Possible Pandemic: "Swine Flu"

[Smithsonia]

Before we all go into self deployment mode and head to the border with guns ready... you might want to look at the site above. www.CDC.gov -- This isn't bird flu which H15N... it's not SARS either, it is a H1N1 virus. It is out of season and we haven't any vaccine prepared. So, being that were surprised, we are taking the same precautions that we do every flu season. BUT, being that it is out of the normal flu season, we need to react with vigilance, caution, and put some protocols online that are usually "at rest" this time of year.

That said, it's rather standard flu. We've seen it before. It's not anymore fatal than most yearly flus. So for the time being, quit watching TV too much. It makes you scared, it doesn't spread flu, but it does spread panic. FROM THE OFFICIAL CDC WEBSITE - SEE BELOW>

How serious is swine flu infection?
Like seasonal flu, swine flu in humans can vary in severity from mild to severe. Between 2005 until January 2009, 12 human cases of swine flu were detected in the U.S. with no deaths occurring. However, swine flu infection can be serious. In September 1988, a previously healthy 32-year-old pregnant woman in Wisconsin was hospitalized for pneumonia after being infected with swine flu and died 8 days later. A swine flu outbreak in Fort Dix, New Jersey occurred in 1976 that caused more than 200 cases with serious illness in several people and one death.

[isuhawkeye]

Earlier in this thread someone asked about "Pandemic plans".  What follows is a very over simplified description of a pandemic plan

At its core these plans address two things.  The first is a sick policy, and the second is a continuity of operations plan. 

In the first part of this plan you address what employees and volunteers are expected to do if they become sick.  Generally you do not want symptomatic staff coming into the office and infecting the remainder of the work force. 

The second part of the plan is a continuity of operations plan.  The premise of this plan asks how you will do business if a significant percentage of your staff are unavailable.  How will you continue your work, what are the essential functions, that need to continue to take place even if you are short staffed.

[jimmydeanno]

Laboratory testing has found the swine influenza A (H1N1) virus susceptible to the prescription antiviral drugs oseltamivir and zanamivir and has issued interim guidance for the use of these drugs to treat and prevent infection with swine influenza viruses. CDC also has prepared interim guidance on how to care for people who are sick and interim guidance on the use of face masks in a community setting where spread of this swine flu virus has been detected. This is a rapidly evolving situation and CDC will provide new information as it becomes available.

Strongly Recommend Home Isolation of Cases:
•   Persons who develop influenza-like-illness (ILI) (fever with either cough or sore throat) should be strongly encouraged to self-isolate in their home for 7 days after the onset of illness or at least 24 hours after symptoms have resolved, whichever is longer. Persons who experience ILI and wish to seek medical care should contact their health care providers to report illness (by telephone or other remote means) before seeking care at a clinic, physician's office, or hospital.  Persons who have difficulty breathing or shortness of breath or are believed to be severely ill should seek immediate medical attention.
•   If ill persons must go into the community (e.g., to seek medical care) they should wear a face mask to reduce the risk of spreading the virus in the community when they cough, sneeze, talk or breathe.  If a face mask is unavailable, ill persons needing to go into the community should use a handkerchief or tissues to cover any coughing.
•   Persons in home isolation and their household members should be given infection control instructions: including frequent hand washing with soap and water.  Use alcohol-based hand gels (containing at least 60% alcohol) when soap and water are not available and hands are not visibly dirty.  When the ill person is within 6 feet of others at home, the ill person should wear a face mask if one is available and the ill person is able to tolerate wearing it.

So the CDC isn't even recommending going to see the doctor if you develop flu-symptoms.  I'm not medical expert, but that tells me, like the normal flu, the body is able to fend it off itself. 

I would assume that those who have weakened immune systems (young and old) would be more susceptible.  Another assumption I'm making is that the cases of death weren't from the actual flu virus itself, but other conditions developed as a side effect of it; pneumonia, etc.  All things treatable outside of the third world.

[Tubacap]

Up to Pandmeic Level 4

http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/phase/en/index.html

[jimmydeanno]

^I'm still not worried.  The common cold reaches pandemic levels every time it breaks out.  I think we're being overly sensationalist. 

The CDC is still telling everyone to wash their hands and if they get sick to just stay home for a week.  Thanks to modern medicine here in the first world I doubt we'll see much of anything besides a couple hundred or thousand people with "the flu."

Those in the third world without access to standard medicine should be more concerned.  But thanks to my ability to go to Wal*Mart and by a $1.00 bottle of tylenol, I won't die from fever.  If I catch pneumonia from it, I just drive 5 minutes down the road and they give me antibiotics and tell me to come back in a week.

When it's Ebola, let me know.

YMMV

[notaNCO forever]

Currently in the U.S. there has only been six confirmed cases and no deaths, so unless you are out of the country you don't have to much to worry about. It never hurts to be safe, but I don't think there is a need to run into your bomb shelter yet.

[JohnKachenmeister]

OH MY GOD!!!!  WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!  MAKE IT STOP, BARRACK!!!!!  HELP US!!!!! 

The above message was brought to you as a public service by the American Main Stream Media. 

The Main Stream Media... Hyping minor incidents to crisis levels since 1789.

[JayT]

Currently in the U.S. there has only been six confirmed cases and no deaths, so unless you are out of the country you don't have to much to worry about. It never hurts to be safe, but I don't think there is a need to run into your bomb shelter yet.

