If this is the dredded pandemic..BRING IT ON!
I have been caring for a person very close to me who has come down with H1N1. And I have to say, its no where near what everyone is making it out to be. Its just like the normal flu only not...and even my patient will tell you "Its not even close to the regular flu"....So it begs the question, was all this hype for nothing? Because from what Ive seen its just a bit of chills, tiredness, and basically just feeling on un-well.
BINGO!!!... mediahype to scare everyone into getting the vaccination = big money for the pharmaceutical companies and I am sure the governments have a nice cut too...
PS... still haven't met one German or Swiss person who plans to get the vaccination... the people back home in North America are totally freaking out. I guess the media just works better over there (glad I'm finally on the right side of the pond )
I had the swine flu (got it from the kids that got it from school). It is not terrible but it lasts for a really long time. Recovery is quite slow.
What about all the deaths from it?
It seems that it's no big deal unless you develop respiratory complications. Then you're talking 2 weeks on a ventilator.
Best wishes to your patient, Zoso.
I'm from Canada and people are lining up 4 in the morning for vaccines. Hundreds are being turned away.
We're in Asia right now and were planning to return to Canada for Christmas before moving to Lausanne January 2010.
My original intent was to get our vaccinations in Canada before moving to Switzerland. This looks rather improbable right now unless things drastically change. There is a short-age and people are all clamoring for it. Asia won't get their vaccine until Jan.
I don't want to send my kids to school in Switzerland without the vaccination. One child is immuno-compromised due to recent chemotherapy. Me and another child have asthma triggered by colds and flu.
Can we get the vaccine in Switzerland even? Has the program already started?
You can't predict how your body will react to the flu. I had another child (toddler-aged) that went from perfectly healthy to total life support in 48 hours because of a flu virus (10 years ago). Ventilator, Kidney-failure..the whole works. She made it through...but I will never forget that experience.
Definitely. I had a mild case but I am still not 100% (which correlates closely to the decrease in the number of useless posts I make) and that 2 weeks later.
Just on my 6th day of the "dreaded" plague. Definitely had much worse ones in the past.
I think it affects the younger folk much worse. 2 trainees at my work have really got it bad. I think my past unhealthy life style must have given me a pretty robust immune system.
Now we must wait for the mutated version later on. This could be the big one.
sure, if you are a healthy adult it's "no big deal". good for you.
if you are a tiny child or pregnant woman with asthma or elderly person with pre-existing conditions it can be quite dangerous.
i am amazed at all the sick coughing people who are in trams/buses and number of ill children at schools.
also amazed at people who just shrug it off as no big deal when it quite obviously is a big deal to many people.
This is also true on any Flu virus.
People die every year of flu, this is just a big load of media hype.
Well--all people vulnerable to the "regular" flu also take the vaccine for the regular flu. Our immuno-compromised child will have his "regular" flu vaccine in two days. People and the media don't talk about the regular flu because there is a vaccine available for it. People do die of the regular flu, with and without having taken the vaccine.
People are more concerned with H1N1 because there was not a vaccine until recently for this new strain. Now that the vaccine is available, people might not be able to access it. We're not even talking about the developing world which will have no access to the small supply.
It's only over-the-top media hype if you chose to read all the news articles. Don't read it if you don't feel vulnerable for yourself or for your loved-ones.
Numbers mean "nothing" if it's you or your loved-one that has died.
A 13 year old hockey player just died in Eastern Canada. He had no prior health issues. He showed only coughing, fever, and mlld sore throat. He collapsed suddenly at home and was gone. His mother was a nurse. They had taken the boy in prior to a clinic to be checked out. You don't know how you or your loved-one will react to ANY flu or illness. These parents have stepped out to encourage parents to have their children innoculated. I can imagine their pain. Their thoughts of "what if he had been innoculated" will haunt them forever.
I see "two camps" in this issue. There is the camp of people who have never experienced real illness or seen "real" illness and don't realize how quickly things can turn for the worse and be extremely extremely ugly. (I've been in this camp once before.) They seem to be quite "cavalier" in their attitude--assuming that their experience is what will be the experience for others. Then, there is the other "camp" of people (including doctors) who have seen how hideous and quick pneumonia is and stared death in the face (I've been in this camp too) ... and don't want to assume anything for anyone or for ourselves.
I don't tell you to start worrying (Your health is your own business and if you don't care too much about it, I'm certainly not going to care any more than you about it). But, please don't tell me to stop doing what I feel is necessary to look after my own health (whether being concerned about the H1N1 or getting the vaccine).
There are stories like this about all kinds of dieseases and vaccinations, only a couple of weeks ago a young gril died right after having the cervical cancer jab, the press went mental saying it was unsafe etc, turned out she had an undiagnosed condition.
As far as I have read every single death in the uk from swine flu has been caused due to another current illness or a previous undiagnosed condition, so just a bit of bad luck.
Swine flu is a nice little diversion for the governments, look at us, we screwed up everything else (banks, pensions, unemployment, housing market, war in iraq / afganistan etc) but we will save you from this 'killer' desease, I'm sure if all these fabled terrorists they like to bang on about could get there acts together then we wouldn't hear another word about swine flu, much the same as we don't hear anything about bird flu anymore.
Its just flu, a lot of people will get it, some will die as has happened every year since time began.
You mean like asthma or pneumonia?
the issue with A/H1N1 is that the fatalities are in the sub-30 agegroup. In addition, it is affecting those with secondary complications.
It's not "H1N1" as there are flus like Brisbane/H1N1 which are covered in the regular flu shot.
Wash your hands. Use tissues. Avoid touching communal objects like banisters and door handles. Wash your hands again...!
You can also buy a sanitising gel in bigger Coops. I keep one in my bag and have a quick whizz over my hands if I am out and about and am just about to eat something while I am on the go.
The hand washing seems to be the easiest way to stop transference and infection.
I am very nervous about catching Swine Flu, it was a major factor when considering our decision to travel to the US last year, particularly because I DO have asthma (not bad generally but some situations trigger a worse reaction than normal) and at the time, I was pregnant.
Alas, fate took the decision out of our hands but now that we are planning to head to the US for Thanksgiving, I am once again quite nervous. I sincerely hope that the folks who share that plane with me are healthy!
I've not been paying too close attention to discussions about it though, I am curious if anyone knows how they are "doling out" vaccines here? Since I am traveling and have asthma, I am wondering if the general recommendation would be simply to be careful or to get myself someplace for a vaccine.
Here's some clarification.
Do you use the hand cleaning gel after that?
Why didn't you just use the gel on your hands?
How did the people who had the swine flu get confirmation? I'm not one for going to the doctor unless I'm at death's door, which is rare. I did pick up a lingering cold/flu that lasted 3 weeks when I visited Australia in August (winter & the flu was quite prevalent in Perth). I've wondered if I did manage to score one of those milder swine flu cases.