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Piggy Influenza (Summary in OP)

[Tycho?][Tycho?] As elusive as doubtRegistered User regular
edited May 2009 in Debate and/or Discourse
So, whats going on here?
Well, a new flu is going around. Check any new organization, they should all be covering this by now. For an up-to-date compendium of what the media is saying, check out the wikipedia article on the subject here. They've got the usual charts, graphs and assorted stuff. The World Health Organization is a UN run org that deals with this sort of thing internationally. They know what they're talking about.

This is a new strain of swine flu (a flu that spreads primarily through pigs). Its a Type A influenza, subtype H1N1. Nope, not H5N1, thats bird flu. This new strain is worrying people because it seems to have elements of pig, bird and human flu in it. The combination has not been observed before. This version has jumped from pigs to humans, and from there is able to jump from human to human.

I keep hearing this word "pandemic". Seems a bit... ominous, doesn't it?
Well, it is a bit ominous. Pandemic doesn't mean "kills millions of people". The WHO says there are 3 criteria that need to be met for something to be considered pandemic:
* Emergence of a disease new to a population.
* Agents infect humans, causing serious illness.
* Agents spread easily and sustainably among humans.

Serious illness does not imply fatal, so don't get worried when the word PANDEMIC flashes on your TV screen.

How worried should I be?
Frankly, if you're asking this question you're probably way too worried already. If you're in Mexico, be worried. Most cases internationally have been mild so far. For advice on how to handle this situation listen to your local health authority. They know whats going on better than anyone, and know what to do about it. They're doing a good job so far (internationally at least) so don't ignore them.

I have the taint! Am I going to turn into a pig?
This is a flu, if you have it, you'll feel like you have the flu. If you think you have it, stay home. Don't go to the hospital unless you would under normal circumstances.

Symptoms include:
* Extreme coldness and fever
* Body aches, especially joints and throat
* Fatigue
* Headache
* Irritated watering eyes
* Reddened eyes, skin (especially face), mouth, throat and nose

Pretty standard stuff. You get it and spread it mostly by coughing and sneezing on people. Thats why you see pictures of people wearing face masks. Avoid getting sick by avoiding people who are sick, and frequently washing your hands. If you're sick, cough and sneeze into your arm or a tissue, and wash your hands after. Really, this helps a huge amount, regardless of if you have swine flu or a common cold.

Why is this so much more lethal in Mexico?
Nobody really knows. Something that can change with time as well. As this is a new strain, not much is known about it yet.

Cytokine storm? Didn't the Enterprise fly through one of those in one episode?
http://scienceblogs.com/aetiology/2009/04/swine_flu_and_deaths_in_health.php




******************

Original OP below

******************

"Mexico flu deaths raise worries of global epidemic"
MEXICO CITY (AP) — At least 16 people — and possibly dozens more — have died from a swine flu virus in Mexico, and world health officials worry it could unleash a global flu epidemic. Mexico City closed schools across the metropolis Friday in hopes of containing the outbreak, and tougher measures were being considered.

Scientists were trying to determine if the deaths involved the same new strain of swine flu that sickened seven people in Texas and California — a disturbing disease that combines pig, bird and human viruses in a way that researchers have not seen before.

The World Health Organization counted at least 57 deaths in Mexico, but said it wasn't yet clear what flu they died from.

"We are very, very concerned," WHO spokesman Thomas Abraham said. "We have what appears to be a novel virus and it has spread from human to human."

WHO raised its internal alert system Friday, enabling the agency to divert more money and personnel to dealing with the outbreak. "It's all hands on deck at the moment." Abraham said.
Scientists have long been concerned that a new flu virus could launch a pandemic, a worldwide spread of a killer disease. A new virus could evolve when different flu viruses infect a pig, a person or a bird, mingling their genetic material. The resulting hybrid could spread quickly because people would have no natural defenses against it.

The most notorious flu pandemic is thought to have killed at least 40 million people worldwide in 1918-19. Two other, less deadly flu pandemics struck in 1957 and 1968.

