Swine Flu

[brooksea]

Has anyone received advice from your doc about the swine flu?

The CDC site suggests getting immunized, yet I hear on the radio that a vaccine is not available yet for this strain and will be months away.

I also hear conflicting reports on the number of cases and their locations as opposed to what the CDC is reporting.

We may be traveling in a couple of weeks and this is kinda scary!

 

[rose]

CJ, I made it a point to find out how long the incubation time is ~ 1 - 4 days ~ Don had flown to Mexico City on last Friday night, came back last Saturday. He was surprised to see all of the masks as he walked through the airport. There were also lots more armed police than there normally are (I guess something else is going on as well). Obviously the flu news hadn't broken yet, and even if it had, he would have still had to work the trip. So, we figured if he was still fine by yesterday that he (and therefore I!) had made it uscathed. :grin:

The health officials do point out that its those with the stronger immune systems who are most at risk for complications, its the strength of the lung's fighting of the virus that ironically puts people in their prime at most risk. Especially those that have not been exposed to other flu viruses in their health history.


Everybody keep washing their hands!

 

[BethU]

CJ ... I've also heard that the regular flu shot doesn't help with this strain. I think the media are going off the deep end again, but hopefully, in a week or so they'll all have more reliable information. I'm hearing now that maybe this strain is not as dangerous as thought. Let's hope.

In the meantime, I'm washing my hands a lot ...

 

[Dana Razo]

CJ,
Our son in law graduates from college in San Diego later this month and we are scheduled to fly down. Im wondering if we shouldnt due to the swine flu?!?!?

 

[brooksea]

Dana,

We were going to travel to Baton Rouge for our niece's graduation.

I emailed our clinic and the response was:

"There had been a lot of media hysteria about the swine flu, creating confusion for everyone. However, we continue to just follow the CDC recommendations - good hand washing, cover your mouth when you cough or cough into your shoulder/elbow, if you come down with any flu-like symptoms, see you primary care doctor (fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches) and stay home until you've recovered. I don't think you need to get a prescription at this time, but if you are concerned you could also talk with his primary care."

OK! They have been freaking adamant in the past about flu shots and the danger of catching the flu. So maybe they know something we don't? We will see...

In the meantime the government is ramping up, for what, 14 million courses of vaccine? Who knows?

Guess we are on for Baton Rouge!

 

[judylyne]

We just had a 9year old daughter of one of the migrant workers die after she had been sick for 3 days. I went yard selling in her area today. I hope it wasn't the swine flu but thats what their checking for.

 

[laurel]

CJ,
A number of people on the GBS/CIDP forum have had their onset of Guillain-Barre Syndrome traced to having adverse reaction to receiving Swine Flu vaccine i.e. a faulty overactive autoimmune response to the vaccine. Several of those GBS victims wound up temporarily quadriplegic and on ventilators. So I tend to be phobic about the whole concept of flu vaccine. Many neurologists who treat CIDP advise their patients to avoid flu vaccine.
Laurel

 

[laurel]

CJ,

Scrolling the old archives on the swine flu and GBS which occurred in the mid 70's, one theory was that the vaccine was contaminated with campylobacter. But the gist of the fiasco in 1976, was that the government embarked on a mass vaccination program without ensuring safety measures were in place concerning the development of that vaccine. I think that the best thing to do when traveling is to wear one of the masks that is certified to help and take a prescription for Tamiflu in case it is needed.
Laurel

 

[Marjorie R. Wilcox]

Keep in mind, everyone, that the regular flu is in pretty full force and there are no reports on numbers of it. Swine flu is in the news, but remember, almost everyone recovers splendidly from it. Yes, it includes aches and fever and a stomach bug, but it isn't considered deathly.

Why should we act like it is the plague or worse? I wonder if this isn't a plan of some kind to prepare us for say, a terrorist attack of Bubonic in the worst case scenario. Our government does nutty things.

Those who are in severe decline aren't going out there to catch it. People who visit or give care, would stay away, hopefully if they were sick.

We are coming and going as usual. We're not afraid of eating out or going to public places where there are crowds of people. Yes we do wash our hands and we try to go to the bathroom only at home. If we're out we keep our hands off surfaces in the public bathroom. We use the paper towel we dried with to open the door to leave, and throw it back toward the wastebasket. If this gets worse, I will wipe the handle of my shopping cart, but I think Walmart at least is doing that already.

We shall see where this goes, won't we? But it is only expected to last about two more weeks.

 

[rose]

Well, the swine flu got bumped off of the front page all the way to page 7 in the New York Times today. Its also turned out that actual cases are less than half of what were originally reported to be, and disease spread is expect to slow down over the summer. So who knows how much was media hype, and how accurate the numbers released actually are.

 

[rocmg]

wow! nice observation, rose. good to see it may possibly be subsiding... someone made an interesting point on the radio yesterday, that hundreds/thousands of people in the UK die every year from "regular" flu, and there's never so much hype.

 

[wheeler641]

remember all the hype about the bird flu a few years back, nothing much came of that either. I refuse to have a flu shot, I know some people that have got really sick after getting one. I think I will just take my chances, margaret

 

[BarryG]

The other day in the newspaper it was reported that the spanish flu started out as a mild sickness in the spring of 1918 and came back in the fall as a killer. We don't know yet how this is one is going to turn out so I plan on being careful for the time being.

 

[BarryG]

Do pigs call it the human flu?

Announced on the radio news this morning that a herd of 2200 pigs in Alberta has contracted swine flu. No, they had not travelled to Mexico for a holiday or to visit relatives, they caught it from a human who had visited Mexico. So I guess what goes around truly does come around! By all reports the human and the pigs are recovering from mild symptoms. I bet that they wish that they had washed their feet more often.

 

[GlenBrittle]

I actually had a chat with my doctor about this. I was in to get some "repeats" for those wonderful meds I take.

Wash your hands a lot
No the flu shot wont help
Stay away from people that sneeze or cough.

Some personal thoughts:

Wearing those masks is stupid , viruses go right through them. Only the sick should wear them as a sign to say "Stay the hell away from me"
and
Dont kiss any pigs.

Glen