Sensible, non-panicking Swine flu measures?

[bella29]

Just wondered.....

they (a doctor) said on my local BBC radio station this morning that it would be wise to set by a stock of paracetamol, calpol etc. just in case.

Anything else you are doing?

I cant decide if this thread is for real??? or if I am missing the sarcasm..

As mums (most of us on here are anyway) dont you all have small stores of calpol/nurofen, toilet rolls, quick meals etc in case little one comes down with tummy bug which means you cant get to the shops for a day or so anyway???

I'm with seeker..maybe buy more boxes of wine?

I've never done an online shop either - I guess I'm assuming the delivery man comes into the house and drops off the bags. But if he just left them outside the front door and didn't have to get a signature or anything, there's be no chance of him catching anything. I just wonder if businesses are going to go overboard on "precautions" to reassure their more nervous customers!

I've put in our repeat prescription requests for dds and dhs asthma meds a little early. I did it at the beginning of the week because I knew gps would be getting busy.

Am going to get my tooth ache checked out tomorrow. If things do temporarily shut I don't want raging toothache and not to be able to get treated.

I'm making sure we have a few days supplies of food in. More schools will have to shut for a week or so and I don't want to be stuck with dd at home with nothing to eat!

Damn you all! Now I have the urge to go out and stockpile! Although I suppose that if we do get struck down with flu (of the swine or regular kind) that I will be falling on my knees with gratitude.

Do you think that DH would take kindly to popping off to the supermarket? DD1 has been ill so we're running pretty low on Calpol. Plus it would be nice to have a bottle of wine with dinner tonight.

Im with frasiersmummy - I have my house prepared all the time for any situation that ment i couldn't get out the house, i can go to my store cupboard and there is always something we can eat. I always bulk buy loo roll, sanitary ware ect also keep stock of flu remedys, calpol, paracetamol, vicks vapo rub and rum/whiskey for hot toddies. - surley thats just common sense?

I do it for finances to i always buy a pre paid gift card with 20-50 pund on it for Tesco incase i completley run out of money and food.

(Titsalina wonders if she is a tad strange...........?)

Can I come to your house when the zombies arrive?

DH is in the loop about this stuff and phoned me up this am asking me to do an online shop for water, tinned & dried food and paracetomol.

I failed to do a proper job. Have you ever seen the meat in the tinned meat section? Pork tongue, luncheon meat, spam?

Shudder...

Yeah we can have a party at my well stocked up gaff.

I aslo stock pile entertainment DVD's/Books/ Board Games and i have my Sky + Planner stocked up, this was all after we lost our Sky for 3 months bue to some buildring work and DP nearly melted in boredom.

I have also put in a repeat prescription for asthma medication. Should I be unlucky enough to get ill, that might well make the difference between life and death for me in the event of not being able to get to a hospital or doctor as I always get wheezy with a bad cold so imagine flu would be worse.

Am also planning a good shop including plenty of store cupboard stuff this weekend. After all, it will all get used in the end. It just means I'll buy a few weeks' worth instead of one week's worth. And it won't do any harm to buy Calpol etc - it will get used in the end, just like tins or packets of lentils.

Really?

Wash your hands.
Teach your kids to wash their hands.
Do it often.
Stay home if poorly and ring NHS direct or your GP

Have some back up basic supplies in case you are too ill to shop.

Get your advice from the govt, NHS or WHO: not the papers or dare I say it internet forums

Also, candles. I don't think it's beyond the bounds of possibility that if things got really bad (not talking millions dead, just lots and lots of people ill and unable to go to work) that we might see the odd power cut.

I don't understand why the need to stock up on water (unless you drink bottled water normally).

Surely,it would be a weekly shop as per normal but buying painkiller/flu meds as extra? (they are currently telling infected people to stay indoors for 7 days).

Agree with extra inhalers (thanks for reminding me to order dd's)

I was being serious, not sarcastic. The advice I quoted was from an NHS doctor on the BBC.

Still ,at least I now know it is possible to knit tampons. Not cable stitch presumably?

Titsalina - I am in total awe of your organisational skills! My definition of 'being organised' is remembering to text DH what he needs to get from Tesco on the way home from work.