Nobody can predict when pandemics will happen. Scientists had been concerned about swine flu in 1976, for example, and some 40 million Americans were vaccinated. No flu pandemic ever appeared, but thousands of vaccinated people filed claims saying they'd suffered a paralyzing condition andother side effects from the shots.

In recent years, scientists have been particularly concerned about birds. There have been deaths from bird flu, mostly in Asia, but the virus has so far been unable to spread from person to person easily enough to touch off a pandemic.
The U.S. cases are a growing medical mystery because it's unclear how they caught the virus. The CDC said none of the seven people were in contact with pigs, which is how people usually catch swine flu. And only a few were in contact with each other.

CDC officials described the virus as having a unique combination of gene segments not seen in people or pigs before. The bug contains human virus, avian virus from North America and pig viruses from North America, Europe and Asia.

Health officials have seen mixes of bird, pig and human virus before, but never such an intercontinental combination with more than one pig virus in the mix.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gzz357patY4-QaJFvo9O95zMM_EQD97P008G2

So, this is mildly alarming. I trust we all remember the avian flu fad a few years ago. Well, thats still kicking around and spreading, but this is something altogether new. That it includes elements of avian, swine and human versions of the virus is a cause for concern; the ability to move cross species is why there was(is) so much concern over avian flu. That, and this one is already spreading human to human.

Humans have gotten been pretty good at battling disease during the past 100 years or so, but unfotunately these diseases adapt to our medicine. I'm definitely of the opinion that we're overdue for a big pandemic; the health care systems of a lot of countries are over stretched as it is, and the huge amount of elderly we have around in the West make prime targets for something like this. I wont be running to the hills over this, but I'll be keeping a very close eye on it.

Topics for discussion:
Fear mongering in the media
Role of pharmaceutical companies (engineered disease for profit, anyone?)
Preparedness of society (locally and internationally) to deal with large scale outbreaks
Flu vaccine, yay or nay?
Viruses are self-replicating chemical machines that are really cool

mvaYcgc.jpg
[Tycho?] on
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Posts

  • Fuzzy Cumulonimbus CloudFuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Viruses are self-replicating chemical machines that are really cool!

    Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud on
  • GoslingGosling Looking Up Soccer In Mongolia Right Now, Probably Watertown, WIRegistered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Do I dare make a Gerald Ford joke?

    Gosling on
    I have a new soccer blog The Minnow Tank. Reading it psychically kicks Sepp Blatter in the bean bag.
  • TachTach Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Next thing you know, these Mexican Flu viruses will be coming up here and taking away opportunities from American Viruses.

    Dey turk R germs!

    Tach on
  • [Tycho?][Tycho?] As elusive as doubt Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Gosling wrote: »
    Do I dare make a Gerald Ford joke?

    Since I don't know what that joke is going to be, go for it.

    [Tycho?] on
    mvaYcgc.jpg
  • AegisAegis Fear My Dance Overshot Toronto, Landed in OttawaRegistered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Helping countries develop/not descend into civil conflict/not deteriorate into an ineffective state is just a waste of our time, not our concern, etc etc.

    That's not biting us in the ass. Nope, no siree.

    Unrelated, wasn't this year also the year in which some of the flu vaccine fucked up and didn't predict one of the correct strains? I thought I recalled stories on this sometime last year for this coming flu season.

    Aegis on
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  • BloodySlothBloodySloth Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Man...bird pig?

    I fear suffering the media panic more than the risk of actually getting the disease. Is that bad? I'm just so damn sick of the fear mongering losers on TV.

    BloodySloth on
  • [Tycho?][Tycho?] As elusive as doubt Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Man...bird pig?

    I fear suffering the media panic more than the risk of actually getting the disease. Is that bad? I'm just so damn sick of the fear mongering losers on TV.

    Yeah, CNN is going to have to get a "flu pandemic" logo and theme music.

