Please can you rename the old swine flu section as ebola.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

As the title says, we have an old swine flu section lurking in the health section. Please can it be renamed as the ebola section (or even better ebola and other emerging illnesses to cover not needing to change the name again in future)

There are loads of threads popping up about ebola - with the media coverage people are bound to get concerned. There are people with some really good knowledge about epidemiology and disease control who can provide reassurance and real facts and information. It's quite hard work finding the threads at present and people are having to repeat themselves over and over.

If we have a new section it means that people can find facts quickly and easily - those advising will be more able to help. It was in invaluable during the early part of the swine flu epidemic and I think it would be again.

Thanks :)

Great idea, OYBBK.

And can MNHQ please move any ebola topics to the ebola section, if they go ahead?

Good idea.

Emerging illnesses would be good. It could cover things like MERS and SARS etc too.

An emerging illnesses topic obviously. Actually getting MERS/SARS/Ebola would definitely not be good.

?Thanks for flagging this. We probably wouldn't rename the topic as it would cause a lot of confusion wrt the threads that are already in there, but we'll have a think about whether we need an ebola topic/emerging illnesses topic.

?

We'd have to be quite specific with an emerging illnesses title else we'd end up with a 'my child has cold symptoms and was exposed to chickenpox two weeks ago, could they be starting with chickenpox' type thread' which could muddy the water a little

How about "Potential and actual pandemics?"

If you name it carefully enough, couldnt you could keep the old swine flu stuff in there, then add the new stuff?

We've had a bit of a think - how about a new Ebola topic?

Good idea - let's hope it will be deleted in a few months' time as it won't be needed....but for the moment it would be great.

Ta-dah (although perhaps ta dah isn't the right word for this subject) - new ebola topic

If there are any threads you would like moved over, please do report them to us and we'll shift them over, providing the OP doesn't mind

Thank you very much :)