Posted on 12/24/2010 10:14:52 AM PST by Smokin' Joe
Intensive care units across Britain are almost full as the NHS faces one of the worst flu outbreaks in a decade.
Some hospitals have only one or two life-support machines left and critically ill patients are being transferred by ambulance to other trusts.... >snip< Senior doctors report that they are seeing the highest number of flu cases in more than 20 years and expect the situation to worsen over the coming weeks.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
The situation has gotten MUCH, MUCH worse in the UK since this article was posted.
As of a few days ago the number of people in intensive care in the UK was 4 times the level it was at during the peak of last year's flu season. The UK medical system is already in crisis, and the worst is not yet here. It has started in a number of other countries, including the U.S.
I have not seen anything on FR covering this. (The MSM, of course, is completely silent.) I don't have much time at the moment, but hopefully someone will start a thread on it. For personal reasons I have done very little posting on any board for about a year, and my ping list is woefully out of date.
This breaking story is mostly being ignored in the U.S. media, and what is out there is mostly wrong (surprise, surprise...). But here's a few starters:
...The vast majority of these cases are due to H1N1 infections, indicating that the H1N1 circulating in the UK has largely escaped the immunological response generated by infection or vaccination with the H1N1 circulating in the UK last season.
The vaccine breakthrough was initially cited in Australia over the summer, and related sequences have become dominant in the UK and other northern hemisphere countries where vaccine breakthroughs and dramatic increases in severe H1N1 cases is becoming increasingly common...
From Monotreme's Blog (A PhD specializing in flu. I am not Monotreme.):
Is there a more dangerous strain of flu in the UK
Recent reports indicate that the pandemic H1N1 virus is causing much more strain on the health care system in the United Kingdom this flu season than last year. For example, approximately 50% of all critical care beds are currently occupied by people infected with pandemic H1N1. And this is occurring early in the flu season. The peak in infections is likely weeks away.
Pinging the folks on the flu list to your comment and links, EternalHope. I don’t think we should ever underestimate anything which has great lethal potential. I’m no fan of hysteria, either, but foreknowledge of potential threats helps one be prepared to deal with them if they occur.
Thanks for the ping!
I just wrote a sort of flu summary update.
I may freepmail it to you and you can tell me what you think. I really, REALLY don’t want to get into a thread with people saying it’s a hoax, chicken little, crap like that.
I’ve been reading on PFI and Niman’s site for days one end and this is dire, much much worse than last year, and looks as though tamiflu resistence is setting in, and the vax isn’t on target any more.
Bad.
I understand that hand sanitizers are either useless or don’t work against viruses; that they’re not all they’re cracked up to be in fighting flu. Some hand sanitizers have been found to actually have bacterial contamination.
I think that they give people a false sense of security and keeps them from taking other, perhaps more effective, precautions against the flu.
I'm thinking that it would be a good idea to be stocked up on food, medicine, and other essentials in the event that the flu hits your area hard and you want to hunker down for the duration.
If someone was well stocked, they could theoretically get by without trips to the supermarket.
I doubt there's that many people who couldn't do without clothes shopping and going to the movies and dinner. Food is harder, but sitting down and planning on a month's supply of food could leave you well stocked enough to get by with a minimal of going out.
Milk, eggs, and bread are the things people want the most. Eggs keep about forever. They'll keep WEEKS properly refrigerated.
People can buy powdered milk. Probably not as tasty, but in a pinch, it will do.
Bread can be home made, or bought in quantity and frozen, or frozen bread dough can be purchased and baked as needed.
I think I'll inventory our supplies, even though we're likely to be OK even on short notice. :)
Thanks Smokin’ Joe, Happy New Year! Please forgive if this is a redundant ping. The ECMO acronym stands for Extra-Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation, IIRC. Folks needing ECMO means that their lungs are out of action for all intents and purposes, if and until they can recover.
You’re Welcome, Alamo-Girl!
“It is true that some viruses are readily inactivated by alcohol; however, some are not. Viruses consist of nucleic acid (either RNA or DNA) surrounded by a capsid (protein shell). Some viruses have an additional external layer or wrapping known as an envelope. The envelope is created from a piece of phospholipid membrane that comes from the infected host cell during the “budding” process when viral particles leave the infected cell. Enveloped viruses are referred to as lipophilic viruses, because of their lipid envelope, while non-enveloped viruses are referred to as non-lipophilic viruses.
“Generally, enveloped (lipophilic) viruses are susceptible to alcohol: Herpes simplex virus (HSV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), influenza virus (Flu), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), vaccinia virus, Hepatitis B and C viruses are considered susceptible to alcohols.
However, certain nonenveloped (nonlipophilic) viruses such as hepatitis A and enteroviruses, which are both responsible for viral gastrointestinal infections are less susceptible. Depending on the alcohol concentration of the hand-cleanser and time of exposure to the alcohol, hepatitis A and other nonlipophilic viruses may not be eliminated.