    [Tycho?] on
    mvaYcgc.jpg
  • DmanDman Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Aegis wrote: »
    Helping countries develop/not descend into civil conflict/not deteriorate into an ineffective state is just a waste of our time, not our concern, etc etc.

    That's not biting us in the ass. Nope, no siree.

    Unrelated, wasn't this year also the year in which some of the flu vaccine fucked up and didn't predict one of the correct strains? I thought I recalled stories on this sometime last year for this coming flu season.

    That's like every year. Nurses/doctors and high risk people get flu shots that should protect them from multiple flu strains every year and every year some of the flu strains mutate and people who got the shot still get sick.

    Modern medicine doesn't really have great defenses against viral outbreaks. Vaccines are not reliable (especially given our inability to accurately predict outbreaks) and everything else is not that effective.

    Dman on
  • AegisAegis Fear My Dance Overshot Toronto, Landed in OttawaRegistered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Ah, I thought the attention given to it might have indicated it was a more serious vaccine fuck up leading potentially to something like this occurring given the lack of more complete coverage.

    Aegis on
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  • DanHibikiDanHibiki Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    [Tycho?] wrote: »
    Man...bird pig?

    I fear suffering the media panic more than the risk of actually getting the disease. Is that bad? I'm just so damn sick of the fear mongering losers on TV.

    Yeah, CNN is going to have to get a "flu pandemic" logo and theme music.

    Yay! more work for me!

    ... we, um, made some good money doing bird flu animations. Scare mongers pay well.

    DanHibiki on
  • Panda4YouPanda4You Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Do you think it's too late for buying into that time-share apartment in Madagaskar?

    I'm also kinda curious of the lethality of the virus; were the victims old and/or in a weak state, or just healthy José Schmoes? (hypothethic question at this time, I know)

    Panda4You on
  • HonkHonk Honk is this poster. Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2009
    What the fuck is a virus anyway?
    virus2.JPGvirus10.jpg70df4d1a-2755-42e1-b7cf-c8c68de02cfdLarge.jpg
    Now tell me that doesn't look like an alien insect.

    Honk on
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  • PeregrineFalconPeregrineFalcon Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    So that's one more check in the "Against" column for "Reasons For/Against Going To Mexico For The Wife's Friend's Wedding." :P

    PeregrineFalcon on
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  • PeregrineFalconPeregrineFalcon Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Man...bird pig?

    I fear suffering the media panic more than the risk of actually getting the disease. Is that bad? I'm just so damn sick of the fear mongering losers on TV.

    This disease will reach pandemic levels when pigs fly.

    PeregrineFalcon on
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  • [Tycho?][Tycho?] As elusive as doubt Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Panda4You wrote: »
    Do you think it's too late for buying into that time-share apartment in Madagaskar?

    I'm also kinda curious of the lethality of the virus; were the victims old and/or in a weak state, or just healthy José Schmoes? (hypothethic question at this time, I know)

    No, it actually has been affecting young adults, which is unusual. I'll look around for a quote on that.

    edit:
    Epidemiologists are particularly concerned because the only people killed so far were normally less-vulnerable young people and adults. It's possible that more vulnerable populations — infants and the aged — had been vaccinated against other strains, and that those vaccines may be providing some protection.

    From my source in the OP. Reading the whole article is worth it, its quite comprehensive of whats been happening so far.

    [Tycho?] on
    mvaYcgc.jpg
  • HonkHonk Honk is this poster. Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2009
    Man...bird pig?

    I fear suffering the media panic more than the risk of actually getting the disease. Is that bad? I'm just so damn sick of the fear mongering losers on TV.

    This disease will reach pandemic levels when pigs fly.

    When it does, we'll all be getting Baconnaids.

    Honk on
    PSN: Honkalot
  • ThanatosThanatos Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Man...bird pig?

    I fear suffering the media panic more than the risk of actually getting the disease. Is that bad? I'm just so damn sick of the fear mongering losers on TV.
    A flu pandemic is a much greater threat than something like, say, terrorism, or SARS. It could have the potential to kill upwards of 50% of the people it infects, and can become extremely easy to transmit. There really wouldn't be much we could do about it, other than quarantines.

