Does the Swine Flu Scare You?

Lomwefgbnbv

Wed, 2010-03-03 18:44

This is a general comment without having read all of the posts from someone who currently HAS THE SWINE FLU: be weary. I'm a very healthy woman studying to be a nurse practitioner, so I've already got some groundwork here. I am now on day 8 of a 101 degree temperature. I've been out of classes for 8 day and counting. I've been quarantined but really ladies, one must walk the dog and feed themselves. I also live a building with 100 or more people. Yes, we are walking among you.

The really interesting fact that I learned after going to the ER because I couldn't get enough oxygen (sound a little like the Spanish flu) is that the CDC is not allowing doctors to swab adults under 65 who otherwise have healthy immune systems. Doctors are also reserving the medication for the population that may need it most--children, elderly, and otherwise compomised. The doctor suggested that perhaps thousands of people have this flu but these cases are not ending up in the statistics.

Michael Bloomberg convinced me not to believe the hystrionics so I didn't wash my hands after I touched every public surface, my friends (who now also have H1N1) didn't isolate after developing mild flu symptoms, and as intelligent free thinking women we simply don't wan't to believe the hype.

Believe the hype and then some. The numbers in the media ARE NOT accurate. Until you have this or are caretaking someone who does, really it's not a laughing matter or something to be belittled. I am more ill than I've ever been and I have to be alone during this tending somewhat to my house. The doctor's can't exactly say when this little "flu" might be getting better and complications are a strong possibility because I can't be given medication.

It's not just a seasonal flu, it is far worse and if we treat it like a typical seasonal flu (being in public, not going to the doctors (the CDC's suggestion), and trying to go on with daily activity) then we simply spread it . This is what a few of my friends have done and I cringe at how many people they may have exposed before getting medical instructions. For me, this is a royal pain and I may have to repeat my semester in school, but for grandma, this could be fatal. So ladies, no need to make fun and take it seriously.

Mon, 2009-05-11 08:58

I think the swine flu is important for the CDC to note and follow because it does seem to carry some different and potentially dangerous factors. However, I think the attention and reaction it's given by the media and the general public is a little bit ridiculous. For now, it really does just seem to be a strain of the flu that, unfortunately, killed a small number of people who were younger than what is normally expected.
In every other case, it was a bad flu that people recovered from. I think the problem here is that we went straight to the PANIC button and ignored the AWARENESS button.
I worked as a nurse during the SARS outbreak, in a hospital which had cases of SARS. I was terrified. Why? Because with SARS, people who got exposed then became deathly ill and if they didn't die, many were left with lasting damage to their bodies. I haven't heard anything like this with the swine flu.
They say this swine flu strain has the 'potential to mutate and become an immensely powerful disease', but let's not forget that they have been saying this same thing about avian flu and many other flus for a very long time. Don't forget, there is always that big scary unknown flu lurking in someones backyard that will be the end of the world!!
No, really, we have choices here. I think the wisest choice is the one many have mentioned here. Be conscious and practice good hygiene. Most importantly, do what is one of the first techniques they teach us as student nurses- wash your hands-PROPERLY! with soap and water for at least 30 seconds. Sing a nice slow rendition of the alphabet to yourself to time it. Wash in between those fingers and rings. Don't forget under your nails! Check youtube for a good video clip and then teach your kids, partners, friends, etc!
If you cough or sneeze into your hands, thanks for not spreading your germs by droplet/particle transmission, but PLEASE, go wash those germy hands right after! Otherwise, what you spared in the air will just be smeared on that lovely shopping cart handle that every baby loves to suck on!

And, if some day the big bad virus does come, hopefully the country you live in is well equipped with the masks, gloves, gowns, goggles, meds, knowledge, etc. needed to help the population survive.

If it does ever get that bad, will the people at CNN be brave enough to sit in a studio full of people to give us the 24 hour coverage that we will need then? I hope so!

Wed, 2009-05-06 02:23

I have to disagree with Rebecca at 2:30 about "just the flu." It's true we all get the flu every year or three, but some strains get shuffled in such a way as to be very dangerous. It's not so much how many people die as which people they are. In a usual flu season, tens of thousands of people die worldwide, but the distribution of deaths is concentrated among people under 4 and over 70. But some viruses hit healthy, strong young adults hardest. Those with the most robust immune responses are done in by their own immune system. (See this age distribution graph of the 1918 Spanish Flu deaths.)