You mean I can't stay in my shelter with my gas mask, shotgun, and adult diapers?

[Spike]

It looks like anyone in Orlando this past week is doomed!  Thank you Mexican Tourists. 

Asked the Question "should we have done more, like closing the borders or screening incoming passengers at airports", the Secretary of Homeland Security replies "No, since it was already here, closing the border or screening passengers would do nothing beneficial".

So, just because there where a few cases in New York last week why not take action to stop the possible spread from more people coming into the US sick?

She is not very good at communicating.  She also passed the blame for scaring almost 500,000 New Yorkers by having Air Force 2 chased by a jet fly low in lower Manhattan to the FAA.  Someone needs to resign over that screw up, and we need to start at the top of the list.

[ctim]

Up to 64 cases in the US. While it seems to be spreading fast and it
seems like the government is playing it down (my paranoid side ), it is important to realize that staying away from people when possible, constantly washing your hands, and not touching your face will help keep you healthy.
On the bright side, even with the worst case scenario of 1/3 of the world getting sick with this you still have a 2/3rd chance to keep healthy! Take a look at your two friends and say "Well, one of us is going to get the flu, no hard feelings alright?"

[Rotorhead]

Up to 64 cases in the US. While it seems to be spreading fast and it
seems like the government is playing it down (my paranoid side ), it is important to realize that staying away from people when possible, constantly washing your hands, and not touching your face will help keep you healthy.
On the bright side, even with the worst case scenario of 1/3 of the world getting sick with this you still have a 2/3rd chance to keep healthy! Take a look at your two friends and say "Well, one of us is going to get the flu, no hard feelings alright?"

64 cases.

Check out how many thousand people die in the US from garden-variety influenza every year and then get back to us on this horrible threat.

[Cecil DP]

Thank God the military had the massive swine flu vaccinations back in 1976-I will be spared!!!

[JayT]

Up to 64 cases in the US. While it seems to be spreading fast and it
seems like the government is playing it down (my paranoid side ), it is important to realize that staying away from people when possible, constantly washing your hands, and not touching your face will help keep you healthy.
On the bright side, even with the worst case scenario of 1/3 of the world getting sick with this you still have a 2/3rd chance to keep healthy! Take a look at your two friends and say "Well, one of us is going to get the flu, no hard feelings alright?"

You realize that something on the order of forty thousand people die every year of the regular flu, right?

Less then a few dozen have died of the Swine flu.

[Spike]

64 cases.

Check out how many thousand people die in the US from garden-variety influenza every year and then get back to us on this horrible threat.

First Death....a child very sad. 

Linky---->http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/29/swine.flu/index.html

A pandemic need not start out by killing thousands.  Do some looking around for how the Influenza of 1917-18 started.  Slowly!

[JayT]

64 cases.

Check out how many thousand people die in the US from garden-variety influenza every year and then get back to us on this horrible threat.

First Death....a child very sad. 

Linky---->http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/29/swine.flu/index.html

A pandemic need not start out by killing thousands.  Do some looking around for how the Influenza of 1917-18 started.  Slowly!

Yeah, but the pandemic in 17-18 was virtually ignored at first.

[Spike]

Up to 64 cases in the US. While it seems to be spreading fast and it
seems like the government is playing it down (my paranoid side ), it is important to realize that staying away from people when possible, constantly washing your hands, and not touching your face will help keep you healthy.
On the bright side, even with the worst case scenario of 1/3 of the world getting sick with this you still have a 2/3rd chance to keep healthy! Take a look at your two friends and say "Well, one of us is going to get the flu, no hard feelings alright?"

You realize that something on the order of forty thousand people die every year of the regular flu, right?

Less then a few dozen have died of the Swine flu.

It is approaching 200 in Mexico, possibly more because they don't have the same type of reporting procedures we have.  PLUS all influenza starts out slowly.  That is why there is a quick rush to react to a vaccine that may not be working, because they have time.  In this case, this "flu" is a mutated strain of two different viruses, much different from the swine flu of the 1970's, and we are slow to get a vaccine produced.     

[JayT]

The number of deaths in Mexico has been revised down to less then twelve, I believe.

[ctim]

I was talking to my brother who is a paramedic in the local ER, what he was saying is that in order to get a confirmed case it has to be lab proved. The lab process takes a long time and if you have a lot of sick people in the ER you are not going to worry about "proving" to the CDC and WHO that you have a confirmed case, you are just going to give them the antiviral and move onto the next one.
Like other people have been saying, it is starting out slow and it MAY pickup speed. It is really just a bad flu that is more contagious then normal.

[JohnKachenmeister]

In "The Peter Principle" Dr. Laurence Peter explained that "Work expands to fill the time and personnel allotted for it." 

The same principle applies to news.  Since 24-hour news stations started, the idea that news must expand to fill the time and personnel allotted seems to be operational. 

The more time available, the more news must be found.

"Someone in San Antonio has sneezed... Does this mean the End of Western Civilization?  We'll find out from our panel of experts.  Stay tuned."

[sandman]

You know, for a nurse, you should know better then to post something so inflammatory. That's just fear mongering.

I would like to echo Capt. Hiles response: Which part do you take exception too? Please clarify.

/r
Sandman
RN,PHN,BSN, and a few other letters....