    Thanatos on
  • DanHibikiDanHibiki Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Honk wrote: »
    What the fuck is a virus anyway?
    virus2.JPGvirus10.jpg70df4d1a-2755-42e1-b7cf-c8c68de02cfdLarge.jpg
    Now tell me that doesn't look like an alien insect.
    That's a Bacteriophage, a kind of virus that attacks bacterial cells.

    Humans get these guys:
    virus_big.jpg

    Viruses are basically shells that dock to cell membrane with those mushroom shaped appendages, blend with the cell wall and inject it's contents that turn the cell in to a factory that makes more viruses.

    DanHibiki on
  • HonkHonk Honk is this poster. Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2009
    DanHibiki wrote: »
    Honk wrote: »
    What the fuck is a virus anyway?
    virus2.JPGvirus10.jpg70df4d1a-2755-42e1-b7cf-c8c68de02cfdLarge.jpg
    Now tell me that doesn't look like an alien insect.
    That's a Bacteriophage, a kind of virus that attacks bacterial cells.

    Humans get these guys:
    virus_big.jpg

    Viruses are basically shells that dock to cell membrane with those mushroom shaped appendages, blend with the cell wall and inject it's contents that turn the cell in to a factory that makes more viruses.

    Oh I see, that looks equally icky although less like an alien insect.

    Honk on
    PSN: Honkalot
  • [Tycho?][Tycho?] As elusive as doubt Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    DanHibiki wrote: »
    Honk wrote: »
    What the fuck is a virus anyway?
    virus2.JPGvirus10.jpg70df4d1a-2755-42e1-b7cf-c8c68de02cfdLarge.jpg
    Now tell me that doesn't look like an alien insect.
    That's a Bacteriophage, a kind of virus that attacks bacterial cells.

    Humans get these guys:
    virus_big.jpg

    Viruses are basically shells that dock to cell membrane with those mushroom shaped appendages, blend with the cell wall and inject it's contents that turn the cell in to a factory that makes more viruses.

    Thats an interesting pic you have there. Are those false textures? It looks much too detailed for something so small.

    [Tycho?] on
    mvaYcgc.jpg
  • HonkHonk Honk is this poster. Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2009
    [Tycho?] wrote: »
    DanHibiki wrote: »
    Honk wrote: »
    What the fuck is a virus anyway?
    virus2.JPGvirus10.jpg70df4d1a-2755-42e1-b7cf-c8c68de02cfdLarge.jpg
    Now tell me that doesn't look like an alien insect.
    That's a Bacteriophage, a kind of virus that attacks bacterial cells.

    Humans get these guys:
    virus_big.jpg

    Viruses are basically shells that dock to cell membrane with those mushroom shaped appendages, blend with the cell wall and inject it's contents that turn the cell in to a factory that makes more viruses.

    Thats an interesting pic you have there. Are those false textures? It looks much too detailed for something so small.

    They most definitely are, everything small that looks cool has probably been scientist-shopped/is a model.

    Honk on
    PSN: Honkalot
  • Delicious Toad!Delicious Toad! __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2009
    [Tycho?] wrote: »
    edit:
    Epidemiologists are particularly concerned because the only people killed so far were normally less-vulnerable young people and adults. It's possible that more vulnerable populations — infants and the aged — had been vaccinated against other strains, and that those vaccines may be providing some protection.

    From my source in the OP. Reading the whole article is worth it, its quite comprehensive of whats been happening so far.
    The influenza strain was unusual in that this pandemic killed many young adults and otherwise healthy victims – typical influenzas kill mostly infants (aged 0-2 years), the elderly, and the immunocompromised. Another oddity was that this influenza outbreak was widespread in summer and fall (in the Northern Hemisphere). Typically, influenza is worse in the winter months.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu

    Influenza strains exhibiting this pattern do have a history, and that history is notoriously vicious. :r

    Delicious Toad! on
    frogsig.png
  • nexuscrawlernexuscrawler Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Thanatos wrote: »
    Man...bird pig?

