[rustyme]

an update on swine flu matters.... Here in Wales a very rural part , you would think it would be pretty safe from SF. Not so . A little boy has it in New Quay , some 12 miles from me . He goes to a playschool there and one of the other kids who had contact with him , is my niece and nephews half sister. My nephew was there visiting his dad before they knew anything about the boy . So goes to show how fast it can spread  . He , my nephew , has two kids of his own , who were also there with him , and he works in a care home . His half sister is on Tamiflu , but has no symptoms so far . The current thinking by all of the experts is that 50% of the population will become infected by the end of the year , and that 40% of the work force will get it. They still have no idea if it will change from a mildish type to a more nasty one.  However , they are putting in place, all over the country  (UK) , tamiflu pickup points .


cheers

Russ

[Rosemary]

We've had smattering locally - probably not helped by the infected couple ignoring quarantine and swanning round the village. Scotland seems to have a higher proportion of cases.

[rustyme]

yes ...Wales and England have been sending their cases up to Scotland ....

[carl]

We have it too...  The junior part of my sons school has a victim, so we are all waiting to see if it moves through siblings and friends down to the infants, which is 1/2 a mile away. I suppose it is beneficial to get a small dose of it and build up resistance but as an asthmatic I don't need to take that risk. My doctor says I am on the list for immunisation in september along with a pneumonia jab. Makes you a bit xenophobic about foriegn travel.

[CarraghsBorderCollies]

i havent heard of any cases in my area, i hope it stays that way!

[sandy]

I had avion flu back in the late 60's and was hospital for 8 weeks!!! Hope I don't get the pig version...they are much bigger

[rustyme]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8121292.stm

below is what the bbc put on their news web site on 26/06/09, the link to which is above.

Swine flu cases soar in England 
 
The government hopes to provide anti-flu drugs for 80% of the population
The number of confirmed swine flu cases in England has jumped by nearly 20% in a single day, latest figures show.

The Health Protection Agency statistics show that 535 new cases were confirmed on Friday, bringing the total to 3,364.

Scotland registered another 72 cases on Friday, an 8.5% rise, bringing the total to 922, and a 25th case was confirmed in Northern Ireland.

With 12 cases confirmed in Wales, the total number of confirmed UK cases now stands at 4,323.

Sir Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer for England, warned on Thursday that the UK could soon expect to see a surge of new cases.

He predicted tens of thousands of cases of swine flu could be emerging each week by the autumn.

The West Midlands remains the most badly affected area of England, with 158 new cases confirmed on Friday, bringing the total to 1,516.

Some hospitals in that region have created triage areas to cope with complaints of symptoms.

London is the other swine flu "hotspot" in England, recording 225 new cases on Friday, taking the total to 985.

Change of policy

Officials in both areas announced on Thursday they had abandoned attempts to contain spread of the virus, instead opting for a policy of managing the outbreak.

The containment policy involved trying to ring-fence outbreaks by tracing the people with whom confirmed cases have come into contact and giving them drugs to try to prevent flu developing.

This approach has also involved the closure of several schools.

But once the virus starts to spread freely in a community that policy becomes impractical.

At this stage, anti-viral drugs are only given to those people showing symptoms, and tracing of contacts is abandoned.

The practice of waiting for laboratory confirmation of new cases is also scrapped in favour of clinical diagnosis based on symptoms.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "The cases of swine flu found in the UK have so far been generally mild in most people, but are proving to be severe in a small minority of cases.

"We are continuing to work to slow the spread of the disease and to put in place arrangements to ensure that the UK is well-placed to deal with this new infection."

Sir Liam said on Thursday that the UK was likely to receive its first batches of swine flu vaccine in August, rather than in the autumn as first expected.

The government has contracts with two manufacturers for 132m doses - enough for the whole population.
 

[sausagesandcash]

The Irish government has also put safety measures in place, current advice is not to breath. The reakon it'll kill off swine flu and dramatically shorten the ever lengthening dole queues.

