To think that people really need to get a grip over the whole swine flu business?

[wannaBe]

Let's face it, we are all going to die. Nobody knows how, nobody knows when.

100 people have died of swine flu. 100 people. And yet people are talking of panic buying/keeping children home from school/wanting to know why flights from meccico have not been stopped.

100 people. worldwide.

I wonder how many people were killed on the roads during that time?

If you're going to catch swine flu, you'll catch it whether you panic about it or not. And given only 100 people have died of it so far, currently, the odds are pretty slim. And even if it reaches pandemic level (such as bird flu/sars didn't but the media were desparately hoping they would) there's still not much you can do about it.

100 people.

seriously.

And thank-you, Peachy and robino. Feel much more one of the gang now.

My dad always has the annual pneumonia jab on top of the flu jab, as he is 73 and has heart disease and hypertension.

But last year, he still got pneumonia and it very nearly killed him.

They're due here next week, but his pulmonogist gave him a course of Tamiflu.

My mother got a course, too, but she has COPD from smoking.

Ahh so mild as in unlikely to kark it, not slight sniffle fine and dandy, thanks.

The Scottish couple are being released tomorrow after only 4 nights in hospital and were only placed there because it was swine flu.

Give.me.a.break.

I got run of the mill flu in 1996. I could get out of bed only to go to the toilet for an entire week.

But, being in America, I went back to work after those 7 days.

Wound up a further 10 days in hospital with pneumonia.

I was 25 and in amazing shape.

Fair enough expat - but they have undoubtedly had flu. Tested for it and all.

Well, of course, Fallen, but it's hardly this 'deadly virus' the meeja keeps banging on about.

Probably best for people with this flu to stay at home and take their Tamiflu there, IMO.

Last thing you want is exposing vulnerable people already in hospital or even more healthcare workers to it.

I mean, it normally takes a week or so to recover from no matter what strain it is and they don't have pneumonia, which is the flu's normal mode of killing people.

I think the confusion comes from the number of deaths in Mexico and the lack of deaths elsewhere.

And they were in hospital to attempt to isolate it. Now there is a suggestion they might have infected others, isolation's kind of gone out of the window. I reckon they got it at just the right time. Nice comfy beds and nurses to look after them. And anti-virals to ease their symptoms. The rest of us, if it goes national, won't have it so good...

Who knows why those people died in Mexico? For all we know, they were living with their livestock, were malnourished, worked with dangerous pesticides, etc etc.

Still only 20 confirmed from swine flu, just as low as any other flu season.

Nope, still don't see a reason to panic.

Even the last pandemic killed a million worldwide, most in developing nations that have additional problems with food and clean water supplies, medical care, worse pollution, people working with dangerous substances long banned in the West that compromise their health, where more people have other health problems, etc.

Flu's a killer every year. That's hardly newsmaking, though.

Well, that's a long no-brainer. Isolation doesn't work because, as with many diseases, people often don't realise they are infectious before they fall ill.

Wasn't very nice for me on the tube today. Metro headline- TUBE ALERT!!SWINE FLU IN LONDON EXPERTS WARN! I'm a bit scared, hoping it turns out like all the other non pandemics.

I think I have it I keep coming out in rashers

goes back to flicking through The Book of Awful Puns

My husband reckons it's the beginning of Zombiegeddon© -
warning: this is a link to a blog for those that sniff at them in a superior and non-fluey, because sniffles mean a cold anyway so it wouldn't be the flu, would it?, way

I felt a bit worried sitting on the tube reading that too junglist, someone sneezed and got the look of death from everyone!

dh likes to wast his time flu

apologies for any offence caused

or even waste

Thats brilliant sfx mum, dh and I were posl.

I'm in Australia, and people are in full panic-mode here.

Front page of The Australian - main heading, how the Oz govt is going to ban international flights into and out of Australia.

Tamiflu stocks are non-existant, mask stocks are virtually non-existant.

Not sure of the actual no. of even suspected cases, but if there is no Tamiflu even now, what on earth is going to happen when / if this pandemic that is going to kill us all actually happens?

Ridiculous scare-mongering on the part of the meeja, simply nobody knows at this stage how it's going to pan out, but people love a good panic don't they?

Am also in Australia. Just read this on the Sydney Morning Herald website.

According to WHO, there have only been 7 confirmed deaths from swine flu, not 150+ as reported in the media.

OP YANBU.

The Australian government built up a huge reserve of Tamiflu/Relenza when everyone was shitting themselves about bird flu.

We will be fine - I think they have enough for almost everyone.

The child that died in Texas was apparently Mexican, visiting relatives in Houston

I was born and mostly brought up in Houston (my folks always kept their house there even though my father worked abroad quite a bit in the 70s and 80s and we went along when we could).

My folks were planning to fly through here next week from Mexico City, as they were planning to visit friends there, but they've since changed their tickets to fly out of Houston for Amsterdam.

My mother, however, enters the UK on her French passport and I really don't know which passport my dad's EU family thingy visa is in, it might be his Mexican one.

They have Tamiflu, however, prescribed to them last Autumn after my dad nearly died from pneumonia (he has hypertension and heart disease and smoked for half a century) and because my mama has COPD (former smoker).

there has been a disproportionately alarmist response.unless you fit current at risk criteria eg return trip to Mexico,close proximity to confirmed case then likelihood is no risk

sfxmum you shouldn't apologise, that was brilliant! Anyone who gets offended by that reeeeally shouldn't be on here.

No-one's told me what the £20 test is yet, BTW.

The BBC report also states that the baby, who arrived in texax on 4th April, arrived with "underlying health issues." I would imagine this could be part of his sad decline once he caught the flu.