swine flu

[JAWS]

I'm glad to see that people on here are treating it with the deadly seriousness it deserves.

Try Googling "swine flu confirmed deaths". The results are very interesting.

Once you clear away all the dross and hype so you can get down to the facts you find that there have been seven, yes seven, confirmed deaths in Mexico and just one in the US. How many deaths so far in the rest of the world is hard to discover because you are simply swamped by all the doom and gloom possibilities etc.

Of those who have died, apart from the small toddler in the US, there is no indication as to their ages, their state of health or anything else which help in assessing just how deadly the disease is. A toddler is less likely to be able to fight off a severe case of flu simply because of it's size and the probability it has not built up sufficient immunity to diseases. As far as the other deaths, there is nothing to say that the people concerned did not have very fragile health in the first place and the swine flu was simply the final straw.

It seems that the outbreak has been traced back to a village in Mexico near to a very large pig farm starting as long as four months ago. It would appear from reports that the attitude of the villagers, when the first case was eventually traced to there, was that they wondered why some of them had been ill and now they knew what the cause was. Hardly the mild sort of response you would expect from people if they were in fear of dropping dead at any moment from illness.

One thing is certain, if you run around shouting "There's a disaster going to happen!" then by the law of averages one day you are bound to strike lucky.
At that point you can then gloat about your wonderful foresight and your ability to help save people.

Since the hysteria about the Millennium Computer Bug which panicked heaven knows how many people and had billions of pounds worldwide spent on preventing something which didn’t really exist we have had dire warnings of death and destruction every year.
Certain groups have realised that there’s money to be made in inventing massive scares to scam the public with and that’s always a good incentive to keep on doing it.

Yes, it could turn out to be a pandemic, but I have no intention of holding my breath just in case.
Besides, people were getting bored with constantly hearing reports about the world's economic situation.

[armanisgirl]

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/h...-200904301734/

Brilliant site! both me and oh had tears streaming down our faces! Still got sore sides from laughing so hard!

[northener]

Brilliant site! both me and oh had tears streaming down our faces! Still got sore sides from laughing so hard!

Aye, it be good.



Interesting to hear on the Beeb this morning that the number of deaths from this 'Swine Flu' are the same as any other flu in Mexico.

[bekisman]

It's been worse with 'ordinary flu' in UK:

"Even during a winter where the incidence of flu is low, 3-4000 deaths may be attributed to 'flu; this can rise much higher in epidemic years, for example there were an estimated 13,000 deaths in 1993 which were attributable to 'flu and 29,000 in 1989/90." *

*According to the Chief Medical Officer's publication 'Explaining Pandemic Flu'(1 March 2005)

(Sorry if this has been mentioned already in this post)

[Geo]

The reporting on swine flu does seem to have eased off somewhat in recent days.

[northener]

The reporting on swine flu does seem to have eased off somewhat in recent days.

The media can only shriek for so long on one subject - then they have to find another to keep up interest in buying their product....

[Kodiak]

ARGH !!!! I have just found out that My Son, his Wife and their two Little Girls have all been put in Quarantine as both of the girls have Flu and are awaiting results to see if it is Swine Flu.

They live in Edinburgh so no where near here and I have not seen them for almost a year, I just will be keeping my fingers crossed that they all will be OK.

[Cedric Farthsbottom III]

I cannae remind the exact year,I had just gone into High School.About 1982-1983ish,half ma year were off with the flu.Now that was more serious in my eyes than this new one.Read in the Daily Record about the Spanish flu,100 million casualties.Quite a difference.

[Kodiak]

Breaking News - The USA Reports that a 2nd Person outside Mexico has Died from Swine Flu, this time in Texas.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8034991.stm

K.

[Kodiak]

Due to the Swine Flu people staying at the Metropark Hotel in Hong Kong have been put in Quarantine.

Yesterday the French Embassy sent their nationals a present of vintage champagne, fine wines, French bread, Camembert and fois gras....

The British Consulate sent all Brits a bag that contained second hand books, shortbread biscuits and a pack of cards! ..

Makes you glad to be British does it not.

[Aaldtimer]

Due to the Swine Flu people staying at the Metropark Hotel in Hong Kong have been put in Quarantine.

Yesterday the French Embassy sent their nationals a present of vintage champagne, fine wines, French bread, Camembert and fois gras....

The British Consulate sent all Brits a bag that contained second hand books, shortbread biscuits and a pack of cards! ..

Makes you glad to be British does it not.

Aye, you'd think they could have thrown in a Johnston's pie as well eh?

[armanisgirl]

It's parmageddon!

Follow the link for "Celebrity Pig Brother"!!!

http://www.livingtv.co.uk/celebrity/...the-celebs.php

lol

[JAWS]

Breaking News - The USA Reports that a 2nd Person outside Mexico has Died from Swine Flu, this time in Texas.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8034991.stm

K.

The Scotsman provides the following information.
http://news.scotsman.com/world/US-mo...ine.5239449.jp

The first who died was a child described as a two year old boy from Mexico City who already had underlying health problems and had been visiting relatives in Texas which I would take to mean that swine flu was only an additional strain on an already sick child’s system.
.
The second was first seen by a doctor on April 14 and was taken into hospital on the 19th. The woman delivered a healthy baby and stayed in the hospital until her death.

Doctors knew she had a flu when she came in, but did not know what kind. The area is undergoing a Type A influenza epidemic, of which the swine flu is one variety. She was confirmed to have swine flu shortly before she died.

Doctors in Texas stopped short of saying that swine flu caused the woman's death. A state health department spokeswoman said the woman had "chronic underlying health conditions" but would not give any more details.

The total confirmed cases worldwide as of Wednesday stands at less than 2,000. That is cases and not deaths. Basically, as things stand, you are probably more likely to be killed by a bolt of lightning than to die from Swine Flu.

Oh, and just by coincidence, there are reports from Mexico that they have found a effective vaccine for the illness.
Roll up, roll up, hand over your money here and solve the Millennium Bug, sorry, that should be the Flu Bug this year, shouldn’t it.