[doganjo]

 

[sellickbhoy]

Rustyme

yo really need to relax, there is no conspiracy, the world is not about to end, just relax - i'm convinced you believe the worlds governments are out to get us - but they ain't that bright!

[rustyme]

errr remind me .. didn't you also think I was dying or going to top myself before ..?       I am relaxed mate .... any wobblies I may throw , actually take up about ten minutes or so, of my day . The rest of the time I am just doing whatever I want to do ...growing veg , making something , walking my dogs whatever. I do not walk around thinking that the world is going to end or that the EU is going to control every part of my life , I really don't think about it at all , to many other things on my mind . I read about it and then comment on things , but it is only a very small part of my life. I am much more interested in growing my veg or propagating and growing reed for my water filter system . Thanks for the concern mate , but there is no need , really , there isn't . I am so laid back I am almost asleep most of the time. Just for ten minutes now and then I may comment on something that I read and then I forget about it , till I read some more the next day , week or even months later.


cheers

Russ

[sandy]

It's only another strain of flu!!!!! 

[rustyme]

well not really , it is a stain of flu that we (humans) , have no resistance to , unlike the normal stains that come around most years.  So far we have been lucky in that it has been very mild , but the reason they are worried, is that so was the 1918 flu which was very similar, and that was around in the spring as a mild flu (like this one now ) and then came back in the autumn and killed 20 million . The reason I am concerned about it and follow what is going on , is I had Hong Kong in 1969 and very nearly died . I get very mild forms of normal flu , but the rogue ones seem to get me every few years . My nephews little 3 year old half sister  only has one kidney , so this form of flu , which attacks humans in a different way to normal flu , can be fatal to someone like her. The reason I have to watch it, is my immune system is very strong . In normal circumstances thats a good thing . Not with this flu . This flu makes your immune system attack the body , thats why it sort of attacks the reverse type of people to normal flu . Normal flu attacks the old , the very young and the sick . This one attacks the healthy ones in between  , in the main.  Now although I am watching what is going on with swine flu , and I keep up to date with it all , I am not panicking or sealing  myself in some sort of hermetically sealed container. I am living my life perfectly normally , speaking to people as normal , going where I normally go ( although I do spray everybody with domestos now  , and the Tazer I just carry in case )... Oh and the huge hole I have dug is for ...eeeeerrrr a pond thats it a pond , not a burial pit ...anyway must go , there is another delivery of domestos just arrived and I have to put away the new bio/chemical suits too, and then check the seal on the new bio/chemical container .

cheers

Russ

[sandy]

I slept for weeks with the flu of 1969 as I was so weak, I was in hospital for 6 of them, and did not reaturn to work for months, my Dr lost a daughter with it and some famous singer died of it, forgot her name so I know what I am talking about, it is hard to avoid though. I have some idea as we keep a B&B and I have not caught anything for nearly 3 years of running it but I know as soon as I go in to clean someones room I can react with sneezing as if I am getting a bug, I open the windows and do not go back in for a while, sometimes taking quilt covers out of the room to change them and funnily enough my runny nose etc goes, the only reason I am saying this is I have worked in care previously and wow, how quick things spread, I had the most horrendous cold after starting a mainly office based job where people had colds, I think if we work inside confined spaces or with vulnerable people, we need loads of fresh air to help your lungs to ventilate, I am amazed at how quickly we pick up things on public transport, fingers crossed X

[rustyme]

yes thats right Sandy things do spread very fast . Round here at the moment it is measles and mumps. When little kids first go to school, they go down with everything known to man in a very short time . Also as you say , working in offices you get everything that comes around , same in factories. Being like I am , outside and mainly without too much contact with loads of people , I miss many colds and flu's and other viruses that go around , but the other side to that coin is I don't build up a resistance to them either. As you say ... fingers crossed .... must go and put the next row of razor wire up now....


cheers

Russ