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 .

solid - thanks! after playing that dh def thinks my interest is going too far!

Just saw the chap from Northamptonshire on the news. now either the antivirals are working miracles or he does not have flu. Theres no way he would be standing up dressed chatting on the phone if he did.

Oh yes I'd worry about that too normally but presumably all the gangs are at home worrying about catching the lurgy

I work for a large newspaper group and we were sent an email a few months back telling us that a global flu pandemic was on it's way, it would kill 1 in 10 people with young, healthy people most likely to be affected blah, blah, blah. It was also offering free anti-viral medication to all employees which they'd post to your house. If you wanted some for your partner and children however, you'd have to pay for it.

I mentioned it at the doctors the next time I went and their response was basically that if the NHS wasn't worried enough to offer anti-virals to all their staff, there probably wasn't much to worry about.

I sneezed and sounded a bit bunged up (hayfever) on the train on the way to work today and people moved away from me!

I might try it on the way home

I really worry about things like this. I'm not so worried about dying, but I worry about my children being left with no one to care for them.

The front page news in our local newspaper says that plans are being drafted to deal with it. I read it expecting to learn about new vaccines and ways to prevent and treat the flu...but no, it was all about where they will store all the extra dead bodies while the virus takes hold. Jolly good!

Are we all doomed??

I have to admit I am terrified by this being an avid read of post apocalyptic fiction.

Same as coochicoo, scared for my dc.

Can someone with a bit of knowledge come on and tell us why we don't need to be scared please?

coochicoo, sprigfleurs expatinscotland is just having what they see as a bit of fun. Happens quite often on mumsnet when someone is bored and/or has had too many drinks. The internet is full of wierd people, don't take it too seriously.

What I don't understand, is why flights from Mexico aren't being stopped. Surely nobody knows if people on board are incubating it?

Planes are a really efficient way to spread disease because of the enclosed environment.

Once hundreds of people have arrived here on a plane with one infected person on board, there's just no way to contain it.

I think they are being more careful not to allow the holiday/travel industry to lose out than with the nation's health as a whole.

ButI hope I am wrong.

There ARE no 'new' ways to prevent flu transmission. It's tiny and lives on droplets of air which people need to breathe.

86 people have died in Mexico, out of a total population of 109 million. That is 0.00007% of the population. The 20 confirmed cases in the United States out of a total population of 305 million is 0.000006% of the population.

It's FLU. Flu viruses exist in the human population at all times. Even pandemic strains are still present in the population and could spread around in the same way this one is.

I hate aeroplanes. They are just asking for trouble. Not that I actually believe they can fly at ALL, they are way too heavy to get off the ground imo.

The world would be great without aeroplanes.

'coochicoo, sprigfleurs expatinscotland is just having what they see as a bit of fun. Happens quite often on mumsnet when someone is bored and/or has had too many drinks. The internet is full of wierd people, don't take it too seriously.'

Thanks for the commentary, but I don't drink and I don't come on here because am 'bored'.

It's pure foolery to panic about this and statistics others and I have presented on here back this up.

But go ahead and panic away!

Riven doesn't drink, either. And she's due me a camping trip - we can't afford to go on planes so we're safe there - so we can hatch our zombie plan for the coming Armaggedon.

If you don't want you or your family to die prematurely, and that fear is valid, the best thing to do is avoid car travel at all costs.

They aren't stopping planes from mexico coming to this country as they know that this would not stop the flu spreading anyhow - so best to jsut get on with the flu arriving.

The plans are to have people stay home if they have symptoms and give them and others in the household drugs to help the flu and as a preventative.

Caution should be taken, washing hands etc but there is no point in panicing as it doesn't in any way help.

'but there is no point in panicing as it doesn't in any way help.'

Well, it does take the eye off spiralling national debt and rising unemployment.

I wonder if they'll start stopping peoples' Job Seekers Allowance if they stay home in panic?

But surely if nobody was allowed to travel from Mexico, it would stop it spreading?

I don't understand.

If you were British and in Mexico right now wouldn't you want to be able to come back before you were infected? They shouldn't stop people coming home because most of them will not be infected, if they are in most cases the disease isn't that serious and it can be treated with drugs that are available here if needed.

When you wash your hand remember to wash in between your fingers and you'll find you get sick a lot less often than most people.

But if you get your kicks winding people up or suffer from anxiety then you'll worry away anyway.

Strains come from all over the world. You can't confine over 100 million people to one country just because of flu.

People use more than planes to travel in and out of Mexico.

Mexico is full of busy and huge ports that are vital to global trade.

The borders can't be reliably closed even with thousands of paid employees watching them, how do you think drugs get through - I mean, cokeheads in the UK need coke, too ?

It would be condeming millions of people to lose of their livelihood in a place where famine could become a real threat, and that will only make things worse.

Well it make for a break in the boring debt and rising unemployment headlines. newspapers like to spread doom and gloom and beef it up and get the public panacing - am surprised they have even mentioned how well planned uk is compared with other countires. But perhpas our well prepared is that we have talked about it more

Snap, Ivy!

It's wagging the dog at its finest.

How to protect your family from swine flu

It is hard to better the advice printed by the 'News Of the World' on 3 November 1918: "Wash inside nose with soap and water night and morning; force yourself to sneeze night and morning, then breathe deeply. Do not wear a muffler, take sharp walks regularly and walk home from work; eat plenty of porridge." Porridge is, of course, a known cure-all ? but the rest of the advice holds as true today as it did then.

force yourself to sneeze?

weirdos

ewww at the idea of washing your nose out with soap and water...

I don't like porridge