We have had 9 reported deaths in our county. But they say for the number of people who contract the flu, allmost all det better.
I have 3-5 kids missing on my bus on any given day. I guess the parents are getting the message to keep them home when sick, or running a fever.
With our crazy weather this year, we had more rain last month than in the previous 2yrs,You cant tell the allergies from the flu except for rhe fever.

I have to wonder whether the news media has blown this out of perspective. I heard recently that many of us don't need the Swine Flu shot since we were exposed to it when we were younger. Doe anyone know about this?

on


A Little Perspective on Swine Flu
"In the long run, we're all dead."

— John Maynard Keynes


The World Health Organization warned Wednesday that a swine flu pandemic is likely imminent. "It's really all of humanity that's under threat," said Dr. Margaret Chan, the organization's director general.

Frightening though the risk may be, it's also important to keep the numbers in perspective. Consider these risks and numbers:

Total number of laboratory-confirmed swine flu cases, as of noon Wednesday Central daylight time:

— United States: 91.

— Mexico: 26.

— All other countries: 31.

— Total laboratory-confirmed swine flu deaths: 8.

— Annual seasonal flu deaths, U.S.: 36,000.

— Shark attacks in U.S.
waters, 2008: 59.

— Annual deaths from food-borne illness, U.S.: 5,000.

— Hospitalizations for food-borne illness: 325,000.

— Accidental poisoning deaths in 2004, U.S.: 23,618.

— Deaths from falls: 19,665.

— Estimated deaths from being uninsured, 2006: 22,000 to 27,000.

— Annual pneumonia deaths: 58,564.

— Motor vehicle accident deaths, 2004: 43,667.

— Diabetes deaths, 2004: 73,138.

- Estimated annual deaths from medical errors: 42,000 to 98,000.

Heart disease deaths, 2004: 652,486.

— Annual tobacco-related deaths, U.S.: 438,000.

— Alcohol-related deaths, 2004: 21,634.

— U.S. lightning strike fatalities, 2006: 47.

REPRINTED FROM THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH.

DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.

quote:

Originally posted by Inarsword:
I have to wonder whether the news media has blown this out of perspective. I heard recently that many of us don't need the Swine Flu shot since we were exposed to it when we were younger. Doe anyone know about this?

In general, being exposed to a flu-causing, or a cold-causing virus does not protect you from later exposure to a virus that causes the flu or a cold. This is because the virus mutates so quickly that the shot you receive is only good on a certain number of viruses that were known when the vaccine was manufactured. By the time they invent a vaccine for a virus, there are already several more mutations. This is why YEARLY flu vaccinations are recommended; then they include 3 or so viruses in the vaccine; the ones that they suspect are the most prevalent that year.

I am not trying to take the discussion to a scientific debate on the merits of getting immunized or not nor the morbidity and mortality of the H1N1 virus, which, by last count has claimed 279 people including a 24-year old man and a 9-year old girl in my hospital last month. Instead, I am trying to highlight the absurdity of the government trying to legislate, regulate, dictate and mandate who gets what, when, where and how. Point in case, some of the first vaccinations agains H1N1 went to prisoners in the Massachusets State system. I'm a healthcare worker, I've had flu-like symptoms twice this year, one accompanied by unexplained upper trunk rash, despite that no one in our county, one of the most affluent in California (napa) has been immunized against the Swine. That's what we call it now, just "the Swine", gotta put a southern (preferably Alabama) accent on it, as in "don't let mah baby get the Swine". This is Katrina all over again, the FDA, CDC, NIST, and all the other alphabet soup acronymns waited until the last minute, have no logistical plan, and who ever screams the loudest is going to get immunized first.

California's Dept. of Health recommends that those who are high risk, one of you mentioned them earlier (pregnannt women, young children, etc.) be immunized first. But guess who has the number One risk classification?- HIV infected patients!!!!! So guess who decides who is more valuable then you, your mother, your son, your sister- the Government. And they, in their paternalistic wisdom have decided that you are not at a high enough risk. After all, you are only a productive, tax paying, hard working, schmuck that really is of little to no value because you don't belong to an "Oppressed Class" such as illegal Nigerian HIV-carrying drug dealers that contribute so much to our society by sending us those wonderful emails about us having the opportunity to have transferredd $300000000 in Krugerands for a mere $1299 and all of our personal information.


Dear God, I do feel better now. Please feel free to research all my statements. And, have a nice evening.

MIC, VIRUSES CAN MUTATE, BUT IT DOESN'T MEAN IT WILL.VIRUSES ARE LIKE SEALED ENVELOPES AND THE VIRUS IS INSIDE THAT ENVELOPE. YOU HAVE TO FIND A WAY TO BREAK THAT SEAL AND GET INSIDE THE ENVELOPE TO DESTROY THE VIRUS, SO FAR THAT HAS NOT BEEN DONE.

THE CHICKEN POX VIRUS CAUSED BY THE VARICELLA ZOSTER VIRUS DOES NOT MUTATE AND THEY HAVE A VACCINE FOR IT.ALSO IF YOU HAD THEM ONCE YOU HAVE A IMMUNITY TO THEM AGAIN.

SO BEING EXPOSED TO A PREVIOUS STRAIN LIKE SWINE H1N1, MAY PROTECT YOU IN FUTURE OUTBREAKS. HIGHLY UNLIKELY THAT THE SAME STRAIN COMES BACK, BUT POSSIBLE.

FLU VACCINES ARE DERIVED FROM THE PREVIOUS OUTBREAKS. IT'S A GUESSING GAME ON THEIR PART AS TO WHAT VIRUS WILL CAUSE THE NEXT OUTBREAK.

WITH ANY EXPOSURE YOU BUILD UP ANTIBODIES THAT TRY TO FEND OFF THE NEXT EXPOSURE.IT'S NOT ALWAYS GOING TO FEND IT OFF, BUT MANY TIMES IT DOES.

Agreed Norre. That was why I specifically mentioned the cold and flu virus'. They, in particular can mutate rapidly, and so a previous vaccine is unlikely to protect you, unless it has a common chain of proteins to a current virus. Chicken pox would be the exception as it does not mutate as often as the cold or flu virus'. HIV would be another example. While it can mutate, there is a common thread of information in it's mutations that a vaccine would be able to get to, disabling the virus, if and when a vaccine is identified.

Virus' are real buggers, and the issue, as you rightly mentioned is their rate of mutation, and identifying a common sequence of proteins or genes that a vaccine can get to, mutation or not.

Of course the other issue is the secondary infections that follow a viral infection. Having worked with HTLV (HIV), in IV addicts who had either shared needled or had unprotected sex with unknowing spouses, it was not uncommon for them and/or their spouses or even children born to an infected mother to develop secondary infections due to their weakened immune system, which could easily result in death, not from the HIV virus directly, rather from the secondary infection caused, particularly PCP pneumonia, hepatitis, or TB, or some really nasty non-lethal bacterial and yeast infections, includidg Candida Albicans (thrush?), I believe.

When I was a Director of an AIDS Education and Counseling unit in a Methadone Clinic at Kings County Hospital's Addictive Disease Hospital, of the 500 patients we worked with, 250 died as a result of HIV-related infections over about a five-year period. This was from 1987-1992. A horror would be a gentle term to describe the human tragedy, epsecially for the spouses who unknowingly had contracted the virus because their spouse did NOT inform them of their serostatus or use protection during sex.