#469640 - Wed Apr 29 2009 05:59 AM
Swine 'flu - first death in US
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Administrator
Registered: Sun Dec 19 1999
Posts: 38005
Loc: Jersey
Channel Islands
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Tragically the first death in the US was a 23 month baby in Texas. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8024611.stmI know in the UK the government are about to send out information to every household in the country. Locally our health department are ready, we have sufficient Tamiflu to treat the whole population. Our government bought it when the risk of bird flu was high, it cost a lot of money but they thought it worthwhile.
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#469641 - Wed Apr 29 2009 11:30 AM
Re: Swine 'flu - first death in US
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Administrator
Registered: Sun Dec 19 1999
Posts: 38005
Loc: Jersey
Channel Islands
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We might be a tiny island but it might already be here. A family have been placed in quarantine in their home and are not permitted to leave it until Tuesday. Some staff at a bank where one of the adults works have been given Tamiflu.
A statement will be made tomorrow morning.
In the meantime the Public Health Department have started distributing Tamiflu to all the GP practices so that doctors can give it without delay.
In the next few days every address will receive a leaflet and a forehead temperature strip.
The instruction to people here is that if they suspect that they might have this flu then they must stay at home, phone the doctor for an urgent home visit. What will happen in places where doctors don't make house calls? Will people spread the virus because they need to leave their home to seek treatment?
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Many a child has been spoiled because you can't spank a Grandma!
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#469642 - Wed Apr 29 2009 12:22 PM
Re: Swine 'flu - first death in US
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Enthusiast
Registered: Fri Feb 13 2009
Posts: 292
Loc: New York USA
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Quote:
Will people spread the virus because they need to leave their home to seek treatment?
That's something that concerns me a lot here in NYC. Without home visits, people going to the hospital are exposing the poor cab drivers, among others. But I know if one of us starts getting sick, that's what I'm going to be doing (heading for the hospital). I have asthma, so no messing around! 
They've quarantined kids from the school that had the outbreak here and think they have it contained, but it only takes one to stray. Thankfully, it seems like the version of the flu that we have is milder than the one in Mexico.
I hope all of you stay well and this things peters out with no more deaths!
Y
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#469643 - Wed Apr 29 2009 12:33 PM
Re: Swine 'flu - first death in US
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Champion Poster
Registered: Sun Oct 05 2003
Posts: 24575
Loc: near Stafford, Virginia USA
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The toddler that died came from Mexico to Houston. That story is here, and the WHO is moving closer to saying it's a pandemic. Story here.
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#469644 - Wed Apr 29 2009 12:34 PM
Re: Swine 'flu - first death in US
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Administrator
Registered: Sun Dec 19 1999
Posts: 38005
Loc: Jersey
Channel Islands
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There is a school in Devon, in the town where I will be going on holiday in October, which has had one case, they have shut the school. Presumably the same school to which the children of the owners of my hotel attend.
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Many a child has been spoiled because you can't spank a Grandma!
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#469645 - Wed Apr 29 2009 12:53 PM
Re: Swine 'flu - first death in US
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Forum Adept
Registered: Wed Apr 29 2009
Posts: 145
Loc: Texas USA
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i live in East Texas and all the area hospitals are on high alert.
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no matter where you go,there you are
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#469646 - Wed Apr 29 2009 03:23 PM
Re: Swine 'flu - first death in US
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Mainstay
Registered: Thu Jan 04 2007
Posts: 957
Loc: Gloucestershire UK
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WHO has raised the alert level. Now up to level 5 (of six)
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#469647 - Wed Apr 29 2009 04:04 PM
Re: Swine 'flu - first death in US
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Enthusiast
Registered: Wed Feb 25 2009
Posts: 348
Loc: Texas USA
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Four schools in Fort Worth,Texas are closed and all schools in Cleburne,Texas are closed.Cleburne has four cases of the flu.They are also asking the day care centers to close.
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Love all,trust a few,do wrong to none.
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#469649 - Wed Apr 29 2009 09:29 PM
Re: Swine 'flu - first death in US
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Enthusiast
Registered: Fri Feb 13 2009
Posts: 292
Loc: New York USA
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Quote:
best not to visit with a cold people!
My mother had a cold this weekend and at first I was a little panicky. It's not the time to have a cold, for sure. Thankfully, we're sure that's what it was. She's better now.
