as it is a US line. Same type of thing can be bought in many different scents (not the elusive Cherry Blossom though) at David Jones/Myer ... Editteding to add: I am not normally real OTT with this stuff, just use it after jobs in hosptials (or when I get back into the car after being in a less than nice environment). However in the dead of flu season when everyone is coughing and spluttering I tend to take Oliviral capsules, or Olive Leaf Extract shots, and carry antibac wipes in my handbag for things like shopping trolley handles (they have been proven to be one of the worst offenders). Link to post Share on other sites
Jynxx 4 Posted April 27, 2009 Share Posted April 27, 2009 Definitely a worry. Had my flu already I hope that has boosted my immune system. I think those face masks are a cultural thing, a social display at best. Because the virus will just go thru. Until I found these masks in Japan with a ceramic filter layer + static electric filter layer built in. Says it cuts virus, pollen, germs, NOx .. Even got a wire on the top edge so you can shape it to you nose. Link to post Share on other sites
nzlegend 1 Posted April 27, 2009 Share Posted April 27, 2009 those masks are most useful for people already sick - to minimise their potential to spread their virus through coughing and sneezing - A courtesy to others if you like. Its spreading, a bunch of NZ school kids who just got back from mexico are ill with suspected swine flu. 25-45 year olds are dying from it - it must be a nasty flu. swine flu? I like the name mexican flu better, after all we have had Hong Kong flu Link to post Share on other sites
HelperElfMissy 42 Posted April 27, 2009 Share Posted April 27, 2009 Cripes ... that is not good news at all - we are heading into winter over here in the Southern Hemi - perfect Flu weather. Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted April 27, 2009 Share Posted April 27, 2009 it's gonna be big. We have the SARs experience and now everybody is back to panic stations. Link to post Share on other sites
HelperElfMissy 42 Posted April 27, 2009 Share Posted April 27, 2009 Forgot about SARS thursday - it was huge, but we never got it (other than an isolation case or two I think) - we got the Superstar Leo fora few months though - because she was not getting any work in Sing. You would have a real good understanding of living in an epidemic then... ...any tips for the rest of us. Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted April 27, 2009 Share Posted April 27, 2009 I suppose general hygiene should apply, and more often. Wash your hands if you've just come home off of public transport. Wear a mask if you need to take public transport. During SARs the ones without a mask were treated like they were the ones passing the disease on. If you get a fever, see a doc quick and stay away from school, work. Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted April 27, 2009 Share Posted April 27, 2009 Quote: New Zealand health authorities are tracking down hundreds of plane passengers who travelled with a group of school students believed to have caught the potentially deadly swine flu. Ten students from Rangitoto College in Auckland on Saturday tested positive for influenza A and are likely to have the swine flu, Health Minister Tony Ryall announced . The Auckland pupils were not seriously ill, Ryall said, and confirmation they had swine flu is expected within the week. One of their teachers was also admitted to hospital with similar symptoms, officials said. Their Air New Zealand flight to Auckland from Los Angeles had 364 passengers in total and the rest of the passengers have been urged to contact health authorities. ''Now that we know that this is an influenza A virus, possibly the swine flu virus, our attention will definitely be turning to all the contact tracing,'' the clinical director of the Auckland Regional Public Health Service Julia Peters told Radio New Zealand. Separately, a small number of students from another Auckland high school who recently returned from Mexico are also showing flu-like symptoms and have been quarantined. AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Link to post Share on other sites
JellyBelly 1 Posted April 27, 2009 Share Posted April 27, 2009 Scary stuff this. Just look at how the story has moved on in 24 hours. Link to post Share on other sites
HelperElfMissy 42 Posted April 27, 2009 Share Posted April 27, 2009 Lead story on local Perth News tonight too. Gaining momentum in the media at least - hopefully not so much momentum in the actual spread!! Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted April 27, 2009 Share Posted April 27, 2009 Originally Posted By: Mamabear Originally Posted By: Tubby Beaver No Way!! I hate those face masks!! If you are sick just stay off and inside your house. Teachers and kids wearing it in class, can't hear a bloody thing they say!! But surely wearing a mask is preferrable to no mask when you are not going to stay off and inside your house. Plenty of sick parents drag thier butts out of bed to take thier healthy child to a sporting match (infecting all the other parents they stand near). Someone has to go to the store to get chicken soup, antibiotics and panadol for the ailing family - they are spreading it... really it is unavoidable to be exposing others to yourself when you are ill at times - so best to limit the germ spread I reckon. Working in hospitals I carry a Japanese Cherry Blossom scented antibacterial hand cream in my car - you can not avoid 'touching' chair arms, buttons on lifts, pens, and sometimes the patient - so I prefer to use it after being in that environment - far too many bugs that are multi-drug resistant lurking in that environment. I do not want to take any of THOSE bugs home to my kiddos. Would you prefer the kids were coughing in your direction TB? I work with kids, they are germ factories even when they are not officially sick...it doesn't bother me. Sure I don't want DIRECTLY sneezed or coughed upon, but thats life. Can't live in a hermetically sealed box! A lot of the problem with kids today (more at home than here) is that they aren't exposed at a young age to a lot of the pathogens that we and the preceeding generations were, as a result of a more sedentary and indoor lifestyle. I hate those little masks and the ones that you buy from the convini, I wonder if they are of a suitable grade to actually stop the miniscule pathogens from passing through the paper. Just a gimmick to make money. Link to post Share on other sites
foreversnow 5 Posted April 27, 2009 Share Posted April 27, 2009 Last night when I went to bed there was an outbreak in Mexico of about 50 people, This morning on the news there confirmed cases the US, Europe, obviously Mexico and New Zealand and number of deaths. It seems to have really spread quite quickly. Is this media driven hysteria?? At least it might take everyones mind off the recession for awhile!! Even so it is a very scary situation. Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted April 28, 2009 Share Posted April 28, 2009 Tubby, this is a brand new virus, having mutated to deadly status. Youth exposure to illness will not give you an anti-body. This is new, the first contact will kill you. Link to post Share on other sites
BagOfCrisps 24 Posted April 28, 2009 Share Posted April 28, 2009 Interesting bit I found This is arguably the most frustrating time for those charged with tracking and responding to the disease. There is as yet too little information to know how it will pan out. Swine flu is nothing new. The first virus was isolated in the US in 1930, and since then there has been roughly one human case a year there. Occasionally the disease has spread more widely among humans, though only two people have died from the infection since 1976. The latest swine flu virus is different from those that have caused these more minor outbreaks in the past. It appears to be far more infectious, and could be more lethal. But major questions remain. For example, it is not yet clear that the strain that has killed in Mexico – and so far only in Mexico – is the same strain causing more mild illness in the US, Canada and elsewhere. There is good reason to suspect the virus will become less lethal as it spreads. The virus is constantly mutating, and the strains that will spread fastest are the ones that do not stop people going about their daily lives and coming into contact with others. The most lethal viruses tend to be short-lived because they kill their host before the virus has had a chance to be passed on. The complexity of the issue does not stop there. Although the virus is likely to lose potency as it spreads, it will reach more people, so the odds of further fatalities could still rise. Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted April 28, 2009 Share Posted April 28, 2009 Really hope it gets weaker and weaker. First Asian case found in Korea yesterday. Mexico connection. Link to post Share on other sites
Ezorisu 0 Posted April 28, 2009 Share Posted April 28, 2009 WHO raised the threat level from Phase 3 to 4 (sustained human-to-human transmission causing outbreaks in at least one country). There have been 149 suspected fatalities in Mexico at last count. Link to post Share on other sites
pie-eater 207 Posted April 28, 2009 Share Posted April 28, 2009 And some in UK now. Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted April 28, 2009 Share Posted April 28, 2009 It kills on 1st exposure? 100% death rate...I don't think so Link to post Share on other sites
HelperElfMissy 42 Posted April 28, 2009 Share Posted April 28, 2009 No...of course not. I think Thursday was just being melodramatic In fact it is believed that the strength of the virus will lessen as it spreads. How does that happen? Well viruses divide - they mutate and change - not always the same you see. The worst strains that knock people flat then kill them are not as likely to get passed on as they are not out and about exposing people, and those that are exposed are also taking to thier beds and dying. However the strains that are less severe and allow people to 'soldier on' get passed on with contact with LOTS of people. At this stage the outbreak is beyond containment - and there are new cases popping up every hour. Perth has its first this afternoon. Coming soon to a town near you <Groan!> Link to post Share on other sites
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