swine flu

[Millymollymandy]

Hope you are feeling better now MKG. So it wasn't any worse or different from any other kind of flu by the sounds of things.

[Clara]

I think we've had it too...a few weeks back. I've only just looked up the symptoms and we had every single one. I got quite a mild case, just made me feel floppy for a few days, then went to my chest. OH got it much worse, but then he kept trying to work through it - in 40* heat!! In the end we got him some abx for his chest and that cleared up in a couple of days.

My friend is similarly ill and got to see the Dr, who has given him a couple of things, but didn't want to go down the route of getting a proper diagnosis.

[Annpan]

Big Al, your scare-mongering doesn't help. You must be worried sick all the time, at the moment in Britain it would appear that swine flu is no more likely to kill you than falling down stairs or being in a traffic accident... do you also panic about stairs? and getting in a car or crossing the road?

I have known a few people now who have had swine flu (they were all high profile cases, it is a fact that they had it) They all said it was bad enough to take a day or 2 off work, made them sleepy and gave them the runs. They wouldn't have known it was anything special, a bit worse than a cold but not paralysing the way that the flu can be. But just like a cold to the wrong person, or the flu, or an infected cut or a bee sting - it can kill, but much more likely you'll just feel out of sorts for a few days.

And these 'underlying health issues' it isn't necessarily any of our business what they were, but I am sure we have all known an old person who has gone into hospital nearing the end, it is touch and go for a few days, then they get an infection (be it cold, flu, staff infection) and they don't make it. It doesn't mean that you or I are likely to drop down dead.


But also... people do die... you know that, right?

We live in one of the countries lucky enough to have a reliable health service, and the option to go private if you want. We have a good Military, Police, Fire service, Health Service, and Volunteer Core - that, should things really start to go mad (which I greatly doubt) we are still going to have food, water and essential health care... we have a long way to go before we are in a state of anarchy like you seem to suggest.

I can't and will never understand the mentality that makes someone want to outlive everyone else at any cost. Stockpiling supplies because sometimes you get snowed in or you don't have enough fuel to get to the shops every week is one thing... stockpiling because it might be the end of the world is quite another.

[Mr and Mrs luvpie]

I can't and will never understand the mentality that makes someone want to outlive everyone else at any cost. Stockpiling supplies because sometimes you get snowed in or you don't have enough fuel to get to the shops every week is one thing... stockpiling because it might be the end of the world is quite another.

Couldn't agree more! My dad when we were kids used to say we'd be alright if there was ever a world war 3 as we lived close enough to London to be hit straight away, I've obviously continued in that trend by living close enough what I think now is the largest american airbase in europe, so yet again if they do ever annoy anyone so much that it all starts we won't know a thing

Sarahx

[red]

I usually run a temperature when I have a cold - so not sure I will be able to spot the difference when we get it - but I do expect to get it
TBH i think the best bet is to get it before it mutates.. then we might have some immunity

I do worry about certain members of my family - my dad who has COPD, my 96yo gran who is pretty frail (though something will get her i guess in the end) and my son who is just different to other kids, and reacts differently. however, what can you do? baracade yourself in ?if you go too far with that attitude, you can end up with a lot worse problems, - paranoia, agrophobia etc, than a dose of the flu.

I just hope, when we get it, in my family, that we get it one at a time, so the well people can look after the animals etc. otherwise that could be a struggle.

[MKG]

I think that's the point, Red - I couldn't really tell the difference either. The only thing which stood out for me was my complete inability to do anything - more flu-like than cold-like. I think Clara described it best - floppiness. Fifteen minutes of minimal effort left me an exhausted and aching lump. I know I've been ill - but if I'm honest, I've had worse hangovers. It's only probability which makes me think it was swine flu - there's nothing else doing the rounds. OH has not had it, but she's only just retired from teaching so she's immune even from the plague, I think.

