Swine Flu goes pandemic

"However, after years of observation of what went on in prison dormatories and inmates behavior"

Careful Carl there are women and children in the audience.

 

I think the world has been very fortunate with this swine Flu, it COULD have been a lot worse, and shows just how fast a virus can be spread around the world with modern aviation.

From what I can gather official efforts to stop the spread were fairly ineffective, and the thing spread like wild fire once it had got through the Immigration and Customs gates.

Imagine if it HAD been as bad as the flu of 1918.

Imagine if it mutates once again, the current vaccine will be useless and they will have to start all over again.



John.

 

That fire-fighter I mentioned, I mis-remembered the story somewhat. He is the firechief of a volunteer fire fighting unit, and his insurance covered only a third of his medical expenses. There is a benefit being held by his friends and family to help defray some of the costs.

Here is the link to the story:

Volunteer fire chief battles deadly H1N1 | greatfallstribune.com | Great Falls Tribune

And the other deaths in Montana I did remember correctly, they were middle-aged persons, between 30 and 50 except for the first one which was a six year old kid.

 

I had the swine flu the week before last. Couldn't tell the difference between the H1N1 and the regular flu. It kind of wiped me out for about 6 days. Lucky for me I was on my week off (I have a 7 on and 7 off schedule). Much better now though. The doc said that all his flu shots were used up, and to call back next week when they re-load.

To tell y'all the truth, this last bout with the flu sure felt just like when I got bit by that black widow spider when I was out working in the back yard last summer. Well, all except for the down time, and that great big gawdawful brownish redspot on my shin where it bit me that is.

So far, there have been in the neighborhood of about 30+ deaths attributed to the swine flu here in Louisiana. It's not the sort of neighborhood that I would want to be in. Just passing through was bad enough....

 

Glad to hear you are better A-58, I know quite a few folks who have had it, most have been fine after a week or so. Has anyone noticed though how the media have gone from 'it's the most dangerous thing since the black death' to 'what swine flu?'

There is a lesson for us all in that.

 

Thanks for the well wishes there Stef, I really appreciate it. You are right, not long ago you couldn't pick up the paper or turn on the TV for the news and get "swine flu this, and H1N1 that, the sky is falling, blah, blah, blah" and all.

As of late, the big deal on the health news front here is the battle between the oyster industry and the Feds (FDA) about their concern over the risk of eating raw oysters. It seems that about 15 people die nation-wide annually from eating them. If that's all we have to worry about, then things must be pretty good. Right now it seems that the Feds have backed off for the time being due to the massive uproar caused by such ludicris big-brother concern, so I reckon it's safe to go back to the oyster bar. Whiskey and tabasco sauce with an ice-cold draught beer chaser will take care of anything....

If the shots are at the doctor's office when I got back for my check-up in January I'll get one, but no big deal if there aren't any available. Doc seemed more concerned about my blood sugar and cholesterol levels than the swine flu anyway.

 

As this was in my local paper, I doubt it was carried anywhere else. But, none the less an interesting bit.

Modern H1N1 strain similar to virus that caused ‘Great Pandemic’ of 1918, killed 20 million

In a way, it’s hard not to admire influenza.

It is a tenacious little Tom Sawyer of a bug that persuades its victims to do all of its work for it and constantly reinvents itself to ensure it will have a never-ending supply of hosts.

Goto:

Modern H1N1 strain similar to virus that caused ‘Great Pandemic’ of 1918, killed 20 million

 

Here is an interesting article on the newest strain of the H1N1 virus, and a lead as to why it attacks the young and apparently healthy more often than the older individuals.

...The human immune system has two kinds of protection. Antibody response can prevent infection, while T-cells fight infection once it has occurred.

Peters and colleagues found T-cell protection but not antibody response.

"This T-cell response decreases severity of disease but doesn't prevent infection," said Deckhut-Augustine, whose agency helped pay for the study and maintains the public database that Peters used.

The effect could be cumulative, Peters said, which could explain why people over 50 seem to be less likely to get noticeable H1N1 infections.

"This may also suggest why children are more susceptible to severe infection and why they might need two boosts," Deckhut-Augustine said. "They haven't been around as long and they haven't been exposed to different strains of H1N1 as long as adults."

