Hospitals in Nine States Jeopardize Patient Safety

No apocalypse yet...they've been predicting our doom for decades with bird flu and the bubonic plague (present in China right now) and on and on since the Hunta virus in Utah in the early '90s. Bangkok is = to NYC in size and population and it just started taking hold during the month I was there. I got it, so did entire families but some were out for 2 weeks, others for a month and when one family was better another would get it (time out of work was job dependent). It knocked me for a loop but symptom-wise, it was just like the flu that came out 9 years ago. I was laid up for a couple weeks with that-this felt the same save a couple slightly different early symptoms.

It's just a flu...that came from pigs (the common flu isn't human borne so this is nothing new except the type of animal). The panic is that we can't control it and just by chance it wasn't more deadly. There will be resistant strains (from Tamiflu, etc) and it will circle the globe and peter out.

I was careful except when I boarded a bus without a mask and that's when I got it. 80% of people in all of Thailand with the flu (it's high flu season there now) have piggy flu. The regular flu didn't do much different statistics-wise. They stopped counting the numbers there were so many over there and they were severely under reporting (they have a long history of propaganda there but hospitals and clinics were full). They're just scared cause it can morph. My wife didn't get it and we weren't careful even after I got it...just like the regular flu...

It will not peter out, as it is likely to replace the previous strains of seasonal flu that reoccur each season until a new pandemic virus arrives. As more and more people become infected, the human race will develop at least partial immunity. Because it is a novel strain most of us are highly susceptible at this time until we are infected or vaccinated.

It is true that it is not as virulent as bird flu. I would have to agree that some symptoms are similiar to regular flu which is no picnic to have either. The difference is that the people getting sick are young, not the elderly as in seasonal flu. Additionally, this is a much more transmissible virus which translates into many cases occurring at once. Though most cases are relatively mild, for those that are not, it will mean a hugh surge at your local hospital in the not too distant future of children and young adults getting very sick. Some 60% of the severe cases will have prior existing health problems. That means the other 40% that either die or get severely ill will occur in previously healthy people that we would never expect to see in the ICU. Some 10% of those cases may require ECMO. It is important to note also that those cases that do become severely ill seem to require a much longer stay in critical care. Unlike seasonal flu, this virus has a greater ability to infect deep lung tissue. This is all going to be very expensive.

This virus is very risky for pregnant women. The list of fatal cases around the world has been growing weekly since April. It is a great tragedy.
http://allnurses.com/pandemic-flu-fo...lu-399332.html

As I see it, there are 2 mistakes that we can make which could have terrible ramifications with this flu...1) we can incite national panic which would over-burden our system...2) we can underestimate the potential for widespread illness which would create national panic when it became apparent that we (the healthcare system) were not prepared.

I am an advocate for being as prepared as we possibly can for a potentially bad flu season. There will always be those among us who see little danger in this flu, that is okay...they are entitled to their opinions. I just hope those are not the folks responsible for planning influenza vaccination and treatment strategies. I think we are unlikely to experience a flu pandemic on the level of the biggy in the early 20th century because of our improved ability to combat the symptoms, provide critical care support, and to vaccinate susceptible individuals. That, however, does not mean that we should not be planning for the worst as a mechanism to potentially prevent the worst from occuring.