This year's swine flu appears to be one of those. Fortunately, it doesn't seem too good at human-to-human transmission, but that could change as the virus does its virusy things and shares its bag of RNA tricks with other viruses it meets in the wild.

This swine flu just ain't that scary. Mabye the next one will be though. The danger comes in the "crying wolf" effect, where people get complacent and don't take these things seriously next time, when it might really matter. It's good that people are getting in the habit of washing hands more often, though. Maybe that'll stick. Yeah... maybe.

Here's a mildly humorous video that explains that sneezing on our hand is probably not such a good idea afterall.

My strategy is to learn as much as I can about it. That's all. If some bit of mainstream media sensationalism crosses my path, I just interpret it as I would any other inflated rumor: a useful lead to follow up on with some real research.

Thanks for pointing out that a hog snort sounds remarkably like a snore, Heather. I sprayed milk out my nose.

Snoooore.

Thu, 2009-05-07 10:49

I'm not any more worried about swine flu than I am about the regular flu. Honestly, it's another media circus. Like that impending avian flu that was going to kill us all. Nothing ever happened. Yes, there are confirmed cases of the swine flu, yes, it's seeming to spread quickly, but from every report, it's no more dangerous than a regular old flu.

That being said, of course I worry about it. It's an illness. An illness that could cause serious problems for my baby. But I'm not going to stop grocery shopping or cancel my vacation over a flu. I called my doctor when this story first came out because we booked a trip to Jamaica, and I was worried about taking a five month old on a plane. And she said that the filtration systems on planes are about as good as the filtration systems in hospitals. Unless I'm letting some stranger on a plane lick my son, we should be safe.

I think these things get blown way out of proportion. Honestly, I think people were getting tired of hearing the gloom and doom about the economy, so the media decided to spice it up with the newest "pandemic".

On a side note, my younger sister's boyfriend is wearing an "I survived the Swine Flu" t-shirt around everywhere. It's a wonderful conversation piece.

Tue, 2009-05-05 07:21

I don't have much to say on the subject.

1. We should all engage in proper hygiene, go to the doctor if we get sick, keep an eye on our kids, etc.

2. I detest the media.

3. Heather Armstrong cracked me up so much she almost made me pee myself.

That's about it.

Tue, 2009-05-05 01:54

I have 6-month old triplets and a 3-year old daughter. My daughter goes to preschool a couple days a week, and today a child who was HOSPITALIZED yesterday was throwing up. He was sent home from the hospital after a few hours and told he didn't have the swine flu. They couldn't even get the test results that fast, so who knows? His parents not only didn't follow the policy of not bringing your kid to school if they've had a fever or thrown up in the last 24 hours, under the circumstances, they were very irresponsible in potentially exposing other kids, and I'm ticked about that.

I do worry about my daughter bringing something home. I have considered keeping her at home, but I don't want to overreact to this either. The teachers do help the kids wash their hands, but I did have to point out that all the kids should be washing their hands when they arrive in the morning. DUH!

By the time they wash their hands before their first snack or after they use the potty, they've already touched everything in the room and shared all their germs -- and their families' germs -- with each other. Come to think of it, hand washing first thing would be a GREAT idea all of the time!

I try not to be a germophobe, but I am nervous about potentially having four kids -- three babies -- sick at once, and possibly mom & dad, too.

The point that everyone is missing here is that there is no vaccine for this flu, and since it's a new virus, NO ONE has any immunity. That means it could be widespread enough that if you or a family member needs medical care, there could be no care available. (I do acknowledge that it's proving to be mild, thankfully, so that's a less likely scenario.)

Think about that for a minute.

You've got a very sick child who needs hospitalization, but the hospitals are overflowing, medical staff is minimal because they also are ill, and people are being turned away or told not to come to the hospital because it's more dangerous than staying home. Instead of getting IVs and the kind of medical care a serious illness requires, you are reduced to giving your child Tylenol, using cold baths to reduce fevers, and force feeding liquids to try to prevent death from dehydration.

Now THAT, my fellow moms, is scary.

So, no, I don't think the media is blowing this out of proportion. Swine flu has spread at pandemic levels, as defined by the people we pay to know these things -- the WHO and CDC. Fortunately, it has turned out (so far) to be a mild virus for which most people don't need medical care. If it were more virulent, or if it becomes more virulent, it would be a very different story. Then everyone would say the media didn't warn us enough.

