Swine Flu

Jan 30, 2009
1,562
England
The swine flu virus first detected in Mexico can no longer be contained and countries should focus on mitigating its effects, a top UN official said.

World Health Organization deputy chief Keiji Fukuda was speaking as the WHO raised its alert level to four, or two steps short of a full pandemic.

UN food inspectors are going to Mexico to examine reports that industrial pig farms were the source of the outbreak.

The number of probable deaths from the virus there has risen to 152.

New Zealand confirmed at least three cases on Tuesday, and Israel one.

The US, Canada, Spain and Britain confirmed cases earlier but no deaths have been reported outside Mexico.

'Not inevitable'

Alert level four means the virus is showing a sustained ability to pass from human to human and is able to cause community-level outbreaks.

Mr Fukuda said this was a "significant step towards pandemic influenza" but a pandemic should not be considered inevitable.

Experts did not recommend closing borders or restricting travel, he stressed.

"With the virus being widespread... closing borders or restricting travel really has very little effects in stopping the movement of this virus," he said.

The first batches of a swine flu vaccine could be ready in four to six months' time but it will take several more months to produce large quantities of it, Mr Fukuda said

Health experts say the virus comes from the same strain that causes seasonal outbreaks in humans but also contains genetic material from versions of flu which usually affect pigs and birds.

A team from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation is due to leave Rome for Mexico on Tuesday to investigate allegations that industrial pig farms in Mexico were the source of the outbreak.

Its chief veterinary officer, Joseph Domenech, told the BBC that rumours that people had been falling ill last month near some intensive pig farms meant the FAO had to act.

"[We had] no indication of human cases of direct contact with pigs but this can never be totally sure and the probability that this virus could come from pigs directly could not be anyway ruled out totally," he said.

'Decline in cases'

The number of flu cases under observation in Mexico has reached 1,614. Swine flu was confirmed in 20 of the 152 deaths.

Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said all of those who had died were aged between 20 and 50. Infections among young healthy adults are a characteristic of past pandemics.

Mr Cordova said the first suspected case of swine flu had occurred in the southern state of Oaxaca but stressed that nobody knew "the point of origin or dissemination" of the virus.

He noted that the number of new cases reported by Mexico's largest government hospitals had declined during the past three days: from 141 on Saturday to 119 on Sunday and 110 on Monday.

Schools nationwide are to remain closed until 6 May as the country grapples with the outbreak.

In almost all swine flu cases outside Mexico, people have been only mildly ill and have made a full recovery.

Travel advice

In the US, a further 20 cases of swine flu were confirmed in New York. Cases have also been reported in Ohio, Kansas, Texas and California, bringing the total across the country to 50.

US and EU officials have urged caution for anyone considering travelling to Mexico.

Tests are being carried out on individuals or groups in Brazil, Guatemala, Peru, Australia and South Korea.

A number of countries in Asia, Latin America and Europe have begun screening airport passengers for symptoms, while Germany's biggest tour operator has suspended trips to Mexico.

Taiwan has announced it will quarantine any visitors showing symptoms of swine flu.

Several countries have banned imports of raw pork and pork products from Mexico and parts of the US, although experts say there is no evidence to link exposure to pork with infection.

Shares in airlines have fallen sharply on fears about the economic impact of the outbreak.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8021827.stm
 
My best friend is freaking. Her boyfriend just got back from a family funeral in Mexico and his sister that went with him is sick now!! YIKES EEK!EEK!
 
You can't call it swine flu anymore. Isresl says it's an insult to Jews and Muslims. In the same conference they want called Mexican flu which inturn would be an insult to mexicans.

So what do we call it?

I'll just call swine cause I hat all that PC bullshit.
 
So far like 100 people in Mexico died from it. If you drink the water down there you might die.

3600 people die in America every year from the regular flu, is that a pandemic? It's nothing but fear mongering.

BTW why do people use those masks, what in the world is that going to stop. People are just too stupid
 
while i agree that people and governments are (at the moment) blowing this way out of proportion, but would you prefer it were the other way? at least this way the over-exposure will motivate people to be cautious.

while the masks are not a guarantee of protection, it is a good line of defense to a vulnerable area of the body with respect to contagious bodies. its like a condom for pregnancy prevention. id probably wear one if i were traveling in an airport right now (mask, not a condom ;)).
 
while i agree that people and governments are (at the moment) blowing this way out of proportion, but would you prefer it were the other way? at least this way the over-exposure will motivate people to be cautious.

while the masks are not a guarantee of protection, it is a good line of defense to a vulnerable area of the body with respect to contagious bodies. its like a condom for pregnancy prevention. id probably wear one if i were traveling in an airport right now (mask, not a condom ;)).

