Mexico is basically shut down. 14 schools in texas are shut down because of flu like symptoms showing up in some kids. Its already been confirmed in several states. Its been confirmed over in spain. This thing spread fast. It is still spreading. gg

woot.

_________________

World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Oh yeah...don't panic but go wash your hands. Use sanitary wipes for opening doors and such.

Is this like SARS and Avian Flu, or should I actually take this shit seriously?

I would highly suggest taking this seriously.

_________________

World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

It's like Captain Trips.

CAPTAIN TRIPS

I'm packing up and heading for Boulder Colo. as we speak, and hopefully I find a little old black woman on the way who
I've been dreaming about, as well as some scary ass guy in the corn field !

SARS was pretty serious but it stayed overseas. This is in our backyard and has already spread into the states. The Avian flu hasn't really had an outbreak yet but it would be pretty similar to this.

They are saying that the people that get hit the hardest are people with healthy immune systems which is weird and has me a little freaked out because I almost never get sick.

Perhaps because people with healthy immune systems rarely get sick, and are thereby disinclined to go to the hospital when they do.

It's the fucking FLU. If you are in an area where there are like... I dunno, doctors and shit? ... I wouldn't panic.

Its a type of flu. Out of 1000+ cases there are 149 deaths attributed to it. That way more then a regular flu.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_swine_flu_outbreak

Sarissa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytokine_storm

ANd what do those deaths have in common?

No. And it takes them down rapidly, so it's not a case of 'didn't go in, 2 weeks later dead', it's a case of 'they were sick Monday, buried Wednesday.'

Why this type of flu hits those in the 'prime of life' the hardest is uncertain. The current 'best guess' is an overreaction of the immune system causing a cytokine storm. Essentially the immune system goes BATSHIT at this type of flu, and starts clogging areas, leading to rapid respiratory decline and death.

It can also cause compartmental syndrome, especially if the person is athletic and was heavily working out just before the flu hit. Mind you, it's still 'rare', but it's less rare when combined with a flu that potentially causes this type of an immune response.

The mortality rate overall tends to be low. Based on the numbers I've seen it's hovering around 10% for this flu...but that's still very high compared to what we're used to, considering it's hitting prime of lifers (and not 'merely' killing off the old, young, and weak as most flus do) and considering it's rapid rate of spread.

CDC is expected to upgrade the threat rating if they haven't already. The upgrade is going to be that this flu more rapidly spreads than most.

This is shit to be taken very very seriously. It isn't anything to panic and hermit at home about though. But I would make some changes.

Basically wash your hands all the damn time. Get a hand sanitizer that's greater than 60% alcohol. USE IT especially if you touch a damn doorknob. Stay out of crowded elevators if you can. Avoid public transportation if you can. And if you can't...get a mask and use it. Yes, you'll look like a dumbass, but I'd rather look like a dumbass than get this shit, or worse, get it and pass it on to loved ones. =\

Also don't pick up shit other people are touching a lot if you can help it. No public newspapers lying around. No magazines.

If you get sick, get your ass immediately to your personal doctor (over the ER). Tamiflu and some others at least report were helpful with this outbreak. Avoid the ER unless you think you need emergency help or need to be admitted. And on this shit, it's better to guess on the side of caution. If you THINK you might be sick, get the fuck in. If you THINK your breathing is compromised, get to the fucking ER.

If it's going to kill you, it will happen quickly, so you don't have time to fuck about with 'Oh I'll wait til morning'.

Don't read up on the epidemic in 1918, you'll just scare yourself silly. If you can without shitting yourself or panicking, it's what happened the last time there was a global flu epidemic like this. There was less ability to spread it world wide quickly, but it happened because of the war, large groups of people weren't just being moved around, they were being housed in large areas together. So there's some similarities (rapid transport of flu) you'd see today, but less (We know to quarantine people at home for their best outcome and everyone else's, we know how to circle infected areas, and close them off, etc).

The best news in all of this is, if you have children under 12, they're relatively safe. This flu does not tend to kill the young. You still need to use common sense, but at least you don't have to panic about the wee ones. Kids in high school and people in their 20s are the ones to watch the most vigorously.

_________________

Damn Mexicans. Even their diseases immigrate to us! <3

Also if you got a flu shot this season, it does not protect against this outbreak. You probably already know that, but in case someone doesn't...now you know.

_________________

"Dr. Tarot Medicine Woman"

The REALLY good news I heard was that they have the farm it started at. If so, that's going to be a huge fucking help in developing a vaccine. It will also be a big boon to science if on that farm they can find an earlier mutation BEFORE it leapt to people, to literally see the evolution of the virus.

