Not a Joke

You've probably all heard about it by now, the swine flu that's sweeping through Mexico. It has also been sighted in USA, Canada, UK, Spain, France, Russia, Isreal, and China. It's really serious so just take the time to cover your sneezes or wash your hands more just the little things stopping you from getting it as well. It has killed around 150 people in Mexico but has not killed anybody in any other country yet. Please don't spam or put junk on this because this really is serious and I want to watch out for all my fellow {AR} members because when it comes to this, nobody is safe.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/health/28docs.html?hpw

Thank You!

More Medical info here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swine_flu

If you read about the flu, then then it is not as scarry as SARS. Most of the cases are not even reported because the symphtoms are very mild. France never confirmed that they have it. There were no suspected or reported cases in countries such as China or Russia. I find it hard to believem but uhm... yeah... is this flu bioenginered or racist or something? Why only Mexicans die?

You know I was starting to think the same thing what I mean was cases that were reported but not confirmed but just saying not to raise any alarms just take extra precautions is all. And sadly as of today there are unconfirmed reports in Russia, heard a Chinese woman died on a Russian train of what was believed to be the swine flu.

Mexicans are leading the death toll because they had the least amount of Heads up and a untreated case of Swine Flu is Deadly, so when a young adult gets a run of the mill flu, they dont run to the hospital they take some medicine and bed-rest, and since Its symptoms are flu-like everyone treated like that run of mill flu, and now, anyone with Pigs, regardless of wether its in your state is supposed to get checked

From what I have read and heard so far:

- there are many different kinds of flu already amongst people
- different nations (or more precisely, people with different gene pool) are affected differently by different kinds of flu - this was observed on other variations of flu before and could explain why in other parts of world the swine flu seems to not pose as big a danger as in Mexico
- as with any kind of flu, it can be serious or even deadly disease
- so far there's no evidence of it being more deadly or dangerous than other, older forms of flu; however the fact that its victims were relatively young is disturbing
- like any new form of flu, it has a pandemic potential
- the danger of this new form is that it's a new form in the first place, that it seems to mutate quickly, and that we don't know whether the current drugs work against it
- there's not enough serious information about this new kind of flu yet, therefore no competent person dares to say how serious it can be yet - the doctors and researchers don't seem to know enough so far (was flu primary reason why the people died? Was it the only reason or did another disease combine with it? Does it attack lungs or not? etc)

Also to add to MZ point, this strain is a mutant of the swine, avian and human flu viruses that have combined

Im sorry to say this but the media is not helping this situation. I know its their job to tell us whats going on around the world...but here in the usa with the media lets just say they are being over dramatic. I mean the common flu(influenza) killed atleast 500,000 worldwide this year. 36,000 was in the USA this year. So just remember to keep washing ur hands with soap and warm water just like any other illness. And do not stress out about this..just take good care of urself and u will be fine. We have deal with so many illness in this world and we have survive it so far. Our medical system has more technology how to figure this stuff out and how to deal with it. They are currently working on a vaccaine for this flu.

also, i think mexico has more deaths because they dont have good health care system down there and its a poor environment. And so far i read reports that their government told the people to late about it.

1 in the Netherlands now too, it's a child from 3 years old,

its in my area... oh well am gonna be fine Because the flu is only dangerous if it goes untreated, and once i get the flu am off the the hospital soo

Luckily for us, we aren't in the same situation as those in the days of the Black Plague.
Though I haven't been very strict on it myself, and probably should, since the first case of the swine flu at my school was reported today.
Thoughts and prayers to your safety.

And wash yo hands! (:

Ty Merc and same too you... am feeling rather down right now... am gonna go to doctors soon if i start getting a Temp....

keep washing your hands..if you are somewhere and dont have soap then go buy a little hand soap that you can carry around in your pocket and you can use it right then and there..u know what i mean guys?

already am USAGirl =]

{AR}Spinaw wrote:

1 in the Netherlands now too, it's a child from 3 years old,

Really? ill be more carefull now too.
Do you have swine flu?

{AR}USAGirl wrote:

I mean the common flu(influenza) killed atleast 500,000 worldwide this year. 36,000 was in the USA this year.

Agreed. See everything in it's context. There are more killing machines in this world. HIV as an example, but everyone forgets since that one stays out of our neighboorhood...

In germany we have 6 cases, but no dead, yet.

It looks like The swine flu will be getting worser as the summer progresses they say by fall it will be rly bad and there working on a antibiotic for the flu befor fall there saying if the flu gets worser it could last aprox 2 years its one of the biggest pedemic we have had in awhile :S i wish luck to ev one

i am not really worried about this swine flu

maybe i should be...

i though 16 people now in belgium...
1 person on whole plane affected like 350 people that landed here...
hope it can be contained... we dont want anything like the bird flu again, that claimed 150 million lives... (or was it something else?)

The thing is the regular old Flu is still far more worse than the " Swine Flu" they just blew it way out of context. My sister in-law was saying how many people come into her office saying they have the swine flu and she looks them over and they just have a cold or a flu. People are afraid to eat pork? As a chef, thats ridiculous. Even if the pig had swine flu, it couldnt be contracted by eating it. First of all the second you cook it, it kills any sickness or bacteria that the pig might have had. Pork is completely safe to eat, its actually safer now, than it ever has been.

Well, with beef and some meals from raw beef (Steak tartare) you may have some risk, but I am not aware of any meal that uses raw pork as one of the ingredients.

For pork, quite common method of preparation is by just smoking the meat - and smoking is theoretically not as effective as boiling when it comes to killing bacteria (though I never heard of anybody that got disease through eating smoked pork).