Influenza is a very mutation-prone virus and from year to year the circulating strains drift, or change slightly. This is why new vaccines must be formulated each year and why people can catch flu again and again.

The new H1N1 was a never-before-seen combination of swine flu viruses, with a sprinkling of human and avian flu virus genetic sequences. But its long-ago ancestor was an H1N1 virus first seen in the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed upwards of 50 million people.

The researchers found that the new H1N1 swine flu shared 49 percent of its epitopes with older, seasonal H1N1 strains.

Using blood from healthy donors, they found that T-cells could recognize about 17 percent of these markers.

See:

Had flu? You may have H1N1 protection - Yahoo! News-

 

Cheers Ted ;-))

And there is no nastier enviroment than a prison Dormatory-except when one who is designated with the task of being what they call "Number 1" which means you are the person responsible for "running" the "farm" and making everything happen. One of the jobs that Nr 1 has is to take a sewer cleaning crew into the farms sewer system so that they can clean off all the grates where the stuff flows through-including actual trash. I've never had to work in a more nastier enviroment in any job I ever held-than being the CO in charge of the inmates cleaning debris off the bars so hat nothing clogs up. This is a task that has to be done at least once a day-or you start getting clogged up systems and such.

 

I think the media is taking this H1N1 thing way out of context!! They are treating this like it's an EBOLA outbreak.. How many people die every year of complications due to the regular flu. Yet nobody talks about that.

I knew already 4 people and their imediate families that have tested positive for H1N1. They have survived and yes they were sick, but with bed rest and some meds, they pulled through, including a 2 year old.

Yet, think about this for a moment...

how many people do you personally know that have died of H1N1.
Now compare that with how many people you know that have died of cancer.
I know Cancer is not a virus, but we don't even know what causes it. You can be healthy and still get it.

The media is scaring everyone and causing a needless frenzy...

It's very simple, wash your hands often, stay home if your sick, get the vaccine when it's available to you, and stop panicing.... that's how you get sick!


Suzie

 

Cheers Suzie, they are as well as the fools running our Govt. They are trying to play on everyones worst fears.

 

That is good advice, but only in the light of having been warned of the new flu's existance. And what if this had come to pass; The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than the Great War, known today as World War I (WWI), at somewhere between 20 and 40 million people. It has been cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history. More people died of influenza in a single year than in four-years of the Black Death Bubonic Plague from 1347 to 1351. Known as "Spanish Flu" or "La Grippe" the influenza of 1918-1919 was a global disaster. (emphasis mine)

Would the people now expressing their distaste at the media and its "scare tactics" be crying the same tune? I doubt it, they would be screaming "why weren’t we warned?" You cannot have it both ways, and since this H1N1 is a variant of the influenza of 1918, the possibility existed at an even greater level considering the rapidity of human transportation in this century as opposed to the second decade of the last.

The sooner the warning was gotten out, and the new flu vaccine variant begun in production the better. There is also a chance that persons older than 50 have (over the years) built up T-cell identifiers for this cross-variant which render it less lethal. The younger the person, the less chance that is the situation, since they have had less exposure to the other seasonal flus as well as fewer seasonal flu vaccines.

There are about 35,000 flu deaths every year in the US (I think), but those generally occur in the older population, and within the group who are already in a weakened condition. This one seems to strike younger populations, and is especially hazardous to pregnant women. I suppose if you were I, an over 60 male, you could be rather blaise about your own health in this case. Which is why after I had gotten my seasonal flu shot early on, I never got in the line for the H1N1 variant, as that would tend to make things more congested for those who probably needed it more than I.

See:

The 1918 Influenza Pandemic

 

That is a good point Jeff, I too wonder at the population percentages rather than the total numbers. I did run across an interesting little piece of trivia on the Science Channel one day, it seems that there is a mutuation in the gene structure of those who survived the Plague years, and their offspring. What is remarkable is that persons who have two parents who carry this gene mutation (Delta something) are immune to HIV.

Those persons from areas in which the Plague never hit (sub-Sahara Africa) have NO resistance to the virus at all, which might explain their rapid infection and death rate.

Has anyone in you profession ever expressed an interest in this piece of data? Or am I reading more into it than it deserves?

 

No surprise there, 'eh wot?