It may be a bit silver-lining-ish but for a long time we didn't even have samples of the 1918 flu. Only reason we do is because someone got buried in permafrost, and that sampling was relatively recent. So this shit will be a big help in understanding how the mutations are taking place. And hopefully how they can be prevented, or how we can work towards better vaccination methods.

_________________

The 'regular flu' doesn't kill that many people in Mexico or any other country lacking 1st world medical care. It certainly doesn't mostly kill people that are 25-45.

Huge fan of viruses, though that sounds odd. I find them very fascinating.

If anyone else finds them interesting, I'd recommend 'The Coming Plague' by Laurie...something. It's on Amazon not hard to find. It's one of the best books out there. Also Robert Preston writes good stuff but he's far more superficial and mass paperback-y.

_________________

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8& ... 488281&z=5

Live google map of the outbreak.

Holy shit that's cool Snarky.

It's also interesting to see how a virus can spread from a focal point so quickly (especially if it's person to person, respiratory transmission). Pretty much every location in the world is 24 hours or less away from each other with modern transportation.

I'm also amazed how quickly they 'caught' it, in terms of being aware what it was, and where it started.

_________________

Wrong tag 0_o

Good advice, Tarot (seriously). Now, can the news shut the fuck up about it already? Updates = good. 24 hour coverage = balls.

I'm not even watching the news. I really hope they don't panic people about this. Yes, people have to take it seriously...but we don't need a panic.

Oh who am I kidding, if some white woman isn't abducted this shit will be 24/7 on all the news channels.

_________________

Yeah riiiight, CNN, FOX, NBC, and all the other news networks are creaming in their pants about this. They are queuing up the voice over, the special report graphics, the theme music and lining up all their specialists. OMG they are probably having a freaking orgy with all this.

Someone asked earlier what all the deaths had in common, they are all in Mexico. There were reports that the government supplied "flu shot" was not a valid flu shot that did not have the inert virus in it but some live virus.

Don't freaking panic over this crap. If you get sick go see your doctor. Don't let fear take over your life.

This just in: It's still the fucking FLU.

PS: I believe they found the original source of the epidemic:

No matter how often you say it, you still come off ignorant. It's like saying 'Pssh it's just cancer!'...okay but what type? There's cancers that aren't a big deal, and others that are still pretty much a death sentence.

There's no 'just the flu', because there are multiple types. If you'd like to know more, read here:

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/gen-info/flu-viruses.htm

However the 'who cares it's just a flu' type is type C. This is type A, which is the 'holy shit, possible pandemic!' version.

It's not ignorant. It's the truth. This flu isn't going to be any worse than any other flu. It's not the first time the Swine Flu has reared its ugly head. It's just a bunch of people in a panic because this flu has a name other than "the flu". Nobody on these boards will catch the Swine Flu. Nobody on these boards will even know someone who knows someone who dies from the Swine Flu. The normal "non-elite" flu kills upwards of 500,000 people every year. That's life (death?). You can choose to run around wearing a ski mask or you can accept that this named mob is just a rare spawn and not actually an Elite. I'm sure some morons will stop eating pork for fear of catching the Swine Flu, too.

++ points to me for tying in gaming with this silly virus.

Good thing I checked, I was about to post that, though after I photoshopped "Ground Zero" into it.

Yay for Blizzcon's hand sanitizer, I finally have a use for it. ;P

Another thing, don't eat out if you can help it for a while! =)

I love how some members of my family decided to go to mass twice on Sunday, once in southern San Diego and then across the border in Tijuana. Weeee.

No, health officials are shitting their pants because this is a brand new virus, it has spread quickly and because it is killing people not usually affected by the common flu. Practically no one knows what is going to happen. But like everyone is saying, that is no need for panic, just to take precautions.

This flu virus kills swift, and it kills people who aren't normally at risk of death from the "standard flu" (if there is such a thing, since Influenze mutates rapidly)

_________________

World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Where are these health officials shitting their pants? And as I said, it is not a brand new virus.



SOURCE

Gotta run. Killer bees are on their way to Texas.

Since 1916 (or somewhere around there) there have been 3 serious flu strain outbreaks that killed at least 1 million people each. That is a lot different than 200 sick and 1 dead. Hopefully this isn't that severe, but just because something is from the flu strain doesn't mean it is automatically ho hum typical.

I never said swine flu was new. But then again my wording was just wrong (I assume everyone has been reading and watching the news). This specific strain is new, we have never seen it before, not like this. So it is worrying health officials.

Mexico City was practically shut down yesterday, if the health officials weren't worried, the football game (an important game in the season) wouldn't have been played with no audience (they had fake audience sounds, lol). A lot of concerts were canceled too, etc. And just now, the alert level was raised to level 4 from 3 by the W.H.O.

Again, is it a reason to panic? No. Just a reason to be careful because we don't know if this will become very bad or not. Also... if you are planning on wearing a mask, you have to change it every 2 hours. They have to be dry for them to be effective.