Y
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#469650 - Thu Apr 30 2009 04:53 AM
Re: Swine 'flu - first death in US
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Administrator
Registered: Sun Dec 19 1999
Posts: 38005
Loc: Jersey
Channel Islands
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One person has tested negative locally, four more are still being tested, that is two more than yesterday.
I am hoping that my own doctor and family are not in the suspect group, he returned to Jersey either this past weekend or the weekend before depending on whether he went for two or three weeks. He didn't want to go to Mexico anyway so if he has picked up a flu bug he is not going to be a happy bunny.
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Many a child has been spoiled because you can't spank a Grandma!
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#469652 - Thu Apr 30 2009 04:15 PM
Re: Swine 'flu - first death in US
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Explorer
Registered: Thu Mar 19 2009
Posts: 84
Loc: Auckland NZ
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The most frustrating thing about this is that I have had a cold since before the pandemic started - we know that the flu entered NZ on the Fri/Sat when a particular flight arrived, and I have had mine since before that. Unfortunately, I can't really wear a sign saying "I Don't Have Swine Flu", and so everyone gives me the evil eye whenever I cough or sneeze.
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#469653 - Thu Apr 30 2009 04:18 PM
Re: Swine 'flu - first death in US
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Multiloquent
Registered: Wed Apr 11 2001
Posts: 4224
Loc: Texas USA
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I know the flu is nothing to be sneezed at - pun is not intended. However, is the media beginning to blow this all out of proportion? One death in a country of 300 million people, the US. Many, many more have died this year as a result of the "ordinary" flu. Why then, are some people beginning to panic? This, from March, 2009 , before "swine flu" was so overblown.
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If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep.
-Dale Carnegie
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#469654 - Thu Apr 30 2009 04:30 PM
Re: Swine 'flu - first death in US
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Administrator
Registered: Sun Dec 19 1999
Posts: 38005
Loc: Jersey
Channel Islands
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The difference here is that a particular strain is being scattered across the world, a possible pandemic, and the normal seasonal flu season is really at an end. Also the WHO being involved makes this one different, perhaps the pandemic which we have been told will hit us within the next few years.
A while back our MOH here in the island estimated that if a pandemic hits then probably 50% of our population will be affected. For me it really will be bad news if I catch it, I live alone so have no one to care for me, to shop or prepare food (if I can eat) and drinks. I am diabetic and have cardiac issues, it is really quite scary should I become ill. Not eating or drinking enough will seriously affect the way my medication works. I will be at risk.
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Many a child has been spoiled because you can't spank a Grandma!
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#469655 - Thu Apr 30 2009 04:50 PM
Re: Swine 'flu - first death in US
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Multiloquent
Registered: Wed Apr 11 2001
Posts: 4224
Loc: Texas USA
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I do understand Sue. I too am high risk according to my pulmonologist. My asthma is affected simply by the humidity. And I certainly would not want anyone (especially you!) to become ill. I do believe, though, that while we are all at risk, the media is just beating this into the ground. What happens if it becomes like the weather -- "I'll believe the weatherman when it starts raining!" There are so many scares that people stop believing it will really happen. It just seems to me the media can over-do and people will either panic or become immune to the ferver. When WHO does issue that Pandemic Warning, will people believe?
I hope that on an island such as Jersey the flu could be contained. Have they ever cut off travel to and from the island?
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If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep.
-Dale Carnegie
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#469656 - Thu Apr 30 2009 05:07 PM
Re: Swine 'flu - first death in US
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Administrator
Registered: Sun Dec 19 1999
Posts: 38005
Loc: Jersey
Channel Islands
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Only during WWII when the islands were occupied by Germany. During the latter part of the war nothing was getting into the islands and people were virtually starving. We import most of our food. It isn't just the media, the WHO and the various health authorities are gearing up for something big. In the UK and here every home will be sent instructions within the next week, and certainly here we are going to be sent a forehead strip to see if we have a fever. Our doctors,locally, have been issued with protective clothing and a supply of Tamiflu already. Having said that, I can remember back in the early 70s we were issued with petrol ration books as there was the threat of a shortage of petrol. 
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Many a child has been spoiled because you can't spank a Grandma!