Mon, 2009-05-04 19:55

For the first time EVER I saw other women actually washing their hands with SOAP in the washroom at Costco (before it was just the regular "rinse n' run" - if anything at all). I usually felt like gagging when touching the Costco shopping carts knowing how lax basic hygiene was for most "normal" people.

Our local school sent home a pandemic notice. We had a meeting because there was a "high risk" family who just returned from Mexico with confirmed familial exposure. That family absolutely refused to isolate their kids for the incubation period - in their opinion they had a right to be at school no matter what. Even with a full-time nanny they refused. They would not remove the kids unless there was legal action.

This was a good test for our school board and parents. What are we willing to do to protect the majority of kids - especially our population of medically fragile kids? We needed a test run to examine what we'll do when there is a clash between the safety of all our kids VS the "right" to personal "freedom".

I don't minimize the risk, I know that seemingly innocuous infections can be deadly - but the media is focusing on the wrong aspects and helping no one. It shouldn't be about masks, but hand washing, tissue use, sneezing techniques, and avoiding those at risk out of courtesy.

Tue, 2009-05-05 20:48

Well, I've been back and forth on this. As a salmonella survivor, I tend to freak out whenever something like this comes up in the media. However, with a college degree in journalism, I also know that the media tends to make things seem more important and urgent than they actually are.

Like some others, SARS, bird flu, mad cow, etc. didn't worry me, but that was pre-salmonella, and pre-kid. So, the swine flu sort of got me thinking. Especially when I heard local schools were being shut down (we're in San Francisco) and that a toddler had died in Texas. I'm thinking, DIED. A baby DIED. That'll scare the pants off any new mom, I'm positive. It's normal to worry, and to express that worry. It's not normal to quarantine your family for weeks. Unless you actually know someone personally who got sick.

The logical part of my brain is saying, it's treatable, it's avoidable, just wash your hands and it will be ok. But, then there's that little voice in the back of my head going, "OMG the baby was touching the shopping cart today and then he sucked his thumb and is that poopy diaper normal or diarrhea and am I coughing a little bit????" It just freaks me out to think that he could be really sick with something and I might not know.

Hate to bring it up again, but that's exactly what happened with me and the salmonella. I was sent home by a doctor who said I had the stomach flu, and I just needed sleep and Gatorade. 6 weeks, 20 expensive tests and an arthritic knee later, they determined it was salmonella. I'm just saying, be on the look out. Don't think that just because the media makes a big deal of things that once in a while it's not actually a big deal. None of us is infallible.

Mon, 2009-05-04 15:01

I'm not overly worried about the swine flu.

I understand why it's getting massive attention: it's new. I think it's GOOD to get information, especially about something we've never heard of before. It's like the other big health scares mentioned here... and we can tuck away that information for future use (if EVER needed).

But I think the perception of, "Oh my, this is the end of the world!" is silly. We need to take a deep breath, use common sense and try not to let it affect every move we make.

Mon, 2009-05-04 13:42

I'm with Maggie and Daphne on this: there's little harm in being cautious.

I wouldn't be worrying at all, really, if my neighbor and her kid did not just go to Mexico. "My mom said that there's no swine flu where we're going," the 10-year-old said of her mom who smokes around her everyday because, you know, cancer wouldn't strike THEM, either. There was no swine flu in CANADA when they were leaving, either. Gee, maybe it's gonna spread while you're in Mexico, hmmm? Maybe there are some people who have it who haven't even gone to the hospital. Viruses SPREAD, geniuses. (Excuse my misery. I have a bad flu. Oink. No, really, I'm very sick and keep getting worse everyday and it's really getting my panties in a bunch.)

So, this friend of my kids' is going to be on their bus and all and I feel like the bus driver should not let her on for three weeks or whatever the incubation period is.

Then a part of me thinks it would be better to get it now when it's mild than in the fall when they think it might warp into this horrifically deadly 1918 virus.

If it doesn't warp into anything, then I'm not worried. It's just a flu. If it does, I'm not super confident about the efficacy of a new vaccine since they keep emphasizing that "we've never seen anything like this! Ahhhh!"

In the meantime, we have N95 masks, oil of oregano, homeopathic flu stuff that's surprisingly amazing, and the Mormon priesthood. :-D

Mon, 2009-05-04 13:00