Are the news channels blowing this out of proportion? In my opinion, yes. But, is that really a surprise to anyone?

I blame Obama.

What is more concerning is that this flu has genetic markers from several similar type flu's like some sort of influenza value meal.
Read: Engineered.

Also kind of interesting how this has magically sprung up in several places across the world at the same time..etc.

Sounds like it's got the potential to become a real life Captain Trips. It's like it's some sort of book/movie plot come to life. We're already getting "omg" notices from the CDC and state govt here and tamiflu is completely unavailable.

The thing about this that has me thinking is how China over the last some odd years keeps having these mysterious flu outbreaks that kill 100 or so villagers and then vanish. A year or two later another mysterious outbreak kills 50 villagers elsewhere...then vanishes..etc. So on and so on. You can't tell me they're not like...trying batches of stuff out on these folks.

Yeah yeah, tinfoil hat and what not lol...but from what I'm seeing in the medical community it's a HELL of a lot more serious than they are poohpoohing about.

_________________
Larreth Wolfsong (long retired)
Lanys T'vyl, Everquest

Zinky, Lvl 60 Warlock
Thunderhorn, WoW

Yeah except this has components of Avian flu, Swine flu and Human strains in one loverly little DNA package.

_________________
Larreth Wolfsong (long retired)
Lanys T'vyl, Everquest

Zinky, Lvl 60 Warlock
Thunderhorn, WoW

LOL that's pretty much spot on.

_________________
Larreth Wolfsong (long retired)
Lanys T'vyl, Everquest

Zinky, Lvl 60 Warlock
Thunderhorn, WoW

Doubt it, though it's not hard to engineer. One of Robert Preston's more recent books deals with that, and how the knowledge to cross mutate was presented in science fair fashion....to the fucking HORROR of USAMRID. But they figured cat was out of the bag anyway.

But as far as it goes, if you were going to engineer something and release it...there's far better/nastier shit to do. Which, ironically, Preston ALSO addresses in his latest fictional work 'Cobra event' or some title similar.



Didn't, AFAIK. Every place it's 'shown up' there's been someone who had been in Mexico not long before. Remember, with air travel, no one is far from anywhere anymore. And all the people who've been tested so far, have the identical flu. (Identical is important because if you looked at a swine flu from...1976 for example, it wouldn't look the same of course. Mutations occur.) So it's the same outbreak.



The mortality rate is low. It's just that...it will appear really really high to us because we've lived in a society and culture that has dominated, and I mean DOMINATED over diseases. I looked into my family tree a few years back and discovered a relative had already done it up going back a couple hundred years. Going back like...60 years, I saw a ton of death. Going back a 100, it was goddamned horrific. Tons of kids, few living to adulthood. We just can't imagine it today because we take it for granted today.

So anything with a 10%+ mortality rate will seem fucking horrific to us. And yes, that's bad, but in the big scheme of epidemic potentials, it's not as bad as smallpox, which had a 30% mortality rate.

I'm not downplaying it. But that 10% will ALSO decrease *if* tamiflu and others are effective. Because of hyperawareness people will get immediate treatment, and that will help reduce the number of fatalities.

And then the overall outbreak numbers will be lower because of awareness and methods used to prevent spread.

It won't be as bad as 1918, IMHO. Doesn't mean you don't take this shit seriously...just no need to blow it out of proportion.



They're not trying batches of it on villagers. There's been cases of outbreaks which have been caused by govt. research facilities (Russia with anthrax, killed 60 people, they fucked up the filters at the factory). There's simply no need to test this shit 'in the wild', so why bother?

As far as their 'weird' outbreaks, we know that this type of flu THRIVES in specific farming, and it's specific farming that DING DING DING...these chinese use. It's the tiered farming method, birds on top, pigs underneath, and fish at the bottom. Everyone eating each other's shit.

We know for a fact that's where these flus are mutating out of, that type of exposure. So...you can take off the tinfoil hat. =) Not that anyone would put it above the Chinese to abuse human beings (especially prisoners)...there's just no need for them to do it in that fashion, nor would it serve their purposes.



I'm well up on this stuff, because it fascinates the hell out of me. I haven't been watching the news at all, so I can't tell you how much or little they're blowing it out of proportion. I'd assume the media is a fuckton haha.

Basically the type of flu this is (A) is the ONLY type that can cause a pandemic. Because it 'can' doesn't mean it 'will'. It just has the capacity to spread. We (the CDC, USAMRID, WHO, among others) have been preparing for EXACTLY this type of epedemic...oh shit probably since the 1960s. Absolutely since the 70s when they mass vaccinated against potential swine flu (and that went badly, oh so badly). Yet had that flu hit, the losses from vaccinations would have been more than worth it. It was just a dodged bullet, so people focused purely on vaccine problems...which is understandable. But it's not just vaccinations. We also have tried and true methods for closing off routes of infection, much of which is responsible for the successful small pox erradication. (Specifically the ring method, they form a ring around an outbreak, quarantine, and vaccinate to 'seal' the ring, and close in and in until they have everyone vaccinated to stop the spread...on things one can vaccinate for, of course.