And the news tells me that this is "normal" for swine flu. Yes, a few people are going to die - but people die of colds which develop into pneumonia. And at the going rate (10% infection was the last estimate I read), the immunity base is building rapidly - so any mutation automatically becomes less threatening (not that a mutation is necessarily going to happen - it's only a "what if").

All in all, and if it was, indeed, swine flu, I can tell you not to worry about it any more than you would any other infection which has the possibility of affecting the respiratory system - which includes normal colds and flu. If your relatives haven't had it by the time the government gets round to actually distributing their "massive" stocks of Tamiflu, get them immunised by all means. That, though, probably won't happen until that leaflet they promised for every household (remember that?) drops through youyr door.

If all world-endangering diseases are like this one, bring 'em on, I say.

Mike

[wolfsong]

Ok, Big Al, I know a couple of posts back I was border-line rude, but I can't see how you can call it BS:
-the underlining health concernes involved in the UK cases that I saw induced (by conter-measure drugs or other wise) an immunodeficiency, to be honest a normal flu could have killed them.
I am not going to press the point, as I recently reas the headline that there has been a non-underlying-health-concern death,
but to be honest, you should have read the rest of my post before claiming I was talking out of my arse. You are exactly the sort of person I cannot understand: you put your own survival (some would say paranoia of Death) before the love your family holds for you. If you are prepared to leave the people who rely on you, just so you don't catch flu, then you deserve to catch the black death.

Right, and I am now going to put my words on enjoying life into action:
- I am going to travel to England with friends.
- I am going to go to the BGG, and enjoy myself to the full, listening to music and LIVING!
- I am then going to go on a three week bike trip round Engand, meeting the marvellous people who walk this earth, camping under the stars, and watching life go past.
- I am then going to return to the largest city in the UK, London, and probably go to a public swimming pool (those hot beds of disease)

And after all of this I am going to try to secure my place at Portsmouth University.

And you know what Big Al? whilst you will be at home, alone, with your tinned food... playing at being Will Smith's character in I Am Legend (which you seem o think is a text-book), just without the will to live...

EVEN IF I DIE IN THE NEXT YEAR I WILL BE SURE I HAVE ENJOYED MYSELF TO THE FULL AND AM SPIRITUALLY READY TO FACE WHATEVER COMES NEXT!!!!!!!!

[Clara]

Someone give me a sensible idea of what is going on - I'm coming to the UK on Sunday (via plane), I'm pretty sure we've had a dose but I really don't have the time to sit around being ill (and worse a 4 month old with the flu, not fun).

So how many suspected cases are there? How many people here have someone near and dear with it?

Planes are the worst for getting sick in any case, all that recycled air - is it statistically highly likely we will get exposed? Would it be completely mental to wear a mask? How do you reckon I could protect the boo?

I'm not usually neurotic, but I have a driving test in 10 days and I've got to have lessons beforehand, I really really REALLY can't be ill.

[MKG]

@Clara - don't worry. The massive majority of people in the UK do NOT have it. It sounds as if you've just had certainly SOME form of flu, so your immunity is up. If it was swine flu, you're fully immune. If the little one didn't get it when you did, he (she?) is very probably immune too. Masks offer minimal protection - more psychological than real - and you'd end up with people pointing at you and laughing.

I know only one other person who's (he thinks, just like me) had swine flu (guess who I got it from), but then I live in a pretty rural area. Cities, especially London, have more cases - but it's nothing like the press-induced image of people falling over in the street.

In fact, everything is just as it always is. You'll find Britain in its perfectly normal state with people complaining about the government and the weather and not diving for cover in case the bug bites. I would have thought that, given the interchange of UK citizens to Spain in the summer months, your chances of contracting anything nasty are no worse here than there.

Mike

[Thomzo]

Well, this is just the latest issue to get me shouting at the TV. The stupid bint (can I say that here) on the BBC yesterday was trying to get some expert or other to predict exactly how many people were going to die from swine flu. Doh! Why don't you just tell us all next week's lottery numbers at the same time?

