Posted on 05/01/2009 10:16:31 AM PDT by PetroniusMaximus
I think illnesses are just woefully under-reported in those regions.
For example, look at this map and see how FEW illnesses are reported for Russia under ALL diseases. I don't think they're it's because Russians are SO healthy; it has more to do with the reporting system in place and how willing they are to share medical info with the outside world:
must read ping :)
interesting read ping
ping
“Also wondering how one convinces a Dr to write a prescription for Tamiflu if you aren’t sick?”
I didn’t have to convince, I just asked.
They do the same for people traveling.
WHO official expects to raise flu alert to highest level
11:16 AM PDT, May 2, 2009 - L.A. Times - excerpt
“Although the pace of new H1N1 infections seemingly slowed this morning, with a total of 180 cases in the United States and 705 worldwide, a World Health Organization official said he thinks that the agency’s infectious disease alert level will ultimately be raised to its highest point. “At the present time, I would still propose that a pandemic is imminent because we are seeing the disease spread,” Michael Ryan, the agency’s director of global alert and response, said in a Geneva news conference.”
Flu’s True Severity Is Still Unknown
Don’t Leap to Conclusions, WHO Warns
By Joel Achenbach and David Brown
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, May 2, 2009
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/01/AR2009050101777.html?hpid=topnews
Since the antivirals are available by prescription only, you don't have much choice.
Unless you meant a vaccine, in which case, there isn't one for this virus, and won't be until at least the fall. Still that could work out, at for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, since the flu typically kind of goes dormant, or at least to a much lower level of activity, during the summer.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/c6n4nj
CDC says a third of US flu cases visited Mexico
Associated Press - May 2, 2009 2:13 PM ET
ATLANTA (AP) - Health officials say about one-third of the confirmed U.S. cases of swine flu are people who had been to Mexico.
That suggests a substantial portion of the U.S. cases may have picked up the infection in Mexico. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Saturday that many people are getting the illness here. And the flu virus is probably still spreading.
CDC officials say the agency knows of confirmed cases from 21 states. Connecticut, Florida and Missouri are the latest to join the list.
The CDC official count now stands at 160 confirmed cases. But that total may already be outdated because some states can now do their own tests for the swine flu virus and don’t have to send samples to the CDC.
_________________
Emerging viruses are one of nature’s feedbacks loops where the planet is trying to control global warming no matter what the cost. Is your government this efficient?
I wonder what all of that means. Why are there more columns in the cases from TX and CA than in other parts of the world and country?
I think they are more case in California & Texas because of the border near Mexico.
Also The CDC are only testing the more severe cases ...
( They aren’t going to count the mild cases anymore the mayor says .... He said the city would be testing only severely ill people, because most of those hundreds of others can be assumed to be suffering from the virus and testing was not necessary )
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/28/AR2009042802191.html
Swine Flu Expands to More New York Schools
Schools in Queens and Manhattan Struck by Virus; Hundreds Taken Ill
New York City remained the hardest hit, with now 45 confirmed cases and many more suspected. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) said the numbers likely include “hundreds” of students, staff members and family members from St. Francis Preparatory school in Queens who have become ill. He said the city would be testing only severely ill people, because most of those hundreds of others can be assumed to be suffering from the virus and testing was not necessary.
Students at St. Francis Prep, which has 2,700 students, told The Washington Post on Monday that hundreds of students had become ill and taken sick days last week. But only 45 students were tested specifically for swine flu and confirmed to be suffering from the virus.
“They did say one thing else, they asked how many days our kids had left in school (17 left) and they did some mental calculations and told us they thought the kids might make it to the end of the year without having to be pulled out.”
I had to use my calculator! On March 25th their were 10 confirmed cases in the U.S. On April 1 their were 141 cases. It was about doubling every day. Exponential growth is what a virus does in the early stages.
If it continues at this rate, and I imagine it will, there will be over 2 million cases in two more weeks.
You probably read about the first non-Mexico-visiting cases in Britain. The one man who has H1N1 spent literally 1/2 hour in a meeting with a woman who apparently was coming down with it and coughing. It does not take long.
So you imagine one of the students who was coming down with it but still ambulatory, coughing in a store, on the train or subway, in the elevator, etc. Each of those people exposed along her path could then infect others.
Keeping the infected OUT of circulation is important.
And it's not just a swine flu anyway. It's swine-avian-human flu. Sounds nasty, but so far doesn't seem to be any worse most other flu. We shall see.
I will call on Monday the, and thank you for posting that.
That was a vaccine. It causes your body to "recognize" the virus and attack it before it can really take hold. But those are very specific to each type of flu, although they can mix several types in a single shot, and they do. The antivirals are different, and much less specific, although each type works better against some virus types than others. If they don't know what you've got, but suspect a virus, they can give you an anti-viral. If they do know they can select the type most effective against the virus you have.
My granddaughter takes her antiviral orally. On a "gluten free" cookie. If you give her the cookie and forget the medicine, she reminds you. :) A month or so ago, her "other" grandmother had made gluten free brownies (not too bad either) and gave her one, with the medicine sprinkled on top. Granddaughter then asked for another brownie, Mom said OK, so her Grandma T gave her one. She then said "more medicine please" (she's very polite. :) ) , so they gave her some other stuff that's really a dietary supplement, since she'd already had the antiviral for the day.
Are these confirmed cases?
They'd better bring a large army because I guarantee that their death toll will exceed mine.
That's probably the most accurate name of all for this debacle.
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