It's that Swine thing...is it affecting your workplace or commute yet?

On Monday, our co, is posting sanitation stations at every entrance. No masks yet.

Any reported cases in your city?

Since we maintain light rail trains, we always have masks, latex gloves, and hand sanitizer on hand. We've had several workers come down sick, but no reported cases of swine flu. We're in Jersey City

My wife is out of work because of it; we don't know if she will be paid. Her school district closed due to an outbreak in town.

Yeah I'm getting sick, just from all the *&^%$#@ hype about it. Good golly 64000 people die each year from the regular flu whats so special about this stuff anyway. There is good reason for the complications in Mexico. The sanitation practices in much of the country leave much to be desired. Not trying to be a wise guy or anything but the media is making a circus of this thing. People are taking their kids to the doctor with the sniffles. Just like any other flu take the proper precautions, number one WASH YOUR HANDS a lot. Its amazing how many times I have been in the restroom and be washing my hands and I hear a flush from one of the stalls and the dude just walks out of the restroom without washing his hands. BLAH thats just wrong and gross. If you get it stay home till you are well, call the doctor and they will call in the prescription for Tamiflu or the other med I don't remember the name. Have some lysol wipes and a bottle of hand sanitizer and use them.

The difference with this one, stringbreaker, is that where it started in Mexico, several of the fatalities were otherwise healthy people in their 20s and 30s. The people who usually die of the flu are usually the very old, the very young and the infirm.

Following up on Doohickie's thoughts, I heard a doctor on NPR radio talking about it yesterday.

On average the U.S. has 36,000 deaths from flu per year, the vast majority being among the old and already compromised. It isn't the flu that usually kills them but a secondary thing such as pneumonia. One point being that our more common flu variety seldom kills basically healthy people. The swine flu may be another matter.

Doohickie: Reply noted and understood but I still won't panic about it. However I will take the normal precautions as I do all the time about the hand washing. That is the most important thing is to keep good hygiene practices, that and don't go kissing any swine. I really am aware of the potential problems this thing can cause but good golly the media is having a field day. Even the vice president is getting in on the act. I didn't read the whole thing but I guess he said some off the cuff remark that caused a bit of a stir yesterday

Why would it be affecting my commute, for heaven's sake? Jeez. Maybe in four months there will be millions of cases and people dying like flies, but right now it's got a lot less impact on my commute than graduation at BU or the Boston Red Sox.

Nah. I work with and around much more serious stuff on a daily basis: VRE, MRSA, Acinteobacter, Pseudomonas, Invasive Aspergillosis, Tuberculosis, multi-drug resistant Clostridium difficile, ,blah blah blah. H1N1 and the media can kiss my *****.

The concern is a recurrence of the 1918 Spanish H1N1 flu. It killed millions. And it picked on people between 20 and 30. A typical flu kills the very young and the elderly: Sounds horrible, but that's a lot less scary.

The normal flu has a short incubation period. You're contagious for about a day before you realize you have the flu. A pandemic flu has a long incubation period (this one has been reported as 1-7 days): So you're spreading it for days before you realize you're spreading it.

The existence of antivirals and steroids, in my opinion, would make another occurrence of the 1918 flu a bit less terrible. It's still dangerous though.

A picture of my recent rides.

The normal flu has a short incubation period. You're contagious for about a day before you realize you have the flu. A pandemic flu has a long incubation period (this one has been reported as 1-7 days): So you're spreading it for days before you realize you're spreading it.

Incorrect. From the CDC:

How long can an infected person spread this virus to others?
At the current time, CDC believes that this virus has the same properties in terms of spread as seasonal flu viruses. With seasonal flu, studies have shown that people may be contagious from one day before they develop symptoms to up to 7 days after they get sick. Children, especially younger children, might potentially be contagious for longer periods.

Don't feed into the hype by stating facts that aren't true and, or are, as of yet unknown.

We've got 3 confirmed cases here so far (all recovering at home). A couple of schools are closed and the media hype is in full swing. Not saying it isn't a problem but the media is hanging on every cough and are playing it for all it's worth and then some. Heck, the economy and wars are getting old so we needed a new disaster.

I live 20 miles from the border with Juarez, Mexico and I work at the schools here. We have put up signs reminding people to cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze and made soap available at every sink in the district, but other than that nothing. We really aren't that worried. I don't think about it, if at all possible.

My problem with that is we are so far advanced beyond 1918 that I do not believe even a similar virus could have the same effect today. There have been many flu pandemics since 1918, but we don't talk about them because only 1918 was all that bad. This is likely to be another outbreak that is forgotten in under a decade, just like SARS and Avian Flu from the last decade that everyone thought was going to wipe out civilization.

As for those 20- and 30-something Mexicans, I'm sorry, but that's not the US. While Mexico has reasonably good healthcare, their pollution is far worse, and that means immune systems are much more likely to be weak, and sanitation is not as good. When young adult Americans or western Europeans start dying in significant num,bers this can be revisited, not because the Mexicans do not count, but because they are less significant indicators of virulence.

Now, on-topic, I telecommute from a tiny farming town in CT to Portland, ME, so on a regular basis I see my grandmother and three cats. Needless to say, this outbreak has not really affected me yet.

We have numerous hot pink colored Influenza Warning signs posted all around at work. Things like this do become a media frenzy. I'm not ignorant; however, it is not affecting my commute...

I rode by a house with a pig statue on the lawn. Some one put a mask on it.
Any one remember TB Sanitoriums? Captain Trips from The Stand?

Oh yes it it would, sure respirators and penicillin would mean a slightly higher survival rate for the marginal cases (at least while hospitals still function), but when the 1918 pandemic was at it its worst it would kill so fast that penicillin and Tamiflu wouldn't have a chance to work: often there were less than 24-48 hours from first symptom to death. People would drop dead when walking the streets, pupils at their desks would suddenly stoop over dead, one witness described how he got directions from a guy speaking with a normal voice, but who shortly after would fall to the ground dead. Another witness described a tram ride; when he first got on board the ticket seller just died, during the next 3 miles 5 more people died in the tram. When finally the tram driver died, the witness got of and walked the rest of the way.
Pandemics can't really be stopped; they stop when they run out of victims.

First I must say that there really isn't that must information on what is going on regarding autopsies etc. Have people really died from cytokine storm or not. Is it true that several doctors and nurses that have treated victims have died from the flu too?
So everything is pretty much speculation right now. But if several doctors really have died, and if people are also being killed by cytokine storm, then there isn't reason to believe that people die from being poor and in bad health.

In this regard it is also worth to note that the 1918 pandemic in the beginning (spring 1918) had the exact same mixture of few violent deaths while the vast majority of cases where very benign, in fact the symptoms where so mild that doctors didn't believe it to be an influenza at the time.
The 1918 pandemic really didn't turn into a massive killer until the fall of 1918, the beginning of the traditional flu season.

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Regards

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The 36,000 figure includes a lot of people who have the flu when they die, but don't die from the flu. The actual number of deaths due to flu is much much lower.

Swine flu?

HA!!

I'm Jewish. I have nothing to do with swine!

Rugerben, the non pork people joke went around the day the media
called it h1n1 to avoid religious aspersions.
Me, I get the swine flu.
Jews and Muslims get h1n1

Typical that I'd be late with the joke.
Although I said it as soon as I heard the name swine flu.

Well, here in CT h1n1 hasn't become much of a worry.

I miss all the media attention on the craigslist killer.
Hope your getting more spring in CT.