Swine flu epidemic breaks out in North America

Gloves.

Wear gloves all day. Those use once throw away things, everytime you touch something that someone else may have touched then put a new set on.

Oh and those surgical/dust masks they use in Japan.

Or even better - don't leave the house or open the door to anyone until the [s]media[/s] crisis is over.

the only problem is, any method you use, whether washing or using hand sanitisers only remove contagions already on the skin. They have no or little preventative effect. This means you have to wash your hands after any contact for them to be effective. This works in a medical setting where staff wash (or at least should wash) their hands before and after every patient contact but won't work well in an everyday setting as it is impractical to sanitise your hands after every contact, no just with other people but also with doors, hand rails, shopping trolleys etc.

the only problem is, any method you use, whether washing or using hand sanitisers only remove contagions already on the skin. They have no or little preventative effect. This means you have to wash your hands after any contact for them to be effective. This works in a medical setting where staff wash (or at least should wash) their hands before and after every patient contact but won't work well in an everyday setting as it is impractical to sanitise your hands after every contact, no just with other people but also with doors, hand rails, shopping trolleys etc.

Everyone should get a personal bubble.

Then, I avoid touching my eyes, nose, mouth with my hands unless I have washed them first.

Interesting that no one outside of Mexico has died yet of this flu.

Is this due to their medical facilities and their standards or due to their lack of pork on their menu's due to religious beliefs?

Everyone should get a personal bubble.

You know one of the rasher problems with this? It makes your back go all streaky.

Édgar Hernández can rattle off the fierce flu symptoms he suffered a few weeks back, like a boy far beyond his five years: His head was hot. He coughed until his belly and his throat were sore. He did not want to eat, which was strange for him, someone who gobbles up everything he can. (...)

The government has identified Édgar as the first person in Mexico to have become infected with a virulent strain of swine flu, a notoriety that could raise questions about how Mexican officials reacted — or failed to react — to the early stages of what might become a global epidemic.

Édgar was one of hundreds of people in La Gloria who came down with flulike symptoms in an outbreak that federal officials say began March 9.

Local residents accuse public health officials of discounting the outbreak at the time, reassuring them that it was nothing grave.

Federal officials said they did respond quickly, though they acknowledged that they took the matter more seriously after the virus infected people in another part of the country, which was at least a week after Édgar developed symptoms. (...)