    I fear suffering the media panic more than the risk of actually getting the disease. Is that bad? I'm just so damn sick of the fear mongering losers on TV.
    A flu pandemic is a much greater threat than something like, say, terrorism, or SARS. It could have the potential to kill upwards of 50% of the people it infects, and can become extremely easy to transmit. There really wouldn't be much we could do about it, other than quarantines.

    Well we have better antiviral medications than we used to but the ability to make it en masse would be iffy.

    nexuscrawler on
  • nexuscrawlernexuscrawler Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    avian-flu-virus.jpg

    that's an image from an electron microscope

    nexuscrawler on
  • RentRent I'm always right Fuckin' deal with itRegistered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Man...bird pig?

    I fear suffering the media panic more than the risk of actually getting the disease. Is that bad? I'm just so damn sick of the fear mongering losers on TV.

    This disease will reach pandemic levels when pigs fly.
    MOI-OINK?!

    Rent on
  • [Tycho?][Tycho?] As elusive as doubt Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Honk wrote: »
    [Tycho?] wrote: »
    DanHibiki wrote: »
    Honk wrote: »
    What the fuck is a virus anyway?
    virus2.JPGvirus10.jpg70df4d1a-2755-42e1-b7cf-c8c68de02cfdLarge.jpg
    Now tell me that doesn't look like an alien insect.
    That's a Bacteriophage, a kind of virus that attacks bacterial cells.

    Humans get these guys:
    virus_big.jpg

    Viruses are basically shells that dock to cell membrane with those mushroom shaped appendages, blend with the cell wall and inject it's contents that turn the cell in to a factory that makes more viruses.

    Thats an interesting pic you have there. Are those false textures? It looks much too detailed for something so small.

    They most definitely are, everything small that looks cool has probably been scientist-shopped/is a model.

    Yeah, its a shame. I just looked up the size of those things and they only get to 120nm in diameter, photographs don't really mean much on those scales.

    And an informative wikipedia article about influenza, but education on the topic of viruses in general:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthomyxoviridae#Virology

    [Tycho?] on
    mvaYcgc.jpg
  • Delicious Toad!Delicious Toad! __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2009
    Thanatos wrote: »
    Man...bird pig?

    I fear suffering the media panic more than the risk of actually getting the disease. Is that bad? I'm just so damn sick of the fear mongering losers on TV.
    A flu pandemic is a much greater threat than something like, say, terrorism, or SARS. It could have the potential to kill upwards of 50% of the people it infects, and can become extremely easy to transmit. There really wouldn't be much we could do about it, other than quarantines.

    Well we have better antiviral medications than we used to but the ability to make it en masse would be iffy.
    The ones I know of off-hand, that have been around long-enough to be stockpiled to a point where mass production could follow demand for the duration, are less effective against avian flu. Oseltamivir was the only one I know of that actually got to be applied to H5N1 sufferers (during the recent outbreak in Asia), and WHO said it did buptkis. There's speculation you can just ramp dosages up, or that the other antivirals might be effective where this one wasn't, but it's all untested.

    Delicious Toad! on
    frogsig.png
  • ElJeffeElJeffe Moderator, ClubPA mod
    edited April 2009
    Shit, I've been totally craving carnitas lately.

    Is that a symptom? Should I be worried?

    ElJeffe on
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  • DanHibikiDanHibiki Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    http://blog.silive.com/health/2008/10/avian-flu-virus.jpg

    that's an image from an electron microscope

    no that's an image from Maya or 3ds max.

    This is a real virus: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Papilloma_Virus_(HPV)_EM.jpg

    But fake images look so much better and are way easier to use for illustrations.

    The one I put up is by Russell Kightley. He uses a mix of 3d and photoshop (mostly photoshop).