“Alcohol kills microorganisms by denaturing proteins and the most effective alcohol preparations have contain 60-95% alcohol. Higher concentrations are less effective because proteins are not denatured easily in the absence of water. Most commercial hand-cleansers contain between 65-70% alcohol. Nonenveloped viruses require slightly higher alcohol concentrations for reliable inactivation than are found in many commercial hand-cleansers (70-80%).
“The effectiveness of alcohol in ridding hands of potentially infectious microorganisms is dependent not only on the alcohol concentration, but the time of exposure, and the volume of alcohol as well. It is important to ensure adequate contact between the cleanser and the then hands. Although the optimal volume of alcohol-based cleanser has not been determined, it is suggested that if hands feel dry after rubbing hands together for 10-15 seconds, an insufficient volume was likely applied.”
However, this is only half the equation.
Very, very few pathogens can successfully create a runaway infection with minimal contamination, such as Tularemia (rabbit fever), that only needs 10 to 50 bacteria to establish itself. Most bacteria and viruses require tens or hundreds of thousands or even millions, all at once, especially if the immune system has been exposed to it, or a similar pathogen, before.
For example, if you have overcome an infection of an ordinary H1N1 flu strain, a “second cousin” to that strain may require millions of viruses to establish an infection, and even then it will not be severe. But a “fifth to tenth cousin” of that strain might need far less to establish itself, and the disease itself with be harsher.
And this is the value of washing the hands, or at least using hand sanitizer. Such a volume of pathogen has to be carried in a glob of contamination. If you can wash the glob off, it will take enough of the pathogen with it so the *remainder* won’t be able to infect you.
This is why there is a rule that if you can physically see contamination, you should use soap and water. Only if the hands are (relatively) clean should you use hand sanitizer.
And dirty hands are, in many circumstances, absolutely essential to the spread of cold and flu viruses.
Experiments have shown that the ideal environment to spread viruses by coughing and sneezing is at 40F and low humidity. As the temperature and humidity increase, colds and flu become much more dependent on hand contamination.
Ironically, air conditioning does much to increase the spread of colds and flu by both stagnating and recirculating air. If instead windows are opened, air circulation inside and out radically reduces the amount of pathogen floating about on drops of moisture.
One final note, viruses that cause intestinal problems resulting in diarrhea and/or vomiting, can be readily wafted into the air with toilet flushing. So it is not a bad idea when those diseases are about, to put a cup of chlorine bleach in the toilet after use, a minute or so before flushing.
And then to wash hands before exiting the bathroom.
Seems they cannot afford to heat their homes, so public transit is their means of staying warm during this coldest of winters for them.
Which in turn means more exposure to germs and viruses.
H1N1 manufactured in a lab and released in UK (not Asia!) to bolster pharma company profits that failed to go through the roof for three years in a row.
Ain’t them globalist elites setch sweeeeeet genocidal monsters?
Widespread Flu Epidemic Taking Bite Out Of NYC
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/01/05/flu-cases-becoming-widespread-in-nyc-after-holidays/
Yep. Globalists used heavy holiday air traffic to get the jump on $ Millions in profits at the very beginning of 2011
Thank you for all that excellent information.
I will be bookmarking that for future reference.
ping
However, it might help to explain that ECMO is like renal dialysis. They take the blood out of the body using large catheters inserted in the neck and oxygenate it using the ECMO machine because the lungs have failed and are not able to oxygenate the blood, just like a dialysis machine filters the blood outside the body because the kidneys have failed.
Fortunately, while kidneys rarely recover their function after failure requiring dialysis, the lungs often do.
Unfortunately, ECMO machines are far more rare than renal dialysis units, and far more difficult to master and maintain due to complications rates, a steep learning curve, and infrequent use outside neonatal units:
...due to the high technical demands, cost, and risk of complications, such as bleeding under anticoagulant medication, ECMO is usually only considered as a last resort...Fatal sepsis may occur when the large catheters inserted in the neck provide fertile field for infection.
We can't rely on ECMO to pull as through if a widespread virulent H1N1 resurgence occurs.
They are gonna be very surprised at their eternal wages.
Yeah, it's a great way to run a tire company. Not so great for hospitals. I think we should have a strategic reserve of both hospital rooms and equipment like respirators.
Hospital rooms reserve has to be community level. And my guess is that most communities have some facility they could convert to hospital rooms if they had to. I don't know, maybe pick a hotel, and upgrade the ventilation systems for it. Use it in an emergency.
Equipment could be a national reserve. Buy in mass to keep the costs low and stick them in a warehouse.
This bears watching - whatever is going on in UK is the real thing, not hype.
And from a political standpoint - we should be watching closely as the UK’s GOVERNMENT healthcare system is falling apart. Hospitals cut the number of ICU beds recently and really feeling the pinch. There is even starting to be some rationing of antibiotics, flu vax, etc.
So explain to me again why anyone in their right mind would WANT this kind of healthcare deform for our country?
For more reading
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/01/07/sickening-flu-failure-115875-22831940/
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.