This might be a slightly stupid question but can livestock catch flu (swine or any other type) from humans? If I'm ill should I get someone else to look after the chickens?

Personally I wish I could catch it before I go back to work. I get paid by the day and if I'm forced to stay home it could get expensive (but then I'd much rather have a few days off work with swine flu than a lot of other much nastier nasties).

Cheers
Zoe

[MKG]

Generally speaking, inter-species infection doesn't happen - so your chickens, like Clara, needn't wear masks. There were a few suspected cases of people getting bird flu from poultry, but that was in the Far East and only after very prolonged exposure. Apart from that, we still don't actually know if this swine flu IS swine flu - it just appears to look a little like it. It is suspected that it mutated into a form infectious to humans, but there is no record of any person catching it from a pig. Conversely, there is no record of any pig catching it from a person - all of Britain's porkers are flu-free.

So you can have a quiet word with them to reassure them, Zoe.

Mike

[Annpan]

Someone give me a sensible idea of what is going on - I'm coming to the UK on Sunday (via plane), I'm pretty sure we've had a dose but I really don't have the time to sit around being ill (and worse a 4 month old with the flu, not fun).

So how many suspected cases are there? How many people here have someone near and dear with it?

Planes are the worst for getting sick in any case, all that recycled air - is it statistically highly likely we will get exposed? Would it be completely mental to wear a mask? How do you reckon I could protect the boo?

I'm not usually neurotic, but I have a driving test in 10 days and I've got to have lessons beforehand, I really really REALLY can't be ill.

Clara, face mask aren't really effective at all.

I know that you don't want to be ill but there is really no more of a chance getting it now than when a seasonal flu goes around (given, not usually this time of year)

There are thousands of expected cases, very few are now properly diagnosed (rather that self diagnosed or diagnosed online) it is just like a flu... I certainly wouldn't be going to the doctor unless I thought it was really serious.... I wouldn't usually go to the doctor with a flu.


Seriously folks, Zoe summed it up well - the media want you to be scared, you are better consumers if you are scared... its just a flippin' mild flu.



ETA - you need to have really close contact with poultry to swap any kind of disease - I mean like in some countries people sleep in the same bed as their chickens, because they are warm.

[Thomzo]

Generally speaking, inter-species infection doesn't happen - so your chickens, like Clara, needn't wear masks.

Um, is there something about Clara that I don't know Sorry, I couldn't resist that one!

It occurred to me last night that the NHS might be behind the media here. They spent a fortune preparing for a bird flu epidemic only to see it come to nothing, so my guess is they want to prove that their preparations were justified.

My local surgery was saying that whoever goes to collect the Tamiflu on your behalf has to show your ID as well as theirs. Surely that means exposing them unnecessarily to your germs if they have to collect your ID off you? Not quite thought through methinks.

Zoe

[red]

.

My local surgery was saying that whoever goes to collect the Tamiflu on your behalf has to show your ID as well as theirs. Surely that means exposing them unnecessarily to your germs if they have to collect your ID off you? Not quite thought through methinks.

Zoe

I've been thinking about that too - i read a comment on the bbeb website a while back -- a acouple came back from mexico with suspected SF - went to dr - then several pharmacists.. sitting with general public - to get their tamiflu - so.. they will have infected lots of people. You have to wonder if people running about fetching drugs, when they themselves have been near to people (say their family) who have it, just spreads it around further.

[Clara]

Thanks all. To be clear, I'm not bothered about getting ill (i.e. I don't think we're all gonna die!) just that it will be a real PITA as I've got things to do and people to see not least my driving test which would really be quite useful to pass (living up a mountain with two small kiddies!). Everywhere I see swine flu this and swine flu that, everyone's Facebook seems full of it - I don't want to join in the hysteria, but just wanted to check I wasn't being too complacent.