    DanHibiki on
  • HonkHonk Honk is this poster. Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2009
    DanHibiki wrote: »
    http://blog.silive.com/health/2008/10/avian-flu-virus.jpg

    that's an image from an electron microscope

    no that's an image from Maya or 3ds max.

    This is a real virus: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Papilloma_Virus_(HPV)_EM.jpg

    But fake images look so much better and are way easier to use for illustrations.

    The one I put up is by Russell Kightley. He uses a mix of 3d and photoshop (mostly photoshop).

    With procedural shaders in maya (and max also I guess) that "virus look" is surprisingly fast and easy to produce, really cool stuff.

    Honk on
    PSN: Honkalot
  • durandal4532durandal4532 Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    The thing I don't understand about the flu scares is: what am I supposed to do? Like, I'll try to avoid licking my hands after sticking them in urinals I guess, but at what point can I do anything productive in response to the warning "There may be a flu pandemic!". I got my shot, stop yelling.

    durandal4532 on
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  • Delicious Toad!Delicious Toad! __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2009
    The thing I don't understand about the flu scares is: what am I supposed to do? Like, I'll try to avoid licking my hands after sticking them in urinals I guess, but at what point can I do anything productive in response to the warning "There may be a flu pandemic!". I got my shot, stop yelling.
    Most people don't practice even the most simple anti-transmissive protocols. Sitting in the doctor's office when I had the flu earlier this year, despite clearly-posted placards, everyone other than me was 1) sneezing into their hands instead of taking a tissue or into the arm, 2) not washing their hands after they blew their nose, or 3) just kinda belting their coughing and sneezing and everything into the middle of the room without doing anything whatsoever to curtail that kind of behavior.

    I mean, when I worked at a Starbucks, I washed my hands every time I blew my nose or sneezed. Every time. That was a fucking lot of hand-washing on some days, let me tell you. But both of my coworkers, even when they were on shift with me and saw me doing this, washed their own hands only every hour or so, when we flipped pots, no matter if they were sneezing or anything. :(

    Ideally, the scare scares people into practicing basic sanitation protocols they honestly should be practicing anyway, but have brushed off in the past. I don't know how big a difference it makes, if it even makes a difference (:(), but I'd imagine this could be a huge plus.

    Delicious Toad! on
    frogsig.png
  • DanHibikiDanHibiki Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    The thing I don't understand about the flu scares is: what am I supposed to do? Like, I'll try to avoid licking my hands after sticking them in urinals I guess, but at what point can I do anything productive in response to the warning "There may be a flu pandemic!". I got my shot, stop yelling.

    Avoid public transportation and generally hanging out where there's crowds. Also, if you get sick, stay the fuck home!

    I fucking hate it when sick people come in and get the entire office sick.

    DanHibiki on
  • TL DRTL DR Not at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered User regular
    edited April 2009
    I've always been pretty reluctant to get a flu shot. Hopefully this won't make it a necessity.

    TL DR on
  • TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Dman wrote: »
    Aegis wrote: »
    Helping countries develop/not descend into civil conflict/not deteriorate into an ineffective state is just a waste of our time, not our concern, etc etc.

    That's not biting us in the ass. Nope, no siree.

    Unrelated, wasn't this year also the year in which some of the flu vaccine fucked up and didn't predict one of the correct strains? I thought I recalled stories on this sometime last year for this coming flu season.

    That's like every year. Nurses/doctors and high risk people get flu shots that should protect them from multiple flu strains every year and every year some of the flu strains mutate and people who got the shot still get sick.

    Modern medicine doesn't really have great defenses against viral outbreaks. Vaccines are not reliable (especially given our inability to accurately predict outbreaks) and everything else is not that effective.
    Well, it's true that this kind of stuff happens every year, but from what I heard via NPR, what basically happens is this.
    1. Epidemiologists/fluologists/whoever is in charge of this stuff try to figure out the 3 most likely strains of flu based on the previous year.
    2. Make vaccines using those.
    3. Vaccinate as many people as possible.
    Usually they do pretty good on step 1.
    Apparently last year they basically missed on all three (or at least 2, I don't remember) so most of the vaccines didn't do much.