I was feeling super organised as I'd remembered to get some shepherds pie out of the freezer for dinner, you and frasersmummy have put me to complete and utter shame!

Please can someone explain to me why the infrastructure of the country is going to grind to a halt if there is an epidemic of what seems (correct me if I'm wrong) to be a mild illness. And why in the name of heaven is that school in the west country closed for 2 weeks when it has a incubation peroid of 7 days? And why are children who haven't had any contact with the child that's got it being given medication?

I think from what I saw on the news last night that they are trying to ring-fence and contain this outbreak to give them time to develop a vaccine.

And while the infrastructure might not grind to a compelte halt, if 40% of people got it, it might bollocks things up a tad.

Our local news (covers Devon and Cornwall) reported that all the girl's year had been given the meds (those at most risk had been in close contact for more than 10mins and lesser risk, one hour spent in the same classroom)

Thought the school was shut for 7 days?

It's highly infectious, people will be off work to avoid passing it on, or being ill, or looking after dependents. The NHS for example, would have a big problem operating because people will be at home looking after their kids. This is from the policy that I was reviewing yesterday:

2.2 Social Impact

1. Unknown % of population to become ill until virus emerges
2. Expected to come in a number of waves lasting around 15 weeks
3. Total best case expected is 25% ill with 0.37% deaths > 53,700 deaths
4. Total worst case is 50% ill with 2.5% deaths > 709,300 deaths
5. Effect on business with 25% population falling ill

a. Large organisation 7% taking time off b. Small organisation 14% taking time off

Really must get on with working on flu stuff rather than MN-ing about it!

The CDC in the US have asked infected adults to stay indoors for 7 days, and children for 10.

There is food in my cupboards etc but I think I'd struggle with 7-10 days + stuck at home (not to mention my sanity levels).

As such I'm going to go out tomorrow and make sure that we have the usual shop + an extra 10 days worth of essentials like paracetamol, tissues, ibuprofen, loo roll, bread flour, things that dd will eat when ill.

If the flu doesn't spread then I've not lost anything, but if it does I don't have to worry as we don't have family or friends nearby, it's just the two of us and I don't have a car.

I will not be panic buying bread or stocking up on masks and tamiflu!

Thanks for that, angelene.

Gotta go do my extra large Tesco shop now....

NHS locally has put its pandemic flu plan into operation (like all NHS Boards). Includes things like ensuring stockpiles of intravenous fluids/drugs etc in case stocks can't be replenished. IF 25% of the population get this at once and IF another 25% or so stay at home to look after them there simply aren't going to be the workers about to deliver your shopping, to deliver food to shops, to staff shops etc etc.

The planning that is in place was put in place when the fear was that something devastating like the H5N1 (avian flu) virus seemed like a threat (and TBH, if it mutates to human-to-human transmission, it still could be, but hasn't yet).

In that scenario - where in the Far East 50% of all sufferers died and almost everyone who came into contact with it in chickens actually contracted it - such a human to human spread where the severity stayed high would be utterly devastating.

A combination of illness in adults and their children keeping people away from work, and people self-quarantining due to fear, could lead to large proportions of the population absenting themselves from work, including from essential services and supply chains.

In that scenario, there could be real disruption to daily life and real serious consequences - eg if 40-75% of the population were ill and large numbers of them had complications and large numbers of NHS staff were also off ill or as carers then you have a potential nightmare.

The govts and WHO are being cautious and trying to slow or limit the spread of the disease because with a novel virus which no-one has immunity to and which can mutate quickly to become less or more severe, no-one knows how serious or how little an impact it might have.

This is the nature of planning. The plans are being implemented not because this is 'normal' flu but because it is a 'new' flu.

I have to say the ONLY conspiracy theory I am prepared to entertain though is that this might be a global media/public information exercise - ie in preparation for the real nasty pandemic we might face, the WHO are testing the public and media response.

But - if you listen to what doctors and scientists are saying - there is real cause for sensible concern: it is not nothing.

Typically, it is hard enough to get academics (and medical scientists in particular) to say anything at all - they are typically circumspect: when they say 'it could be serious' they means it.

But the word 'could' is still in there. Yup, it could not be serious. But the plan is in place in case it is.

www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/faq/en/index.html This should calm everyone down a little!

should read: sustained contact with infected chickens...