So if this does become a serious pandemic...it will suck, and a lot of people will die, but medical authorities are better prepared for that to happen today than at any other time in human history. And if it doesn't happen this year, but in 5 or 10...again they will be the best prepared in human history at THAT time, because it's something they stay the fuck on top of.

Again, I wouldn't panic. This isn't The Black Death where we'll be throwing loved ones into pits. At WORST, very worst mind you...judging from initial numbers of the outbreak we're looking at a 10% mortality rating. That's super shitty, but it's nothing like the worst plagues humanity has suffered. Go read first hand accounts of plague survivors who thought the world had ended, it's fucking horrible. Or better yet, go read up on small pox and how we conquered that disease. That disease consistently killed 30% of humanity and was around for about 5000 years, probably longer.

So again, this sucks because we don't see diseases kicking our ass, and it's scary for the same reason (that and it strikes people in the prime of life). So use common sense, don't get sucked into fear. Don't get sucked into 'lolz flu whatever' either. Just use reasonable precautions and if you get sick go immediately to your doctor and then STAY HOME. Don't go to work

_________________

Cliffs Notes: Modern medicine good, convenience of transportation bad. Panic bad. Black death bad.

Lol Jox, no wonder Cliff Notes always did me more harm than help me the few times I tried to use them!

Well atleast no cases in New Mexico yet, at the Sprint call center I work at they set up sanitizing stations in the bathrooms and I think they are going to put shoe sanitizers at the entrances to the building.

_________________
"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

The shocking thing to me is this is the only thing in Mexico that hasn't made it to Tucson yet.

Day 1 I found it interesting.
Day 35 I give two shits. Sorry if you died to this. Still don't care.

Thank you mass media for desensitizing this for me as well.

This is a choice you make, not anything anyone can force on you.

Our gov't wire is listing bacterial pneumonia as causing a share of the deaths; nothing about a cytokine storm.

P.S. We should call this the Spring Break flu

Tarot: Do your part and disappear for a week w/o telling the hubby.

Aren't they advising people to not go to their GP? I know that's the advice over here in the UK. Get the doc out to you but do NOT travel to seek medical advice, get them to come to you.

As for mortality rates from earlier stages in history, my grandmother was 1 of 12 siblings, yeah Irish Catholic she was one of the 5 that made it to adulthood. That's only 100 years ago. We're so lucky these days it's untrue.

I heard from a friend who works at another company here in ATL that some coworkers just returned from a vacation in Mexico and their employer actually made them stay home today because other employees were freaking out.

Some of the bus drivers here, Austin Tx, won't allow more people then seats on the bus. They used to take in as many people as they could fit behind that yellow line.

ETA until someone does something violent in a Swine-Flu-Panicked frenzy?

Not that I've seen in Southern CA, plus doctors here only come to your house if they're a coroner.



Nod. I 'knew' the facts on that, but as an adult and seeing it in my family tree...I don't know it just really impacted me hard. I also saw many women dying young in marriages. Some of it was from childbirth, but I wonder how much of it was due to the backbreaking work they did combined with constant or near constant pregnancies. Plus, I can't imagine what it would be like as a parent to lose so many children.

_________________

Wow. I could see it maaaybe if they were vacationing where one of the major outbreaks were or something, but I'm guessing that wasn't the case? Oh well free day off for them.

I also wonder if it was done to appease employee freakout, or if there was ever a discussion of 'well if someone DID get sick, could we be liable?!'. Is it too cynical that I'm inclined to think the latter?

_________________

Doesn't sound all that off base to me, especially considering that there was a demonstrable "employee freakout" (a.k.a. 'notice'). What cause of action? I don't know, but it sounds like a potential tort to me! Depends on the state law I guess.

_________________
Knowledge without reason is useless.

http://boxrockssocks.blogspot.com/

Keep in mind, that's assuming that someone actually got (very) sick. You need damages. I can tell you that much.

_________________
Knowledge without reason is useless.

http://boxrockssocks.blogspot.com/

Right, which is why I think that maybe they thought 'well if people DID get sick and we knew and could have prevented it...' potential lawsuit. Of course people can and do sue for anything, but correct they have to actually have damage they're seeking to be 'made whole' as it were. Though you can sue companies for punies, this doesn't really qualify I don't think.

_________________

All cases outside of Mexico have been mild. Unless there's some freak mutation that ends up happening, this thing is overrated.