Swine influenza

[Lutin]

Hey,

Hope everyone is alright and no-one's contracted or been affected by the nasty swine influenza outbreak in Mexico and the US.

Stay safe, everyone.

Will xox

[tekla]

Oh I'm sure its beyond the USA and Mexico now, it got to New York, one plane to Europe, and hey, there you have it.

[Lutin]

I know, they've reported cases in Spain, Colombia and Israel, 10 New Zealand students have probably caught it, and they're worried about it in Queensland, but by far the largest number of infected and deceased is in Mexico.

[imaz]

There are cases in England and Scotland as of yesterday...

[Michelle.]

www.drudgereport.com

top left part of the page has 16 links and growing.

this swine is a worldwide traveller. It's even in New Zealand.

[Jay]

There are cases in England and Scotland as of yesterday...

First bird flu, now Swine influenza! 

Take care everyone 

Jay

[Cindy]

It's in Australia. Doesn't sound a good thing.
Cindy James

[imaz]

All I can say is that us Muslims and Jews are right about pigs...

[Darlene]

The revenge of the animal, because people slaughter them.

[Miniar]

This isn't a "pig flu" in the same sense as the bird flu, that is to say, you don't catch it from pigs, you don't have to even eat pork to get it, it's originated in pigs before it migrated to man and it is spreading between humans.
The last plague-flu originated in swine as well.

We are over-due for a plague, and this might very well be it.

I hope all you good folks keep safe and survive this, but I half expect it to wipe out a fair number of people.

I'm not worried/scared though, as I don't really see death as a "bad" thing, it's just a natural part of living.

[lisagurl]

Media hype as usual. Entertainment as  we know it.

[tekla]

Mexicans are dying.  EVERYBODY PANIC.

[Suzy]

All I can say is that us Muslims and Jews are right about pigs...

Making fun of me again?   

Kristi

[imaz]

Well we've had Bird Flu so it's only right to have Pig Flu...

Guess you have to be British to follow that one (not that I'm suggesting that all men are!)

[VioletNight]

Media hype as usual. Entertainment as  we know it.

Agreed. Would anyone really care if there was not 24/7 doomsday coverage by tv and news sites? If you see somebody sneeze then run for the hills! Flee flee! Or just hand them a tissue. Whichever works for you.

[Mister]

This is my favorite part of the swine flu--  everyone with this extremely common set of symptoms are going to be flooding ERs across the globe.  it's a bad week to break your leg.

[Nicky]

I don't think it could possibly be as bad as "man-flu" 

[Luc]

I've had 2 separate strains of the flu in the past month, and I'm still alive. I still fail to understand why the media is considering this swine flu bit an epidemic, considering the microscopic percentages of people who have contracted it thus far. I suppose all the hype is due to its high death rate... but most likely, it'll go the way of the long-hyped bird flu: much ado about nothing.

SD

[imaz]

I've had 2 separate strains of the flu in the past month, and I'm still alive. I still fail to understand why the media is considering this swine flu bit an epidemic, considering the microscopic percentages of people who have contracted it thus far. I suppose all the hype is due to its high death rate... but most likely, it'll go the way of the long-hyped bird flu: much ado about nothing.

SD

Yes but, and it's a big but... Bird flu didn't have human to human transmission.

[tekla]

I suppose all the hype is due to its high death rate

30% is very high.  And in case you forgot, or never knew in the first place - the last time we had a real bad flu (which was very close the the current strain:
It is estimated that anywhere from 20 to 100 million people were killed worldwide, or the approximate equivalent of one third of the population of Europe, more than double the number killed in World War I.

On the plus side - at least for me - is that like that flu people your age were far more at risk than people my age are.