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 .

my SIL has been stockpiling (and rotating) food for a couple of years.

She too keeps saying that we're due a pandemic and she wants to be ready for it.

She has kindly offered us her garage in Devon if the s* hits the fan

you can stockpile all you want but if there's no one to run things you'll run out of clean water fairly quickly.

expat you ARE a scamp aren't you

Car deaths are the leading cause deaths in the age group 3 - 33 Nothing else kills people at the same rate as cars, not cancer, heart disease or pig flu

Oh water is the first thing I will stockpile.

did someone mention that volcano? I actually find that one quite exciting. For some reason. I'm sure it wouldn't really be, if it, you know, happened

MsMargotBeauregarde- I think the masks are handy for hangover days. Sadly they aren't much good for bad hair days. Surely a gap in the market there for someone?

The death toll in Mexico is running conservatively at 5% so far. 5% of the current UK population is around 340,000. The Spanish flu killed 200,000 in the UK back in 1918-20.

Arrggghhh! We're all going to die!

No we're not :p

Erm not from the flu I mean ...

Well, chances are, no, not from flu.

That's 5% of people who have actually got it, right? Not of the entire population.

Who knows, people in garages in Devon for example might escape infection altogether.

I find it interesting how cases are being confirmed.

Somewhere between 75 and 100 kids in a NY school have flu symptoms. 8 of them have been tested for swine fever and those 8 have been confirmed. So now the CDC say that altogether across the States there are 20 confirmed cases. What about the rest of the kids who werent tested?

It does show that a)so far that this is causing mild infections in the States, so worry not and b) that official confirmed case numbers are vastly different from the actual numbers infected.

There are some interesting comments on the BBC website posted at the end of piece - two are doctors in Mexican hospitals and they claim the official figures are much lower than the actual number of fatalities based on what they are seeing.

FWIW, the flight attendant was later confirmed as NOT having this virus.

Is it just me, or is it really warm in here...?

I've just read that the WHO says the UK and France are the two best prepared countries in the world for a flu pandemic. Good on us. We're normally a bit rubbish at everything aren't we

I was very impressed by what I just heard on the news. They said a chap in Northamptonshire got off a plane feeling a bit fluey yesterday. he phoned nhsdirect. They told him to satay at home and dropped antivirals off at his home for him and his family.
Very organised

I really wouldn't want to be going to Mexico on holiday at the moment. I think I'd spend the whole time worrying!

ACHOOOOO!
ACHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Oh, and just to get you in the right mood - based on the Stephen King book.
Hehehehehehe....

Oh oh oh, even BETTER!

'I think I'd spend the whole time worrying!'

I'd be far, far more worried about getting shot by gangs/cartels fighting over turf or kidnapped.