    Tofystedeth on
    steam_sig.png
  • durandal4532durandal4532 Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    I've always been pretty reluctant to get a flu shot. Hopefully this won't make it a necessity.
    Oh, don't be such a wuss. They're useful, and they only get more useful the more people get them.


    I suppose there are some things that are useful that people don't do all the time. Staying home when horking up green gunk is definitely one of them. Not that anyone will do that, especially during a recession.

    Edit: During my childhood, flu shots meant my father sneaking up on me, swabbing my arm with Jack Daniels, and jabbing me with the needle. I don't know why he thought sneaking up on me would make me less freaked out.

    durandal4532 on
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  • CantidoCantido Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    I've always been pretty reluctant to get a flu shot. Hopefully this won't make it a necessity.
    Oh, don't be such a wuss. They're useful, and they only get more useful the more people get them.


    I suppose there are some things that are useful that people don't do all the time. Staying home when horking up green gunk is definitely one of them. Not that anyone will do that, especially during a recession.

    They were creepy as a kid. In a larger person, they go into your lax shoulder, which is very mushy and the injection is painless. You just feel slight muscle soreness in the shoulder for a day. If you start to feel sick, do a shot of NyQuil. College campuses have them cheap and accessible.

    I feel this "plauge" is the result of Mexico being a very poor country. I feel bad for them.

    EDIT - How are you supposed to get into a boss fight with an alien so fucking tiny?

    Cantido on
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  • [Tycho?][Tycho?] As elusive as doubt Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Cantido wrote: »
    I've always been pretty reluctant to get a flu shot. Hopefully this won't make it a necessity.
    Oh, don't be such a wuss. They're useful, and they only get more useful the more people get them.


    I suppose there are some things that are useful that people don't do all the time. Staying home when horking up green gunk is definitely one of them. Not that anyone will do that, especially during a recession.

    They were creepy as a kid. In a larger person, they go into your lax shoulder, which is very mushy and the injection is painless. You just feel slight muscle soreness in the shoulder for a day. If you start to feel sick, do a shot of NyQuil. College campuses have them cheap and accessible.

    I feel this "plauge" is the result of Mexico being a very poor country. I feel bad for them.

    Well, the beauty of viruses is that they do not discriminate based on class (except that poor people have less access to proper medicine, of course).

    Its been confirmed that this is the same one thats already infected 8 people in the US. Flu spreads quickly, and this could rapidly become something other than pitying the people of a poor nation.
    April 24, 2009 -- Mexico's deadly swine flu outbreak is caused by the same virus identified in the U.S., says CDC Acting Director Richard Besser, MD.

    The CDC is analyzing 14 virus samples sent from Mexico. Seven of them, the CDC learned today, are very similar to the unusual swine flu strain isolated from U.S. patients.

    "People are concerned about this situation," Besser said at a news conference. "We are worried as well. Our concern has grown since yesterday."

    Sixty people in Mexico have died of the flu -- and so far, 16 of the deaths are confirmed cases of swine flu, news sources quote Mexican officials as saying.
    http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/news/20090424/mexico-swine-flu-epidemic-worries-world

    [Tycho?] on
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  • werehippywerehippy Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    I have a feeling this particular instance is more likely than not round of Flu Panic '0X! but it does seem pretty inevitable that we're going to get hit and hit hard with something nasty eventually. We keep interconnecting more and more of the remote, god forsaken corners of the earth where conditions are obscene and these things can breed but we aren't doing a comparable amount to curtain spread or improve conditions.

    werehippy on
  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Well I'm glad Mexico decided to close schools down as a first step. Hey, maybe you guys oughta step it up a notch to be on the safer side?

    I don't think this is gonna be as bad as the media makes it, but it's still bad.

    Also, Rent, well played.

    Henroid on
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