LMAO!! I got nothing to contribute to this convo, but I found that funny!
 
LOL @ the condom reference.

I think they are making it sound more serious than what it is. It's not like they don't have a cure for it or something. Mexico has a bad health care system and that's why so many have died. They haven't even gotten vaccines for the area where it started.

Idk why Israel is taking offence. So what if it's called Swine flu. That's because it's being traced back to........Swine! OMG! Wonder why they would call it Swine flu. If it was a cow, it'd be cow flu or something.
 
theres no cure, since its a virus, but there are antiviral treatments. but its pretty much the same stuff you treat for a regular flu, tamiflu. it controls the symptoms and allows your body to take care of the virus itself.

i think the biggest reason why its being called a pandemic right now is how contagious it is and how fast and wide-spreading is has been thus far. the healiest people in the most medically advanced countries should be fine, but youth, elderly people, and those in less developed countries could be in danger if this thing started to spread even more drastically.
 
theres no cure, since its a virus, but there are antiviral treatments. but its pretty much the same stuff you treat for a regular flu, tamiflu. it controls the symptoms and allows your body to take care of the virus itself.

i think the biggest reason why its being called a pandemic right now is how contagious it is and how fast and wide-spreading is has been thus far. the healiest people in the most medically advanced countries should be fine, but youth, elderly people, and those in less developed countries could be in danger if this thing started to spread even more drastically.

if you were following this you would know that as of now the virus is affecting the healthiest people. so you, me and everyone else on here are prime targets.


and if anyone thinks that people are making a big deal out of nothing. it's not nothing. its always a good idea to prepared for the worst. even if this doesn't become what it could, chances are it will come back at some point only this time mutated and could become the pandemic that at some point will happen.
 
So far like 100 people in Mexico died from it. If you drink the water down there you might die.

3600 people die in America every year from the regular flu, is that a pandemic? It's nothing but fear mongering.

BTW why do people use those masks, what in the world is that going to stop. People are just too stupid

but of those 100 people like 6-10 were actually from the swine flu.
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ONE TREE HILL FORUM
 
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if you were following this you would know that as of now the virus is affecting the healthiest people. so you, me and everyone else on here are prime targets.


and if anyone thinks that people are making a big deal out of nothing. it's not nothing. its always a good idea to prepared for the worst. even if this doesn't become what it could, chances are it will come back at some point only this time mutated and could become the pandemic that at some point will happen.

it's WAY over-blown. They are saying a million people could die from it? pssht.

Same BS went around with the bird flu, and anthrax. We ALL know those went no where fast. Scaring people sells news. period. I'm not saying it's not something to take precautions against, but it's certainly not that serious.
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Kitchen Measures
 
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if you were following this you would know that as of now the virus is affecting the healthiest people. so you, me and everyone else on here are prime targets.


and if anyone thinks that people are making a big deal out of nothing. it's not nothing. its always a good idea to prepared for the worst. even if this doesn't become what it could, chances are it will come back at some point only this time mutated and could become the pandemic that at some point will happen.

as of right now, yes a majority of people who have been affected are young children and young to middle aged adults. this doesn't necessarily mean that elderly people are not as susceptible to infection however. It is more likely the fact that the infection spread through students at school. If you look at the reported cases thus far, of the 64 cases, 45 occur in New York, most of which came from the high school where a few students came back from vacation in Mexico.

so what i was saying is that, like most cases of influenza, the elderly and young children are at a more dangerous risk for serious symptoms which could lead to death, simply because it is more likely that they are not as capable of fighting off the virus. right now CDC officials expect deaths to occur from this outbreak, which really shouldn't be that much of a surprise as tens of thousands of people die every year from the flu as noted by someone else earlier.
 
According to US Officials, the "swine flu" that has killed over 150 and has millions worried, will now have a new name.
The flu shall henceforth be called the "2009 H1N1 virus.

During a briefing on Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, said "This really isn't swine flu. It's H1N1 virus. We want to say to consumers here and abroad that there is no risk to you, there is no scientific evidence whatsoever that there is any link between consuming pork, prepared pork products, and the H1N1 virus."
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Housewives Cam
 
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thats funny, cause according to the CDC, this ain't just a regular strain of H1N1

Is the H1N1 swine flu virus the same as human H1N1 viruses?
No. The H1N1 swine flu viruses are antigenically very different from human H1N1 viruses and, therefore, vaccines for human seasonal flu would not provide protection from H1N1 swine flu viruses.

besides, i think its pretty much too late. so many people have already been calling this swine flu, that i bet the name sticks. its MUCH easier to say then "Hey, you hear any more about that H1N1 virus?"
 
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