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#469658 - Thu Apr 30 2009 08:26 PM
Re: Swine 'flu - first death in US
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Multiloquent
Registered: Tue Dec 28 2004
Posts: 2813
Loc: Hertfordshire<br>England UK
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About three years ago Asian bird flu was about to sweep across the world, with at least 50,000 deaths in Britain alone, and possibly as many as 750,000, according to the government chief medical officer. It didn't happen, and the number of bird flu deaths worldwide was numbered in 100s. Other reported pandemics would cause zillions of deaths we were informed, but they rarely happen. Aids is probably still the biggest problem for the human race, but rarely makes the headlines nowadays. Swine flu is potentially serious, but let's not over react - yet 
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#469659 - Fri May 01 2009 02:55 AM
Re: Swine 'flu - first death in US
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Enthusiast
Registered: Fri Feb 13 2009
Posts: 292
Loc: New York USA
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Quote:
Swine flu is potentially serious, but let's not over react - yet
Yes - and let's hope it stays that way. But I am not horribly worried. The hysteria that I hear here - school closings, etc. - really seems to be media driven. We certainly want the media to let us know if there are threats, but NBC, CNN, Fox and other news outlets - as well as the nightly newscasts - have covered story after story about precautions and symptoms and various levels of fear and dread, so that you might suspect the world is going to end. I don't mean to dismiss the deaths that have happened - they are tragic - but there are schools being closed, people changing trip plans and so on - one story I saw asked the ridiculous question "Is this the new Black Death"! When I look at these over-reactions, I wonder if there are many people left who have level heads and can recognize exaggeration when they see it in the media. 
Except, of course, those on this list who, I'm sure, resist exaggeration on every level
Y 
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#469660 - Fri May 01 2009 11:40 AM
Re: Swine 'flu - first death in US
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Enthusiast
Registered: Tue Oct 14 2008
Posts: 301
Loc: Florida USA
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Quote:
There is a school in Devon, in the town where I will be going on holiday in October, which has had one case, they have shut the school. Presumably the same school to which the children of the owners of my hotel attend.
I have a friend from there. Thank the lord he is out of school and has moved away. His mother teaches school there, so that's not good.
Quote:
Why then, are some people beginning to panic?
There was a big flu epidemic in 1918, I believe, in America. You can go to almost any old graveyard and find plenty of graves from 1918, where a bunch of people - families - who all died within a week of each other. Reason enough to be alarmed, but I think people are a little TOO paranoid right now, personally. No offense.
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#469661 - Fri May 01 2009 02:41 PM
Re: Swine 'flu - first death in US
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Enthusiast
Registered: Fri Feb 13 2009
Posts: 292
Loc: New York USA
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Quote:
There is a school in Devon, in the town where I will be going on holiday in October, which has had one case, they have shut the school. Presumably the same school to which the children of the owners of my hotel attend.
Closing schools with outbreaks makes complete sense - they did that here in New York with the one school that had an outbreak. I guess they're well-meaning, but there does seem like a lot of media hyperbole which serves to make people afraid for the sake of ad revenues.
The 1918 flu is always the touchstone for fear about pandemics - for good reason. My grandfather was returning from WWI and got held up because of quarantine. Quarantines then made sense and were absolutely necessary. The flu that's going around right now is mild in comparison. It's good that they're watching it, but the media here has hyped it a lot - almost to the point of the ridiculous.
What is the media coverage like in other parts of the world?
Y
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#469663 - Tue Nov 24 2009 10:50 AM
Re: Swine 'flu - first death in US
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Learning the ropes...
Registered: Tue Nov 24 2009
Posts: 2
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Personally I don't know what the big scare was or is with the swine flu. It seems to have died down a bit now in the UK. It was madness a couple of months ago. I did get the swine flu for a few days and didn't find it that bad so I don't really understand how people are dieing from it. Bowtrol
Edited by joem88 (Sun Jan 17 2010 12:38 PM)
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#469664 - Tue Nov 24 2009 11:10 AM
Re: Swine 'flu - first death in US
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Administrator
Registered: Sun Dec 19 1999
Posts: 38005
Loc: Jersey
Channel Islands
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Swine flu is escalating here. I am having my vaccination this evening as I am in a high risk group.
You might have only had a mild case but that isn't the same for everyone and many people with underlying health problems are in hospital.
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Many a child has been spoiled because you can't spank a Grandma!
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