Swine Flu. Are we in big trouble with this then?

[Meglet]

This sounds worse than the bird flu that thankfully never really happened.

news.bbc.co.uk/mobile/bbc_news/top_stories/801/80183/story8018356.shtml?

Sky news have a press conference on now about possible cases in new york. When do we start panic buying .

[liath]

At the risk of sounding slightly callous the biggest risk posed by this is economic - the last thing we need is half the work-force off sick in a country already crippled by recession.

I don't think this sounds as bad as bird-flu was being made out to be, the mortality seems lower for a start. It could be quite destabilising though in an already economically unstable world.

[expatinscotland]

IIRC, Mexico City is the second largest city next to Tokyo.

It is so huge it's hard to even imagine, even for Londoners.

[Flightattendant25]

Does anyone know what we ought to stockpile?

I'm trying to think of stuff with vitamin c in it.

Expat - was that in 1968? There was a big epidemic then I think of Hong Kong flu.

[boredwithmyoldname]

i think that's because (no doctor here) the better your immune system then the more quickly your lungs will up with gunk as your immune system sets to work

[boredwithmyoldname]

i think vit c is counter productive because of the aformentioned

[boredwithmyoldname]

but really.. don't. this too will pass.

[edam]

Oh shit. A flight attendant (am sure it's not our own dear MNer) returning to Britain has gone down with it. That's a plane full of people who are now here who have been exposed.

It's time to start thinking about panicking, at least.

[expatinscotland]

it began in 1968, Flight, yep. we got it in 1976, though.

it is still present in the human population.

i mean, sooner or later, there will come an influenze virus that we won't have a vaccine for before it kills lots of people. influenza already does.

like i said, something is going to kill each and every one of us one day.

[Flightattendant25]

Ah Ok, I will continue constant breastfeeding and sleepless nights then, as it makes me very run down!!!

feeling slightly less terrified this morning as I have a shopping plan

[Flightattendant25]

Edam, no not me

If they have hospitalised this person, surely they thought about isolating the other people on board...or at least contacting them...bla bla.

It would be ridiculous not to have done something along those lines? If not then yes I will join you in panicking, I am v good at it. Despite my aviation training.

[expatinscotland]

Well, it's going to spread quickly because of how we travel.

Even Spanish Flu managed to get all over and there was no plane travel back then.

Took it longer, but it got round.

Humankind survived.

FWIW, my gran said it made her so ill she didn't know, or care, if she was alive or dead. She was hallucinating with the delirium brought on by the fever and saw folks who had already passed on and said it was quite restful.

[Flightattendant25]

I guess it's better if it happens in the summer, because we are all a bit stronger than in winter and less heating on/confined space malarkey.

But maybe that is wrong after what you said, bored?

[edam]

I had what was then called 'Asian' flu in '76. Think I was more ill than I've ever been in my life. When I finally woke up and felt half-human again, I tried to get up, and fell over because my legs were still wobbly. According to my mother I'd been in bed for a week.

[expatinscotland]

Well, just give it till winter when it will mutate with other strains and then kill loads.

We all die. There's no way to avoid it, unfortunately.

[Whimsy]

BA flight attendant does NOT have bird flu

[Whimsy]

Swine flu even

[Flightattendant25]

expat. you are SUCH A BUNDLE OF JOY

[expatinscotland]

That's what I had, edam. I remember getting up, too, to walk and having to hang onto the walls.

I was only about 5 years old, too. But I remember being very, very ill.

And all of us had had it.

Except Papa, who never got it, and our maid and nanny had already had it.

[edam]

Thanks for that cheery point of view, expat! I'd rather my family didn't die prematurely, thanks very much.

[Flightattendant25]

Oh really whim? Brilliant.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

This morning, I'm feeling somewhat reassured. Although there are suspected outbreaks in other parts of the world (notably NZ) there don't seem to have been any deaths outside of Mexico.

My hypothesis is that there are a couple of strains of this virus - the milder one on the face of it appears to be spreading much faster. I suspect that would mean that those who catch that strain will be immune to the more nasty version.

Tis just a hypothesis. As others say, the main disruption will be a temporary one with part of the workforce out, maybe some temporary closures at the peak of it.

[tatt]

Dr. Mag Butros, Via Christie St. Francis Director of Emergency Services said, "The swine flu is similar to other influenza-A strains... 99% of people will never even know they're infected."

If you did happen to be badly infected there are drugs to treat it.

Think I'll panic/stockpile when there is something to worry about, not another media generated scare with no foundation.
(Btw I live near a large pig farm).