Swine flu epidemic breaks out in North America

Mexico City has apparently been hit with a outbreak od a deadly "swine flu"

The virus has also been reported in 2 states in America. Texas is one of them

SP

Sky news story

Yeah, I dont dig swine. Pig's a filthy animal...

Not all us pigies is dirty...

A few quotes from a NY Times article:








and the LA Times:






... and I too have been running around sneezing and with watery eyes for the last couple of days. Oh my god, I feel the icy grip of death already.

PS: No one died in the US yet and the authorities seem rather calm about the situation. But where is the fun in that?

Pigs aren't dirty at all. Piglets leave the mother's side to do their business in a remote corner if they can. And what do human babies do? Crap and pee in their pants willy nilly until they're a couple of years old. Pigs are also pretty intelligent, although no Einsteins.

Update..

World Health Organisation (WHO ) in Geneva Is holding an emergency meeting toay to dicuss this possibly "Pan-demic"

Pig-flu is the new Bird-flu!

SP

At least pigs cant fly cross borders. Although spiderpigs might be able to climb walls.

From the Sky News article:


Is it time to be very afraid?

I think so!

Not many blokes like a Bird that Squeel...

Anyone know is it infecting birds too?

from the Guardian

seems the virus is a variant of H1N1 and not H5N1. Still it is alarming that WHO are using the word 'pandemic'. Lets hope that isn't the case.

As this is a human infection now (although the source was non-human) it is possible that it will be spread through world travel in the way that SARS was. Influenza is symptomless for the first few days so an infected individual could travel to a different area or country without knowing that they are a vector for infection.

I have a stupid question:

If somebody falls sick with the flu, why is it so important to determine if it is an old strain or a new strain?

In any case, you don't want that person to infect others, and you want to give him the same medical treatment, since in any case it's the flu.

New strains may be resistant to existing vaccines.

Edit: A new vaccine doesn't help those that are already sick, that's true, but it protects others from catching the virus and stops it spreading further.

Yeah, but once you're already sick, you are not supposed to get the vaccine anymore anyway, right? So as long as we know there's a new strain out there, scientists can start working on a new vaccine. But it doesn't help those that have fallen sick.

if it turns out to be pandemic it will be essential to halt spread through restrictions in travel. A reliable test that would identify all individuals with the strain would greatly aid this.

and actually resistance to flu vaccines isn't really that critical as existing flu vaccines do not protect from all strains anyway. The issue rather is that this flu is so severe that it is in many cases fatal.

Maybe I should say goodbye now. I was at student health the other day, and a man came in with tuberculosis. Yeah! Taking English lessons at the college. There are so many recent immigrants, and it just seems that someone is bound to come in to this country with the flu, and won't go to the hospital...

anyone know what the incubation period in humans is? On the wiki it says 2-4 weeks but i think that is referring to pigs not humans.

I got back from Mexico 3 weeks ago. Should I be worried?

What flight were you on?

http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKTRE53O2SQ20090425
"A British Airways cabin crew member was taken to a London hospital as a precaution after developing flu-like symptoms on a flight from Mexico City, the airline said on Saturday."

not that one.

The papers this morning were saying it could be up to a week before a person shows symptoms. I think you are clear OG.

Don't you remember the scene from Pulp Fiction? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7u832uSmvk

Mexico flu sparks global action (BBC News)

Cases in New York, maybe New Zealand, Israel. F**k thats spreading fast.

That crew member turned out to just have a normal flu.

Been watching this and it is worrying. This has a low single digit death rate, but a break out in a bird flu endemic area could lead to further combinations that would not be pretty. One thing to watch for is the target group that are the hardest hit. Is it the old and the young or the normally healthy adult. The latter would be deep pig shit indeed.

What you can do to prevent catching the flu. This link is from the White House's homepage. There's also info about what is Swine Flu and symptoms. Basically, to prevent acquiring it you should do all those things you always been told to prevent any kind of flu, especially handwashing.

I'm currently in Puerto Rico and they just reported someone being admitted to the hospital with possible swine flu (this person just came in from Mexico.) I guess we'll know soon enough.

4 cases now in Canada- 2 in Nova Scotia and 2 in BC.

It seems to be only those who live in third world countries who have died so far, i.e. those in Mexico.

So is Canada the first or second country on the continent?

It will be interesting as to how this all turns out. The US border with Mexico has a lot of people crossing illegally especially as it has gotten warmer.
Most of those coming in that route will not go to a hospital. The will carry the virus with them undetected.

Does it? 100+ deaths vs. 1,600 suspected infections. Unless you think most infections go unreported (because they are mild enough for self-treatment).


According to media reports, it is young healthy adults aged 20-40.

you obviously weren't paying that close attention otherwise you'd know that this is already a mutation combining elements of swine flu, chicken flu and human flu.

Well, at least the Germans can't blame this on the Föhn!!!

So first we learned we're all bankrupt, now we're all going to die - time to retreat to Andechs and shut the doors...

Apparently, the only known cure for Swine Flu has been found to be the liberal application of oinkment.

So the birds can kill us.
The pig can kill us.
The cows can kill us.

What next pea flu?

Is there anything on this rock that cannot kill us? I love it when green types talk abut mother nature in that fluffy way that infers everything is nice and happy.

Well Mr/Mrs green - it isn't. It's a fucking battle to survive. Everything on this planet is either try to kill the other stuff to survive. It isn't a nice fluffy place, it is a place filled with teeth, claws and little cells type things that will get inside you and cause enough damage to cause you to die a phlegm filled lung type death.

Not to mention the few viruses that will just reduce your internal orgasms to much!

Mother nature is not a modern touchy feely mother - she has a fucking big stick and it's deadly.

Are you sure that's is what you meant to say?

A few people die and we get all this fuss.

This thing is carried by pigs, which are not know to travel too far, nor viciously bite someone on the ankles.

Nothing looks as good as a bit of airborne Ebola to get us worried...

Ever heard of pork, BE?

Or of human-to-human transmission?

@Westvan - must have been a Freudian slip, and it is only Monday. Going to be a long, long week

Not to sounds alarmist - but we are all going to die!

According to CNN "Mexican officials have talked about shutting down the bus and subway system, and incoming international passengers at the country's airports are asked on a form whether they have various symptoms that might indicate that they're carrying the virus." So Mexico is now worried about foreigners bringing swine flu into the country from abroad. A tad bizarre, isn't it?

Some sooner than others. Probably sooner if you get infected with swine flu and live in a third world country slum with no access to decent medical treatment.

@Freising - exactly. If I lived in the UK I would be worried

Bavaria, where we eat nothing but pork so somewhere there must be millions of pigs. Albeit ones we never see.

We're doomed.

Seriously, where are the pigs? Didn't we have a thread on Where are the German pigs??

The farm I visited had two in a closet. I wonder if they ever see the light of day...

According to the paper here this morning, the woman they tested was negative for swine flu (my previous post). Good. As to eating pork, the CDC fact sheet states that you CANNOT get it from eating cooked pork as the temperatures in cooking would desroy the virus.

So you can get it from handling the raw meat before cooking...oh dear we are all doomed. It's time to have some more fun before I die...

First affirmed case in spain. EU advises against travelling to Mexico or the US.

Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. It´s coming closer.

PS: Why is there no panic smiley?

Yeah, well as I said, I'm here in Southern California, with half of Mexico already here, and more coming every day. I've got a slight headache, watery eyes...but then, I did get up at 2:30 in the morning, and didn't get any sleep. Talk about paranoid-making though!