H1N1 flu

C

CitizenGeek

Guild Member
It's getting pretty scary, isn't it? I just got an e-mail from my university's student union full of warnings from the Irish Health Service Executive (HSE) about the impending pandemic.

This Google map from the WHO tracks the spread of the virus and is pretty cool, albeit in an acutely morbid way. (There's a pretty cool roundup on all things related to the virus in that link, too).

Any thoughts on the new influenza epidemic? How are they handling it over there in the UK, where there have actually been outbreaks (Ireland still hasn't had any reported cases, though I doubt that will last very long considering how frequently people travel between the UK and this country)?

Edit: Changed it to H1N1 flu because that's what it's actually called :p
 
Otaku-san, it's really hard to tolerate your standard of .... expression, sometimes.

The Irish pork thing was to do with some kind of toxin being found in the food that certain Irish farmers were giving to their pigs and the resulting pork products were found to contain traces of this toxin. Irish pork never caused harm to anyone, though, and probably wouldn't have regardless of how much Irish pork one consumed because the traces were so tiny.

The current swine flu epidemic started in Mexico, and hasn't even infected any pigs yet. Do you watch the news?
 
While I feel sorry for the families of those who have died in Mexico, I can only shake my head at the The Day Today style media hysteria surrounding Swine Flu (though at least it's distracted them from the recession for five minutes, meaning we're getting at least some variety in our news reporting).

Remember when we were all going to die of Bird Flu? That means the government now have enough Tamiflu stockpiled for at least half the UK population, so I don't think I'll bother worrying just yet. After all, you could die from being hit by a flying pig balloon tomorrow...
 
I think you're being far too casual about this, ayase. The reason we didn't all die of bird flu is because the media along with world governments and NGOs more or less freaked out about the potential harm it could cause and dealt with the issue by informing people and using their resources to keep it under control.
 
A few cases where pointed out on GMTV this morning, near london, near the west country and in the north.....living in the east i feel safe.

i'm not right bothered tbh...its flu....its almost curable with typical influenza antibiotics.
their formulating a proper cure for it....should be about in a few months from now....still there could be 100's of deaths before then. the way i'm looking at it is....if it happens...it happens. wearing a mask isn't going to stop the flu from infecting you.

In the NHS "Trust today" (an email sent out within the trust)
the campaign for "Catch it, Bin it, Kill it" and a poster was sent round.

i printed off a copy and taped it to the cupboard above the kitchens sink. and thats all thats going to happen.


CG regarding the government on bird flu....they wouldn't purposely freak out the country...that would lead to alot more problems than the epidemic itself. imagine everyone thought they where going to die? nobody would turn in for work...the economic state were in right now would be nothing compared to if everyone downed tools.
also there would be a significant rise in crime.
global panic. you get the picture. thats why they didn't freak out. they where getting ready for an epidemic and notifying the population of the UK of a possibility.
 
Tachi- said:
CG regarding the government on bird flu....they wouldn't purposely freak out the country...that would lead to alot more problems than the epidemic itself. imagine everyone thought they where going to die? nobody would turn in for work...the economic state were in right now would be nothing compared to if everyone downed tools.
also there would be a significant rise in crime.
global panic. you get the picture. thats why they didn't freak out. they where getting ready for an epidemic and notifying the population of the UK of a possibility.
Click to expand...

Whoa, that's clearly not what I meant. I just said the different relevant organizations essentially "freaked out" (as in, they moved very quickly, raised the alarm, etc.).
 
It is pretty worrying yeah, but we can't do much about it. Thankfully it appears to be only mild cases outwith Mexico, so its not going to be the most deadly of influenza viruses, but that doesn't mean we can disregard the fact that it has killed people. I can see it going to Level 6, but probably not until this evening at the earliest.
 
I live in London and commute in the sweaty, airless tube which runs from a certain airport, so if a full pandemic comes to pass I expect my colleagues and family will be involved. I just had [normal] flu a couple of weeks ago so that's not something I'm looking forward to. Still, even knowing it's been found in London I'm not letting it worry me. There's nothing I can do about it at this stage and so far it's moving slowly.

Sadly I feel that the people of Mexico have suffered much more than places like the UK are likely to due to the slow trickle of information at the start and the undeniable fact that there is a lot of poverty over there. I hope that they are getting things under control - whilst people in wealthy countries are certainly likely to be infected and suffer I feel that we have far better access to aid and education than many other countries for whom an outbreak would be absolutely catastrophic. I'm more worried for those people than for myself.

Has anyone else played the flash game Pandemic 2? I had some innocent fun with it last year and it's a little creepy how the unhappy news reports echo the unfolding of events in that game.

R
 
Rui said:
I live in London and commute in the sweaty, airless tube which runs from a certain airport, so if a full pandemic comes to pass I expect my colleagues and family will be involved.
Click to expand...
Good line, that. If the worst comes to worst, TFL can just prevent 'infected' trainloads getting the other side of Hammersmith.
 
We were a yellow zone but I think we are in the 'Red Zone' now. There have been a small number of cases but this is a flu, it spreads from breath and air.
 
I already know people who are worried about going up town because they might catch the swine flu, It'll soon get the to point where people are going to start wearing masks if they go outside.
 
you guys do know that there are only 9 people confirmed dead from the virus...

and thats in mexico, no offence, but we have much, much better healthcare here

in the US, its only caused mild flu symptomns, non fatal

but dont listen to me, im not some fearmongering numpty from the media, what do i know, i actually like facts, silly me, huh?
 
SundayMorningCall said:
but dont listen to me, im not some fearmongering numpty from the media, what do i know, i actually like facts, silly me, huh?
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yess you silly silly girl, what you thinking trying to make us feel at ease

sheesh :roll:
 
@SundayMorningCall: Thats more or less what my post said, everything outwith Mexico is mild symptoms, nothing fatal(bar that one death in the US, which was a mexican kid again). You can say "its only caused X deaths" yeah, thats true, not many are confirmed to have died because of the flu, hwoever that doesn't mean it can't kill, it just means that those in poorer developed areas will suffer more than in more well developed areas, such as here and the US.

Going by what i watched on the news not to long ago, stage 5 means that a pandemic is imminent, in which case its just a matter of time before we see us at stage 6. Compared to other times, we are far more prepared than before, so dealing with it is going to be done better, but we'll still hear about it on the news for weeks no doubt.
 
Otaku-san said:
SundayMorningCall said:
but dont listen to me, im not some fearmongering numpty from the media, what do i know, i actually like facts, silly me, huh?
Click to expand...

yess you silly silly girl, what you thinking trying to make us feel at ease

sheesh :roll:
Click to expand...

actually, im a boy, lol!
 
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