Swine flu raises fear of pandemic - Adults and Children

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Millions of people across the United Stated today have become infected with hysteria. Hysteria is very highly contagious, and is caused by the hype virus. The hype virus is spread by the media. To avoid becoming infected, don't even believe anything that comes out of those talking heads on the television. Turn that mess off, and go out for some air. (Don't forget your mask.)

The news media knows that this sort of thing increases readership and brings in viewers. They are going to stir the pot because it benefits them. You just have to take this fact into consideration when you make your judgements.

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Specializes in Too many to list.

WHO sets emergency meeting on swine flu outbreak

http://uk.reuters.com/article/UKNews1/idUKTRE53O1AD20090425

Sounds like they are waffling about raising that threat level, and waiting to see if the virus will spread outside of the continent.

Flu season is almost over in the northern hemisphere but will be beginning soon in the southern hemisphere offering this virus the opportunity to spread from Mexico to South America. Hospitals across the US already have been asked to check ERs and pediatric wards for any spread. They are looking for it to move.

The World Health Organisation said on Saturday it will hold an emergency meeting at 3:00 p.m. British time (1400 GMT) to discuss a deadly swine flu strain outbreak in Mexico and the United States.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan called the "virtual meeting" that will link public health authorities and experts in various parts of the world "to seek their advice and guidance," WHO spokesman Fadela Chaib told Reuters.

The experts will not necessarily issue firm recommendations on Saturday. Once more details are clear about the virus and its risks, the emergency panel could recommend a change in the WHO's pandemic alert level -- currently at 3 on a scale of 1 to 6 -- or recommend travel advisories to control the flu's spread.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a7HjmHgtSUGI&refer=home

U.S. hospitals are being asked to collect samples from patients with flu-like symptoms, said Schaffner, chief of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt, in a telephone interview yesterday.

"They are asking us who work in hospitals to go to our emergency rooms and our pediatric wards to gather specimens and start testing them," Schaffner said. "This has a sense of urgency about it."

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Maybe this is a "Herald" event. We talked about them once here. They occur in late winter and early spring, the next year you get a full fledge pandemic.

I was thinking the same thing. This situation fascinates the living daylights out of me, at the same time I'm wondering just how serious it could get.

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Now CNN Is reporting 78 high school students in NYC may have this flu.

NYTimes article about the students:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/25/nyregion/25sick.html?ref=nyregion

Absolutely nothing confirmed at this moment. But news outlets benefit from raising fear levels. If swine flu is found in NY, though, it will be pretty sensational.

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Specializes in CVICU.

I'm fortunate to be trained for the Biocontainment Unit at my hospital, but in pandemic, resources will obviously be overwhelmed.

http://www.nebraskamed.com/health_news/bio_containment_unit.aspx

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Specializes in Too many to list.

The CDC press conference today did not seem to give any new information, I have to say but I did miss a few minutes of it. They did much deferring to state and city health departments and dodging of questions. I found the speaker, Anne Schuchat a bit more diffiicult to follow than the guy they had yesterday.

She did say that it would be "many months" before a vaccine would be available.

It was also announced that the NYC Public Health Department is giving a press conference at 3 pm this afternoon, presumably to talk about the outbreak at St. Francis Prep School. Of course, the CDC has all the info about this already, wouldn't you think?

Inquiring minds would like to know...

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Looked at Swine Flu @ CDC website, says 1 in 3 healthcare workers gets infected when exposed. I live here in Houston, & San Antonio is #1 vacation destination for us here in Texas. Just hope CDC is on top of this. Good that

not all exposed to virus gets sick.

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We are way over due for something like this...

But if two drugs are capable of fighting the disease (taken early) and they have seen cases in the past (mostly pig -> human)... It doesn't 'sound' like a pandemic to me... more like an epidemic right now.

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We are way over due for something like this...

But if two drugs are capable of fighting the disease (taken early) and they have seen cases in the past (mostly pig -> human)... It doesn't 'sound' like a pandemic to me... more like an epidemic right now.

everyone is saying "potential" for pandemic, yes it is an epidemic only at moment
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Specializes in Too many to list.

New York schoolchildren had flu, official says

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N25476545.htm

The fact that this sophisticated lab in the NYC Health Department could not subtype this flu is cause for concern. It is an influenza A which they could not subtype, and now they have to send it to CDC. Yes, it probably is Swine Flu in New York City of all places.

The fact that the cases are mild is irrelevant, imo. This is only the first wave.

Tests have confirmed that eight New York city schoolchildren had a type A influenza virus, likely swine flu, New York city health commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden said on Saturday.

Samples have been sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for further testing to see if they are indeed the unusual H1N1 flu strain

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Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

Our hospital is on I85, (one of the big north-south arteries on the East Coast, for you West coasters). No joke, one of our first steps if we do have a serious outbreak is for the sheriff's department to go out to the interstate and take the "Blue H" sign down. 'Course, taking the "Blue H" down doesn't help with folks with GPS....

We stay slammed most of the time just with the locals (we were on diversion 250-ish days last year)-- we start having folks come in off the interstate, we're going to drown. I wrote an article for Disaster Recovery Journal several years ago on Bird Flu, and one thing I brought up is that all the people who usually come to the hospital -- the COPD/CHF exacerbatioiners, the choles, the illeuses, the new onset MI/CVA, along with the "demerol and diet soda" crowd -- are still going to keep coming, whether you're having an outbreak or not. And some of these folks won't come to the hospital unless they bring 50 friends, no matter what you tell them about risk for contracting the never get overs... They sit beside one flu pt, and BOOM, it's in the community.

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Specializes in Acute Care Psych, DNP Student.

Here we go. It looks like it's in Kansas now.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30398682/

Worries that the new swine flu strain that has killed as many as 68 people and sickened more than 1,000 across Mexico has “pandemic potential” increased with the announcement that the virus has spread to Kansas, and likely to New York City. On Saturday, two new cases of swine flu were confirmed in Kansas — the first U.S. cases outside of California or Texas.
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