If you're in NE IL, IN, MO and especially NC, rush to the Emergency Dept.. Tell all your friends to go too. (happily, I work for the ED's from a remote location... but the more volume, the better for me... I get paid per patient. heh heh) Seriously tho', it has the potential to be bad but nobody knows if it will be. We should be prepared for some sort of pandemic (eventually) but don't worry about it too much. Worrying won't help at all. I also think folks should think twice before willy nilly taking drugs like tamiflu.
Just leaving a lab director's office at the largest hospital in Western Kentucky... infectious disease control nurse walks in while I'm there and asks him to order a bunch more flu kits... It may be a very good quarter. Can you say "travel trailer"? No more tent camping in Colorado! :d
ya, well, i'm not real concerned about the rest of the world... :evil: edit to add - 1 case reported in Lake County IL, also one in each of DuPage, Cook, and Kane counties as well... 9 others have been taken in for testing with no word on whether or not they are infected...
Well its official, its here in Wisconsin, in Milwaukee and the central part of the state! There are Schools are closed that are with in 2 miles of my house!
I thought I heard them say on the news tonight that the 'regular' flu kills 30-40K people in the US alone every year..... There are some things that are kinda scary about this strain of flu, but overall, I think the media is really hyping things up....
The company I work for is the largest pure hospital lab distribution company in America... and we've got a conference call at 4 p.m. today to discuss the state of flu kit inventory in the country; looks like a lot of it is already starting to go on allocation and backorder status... As of 11:00 AM ET on April 29, 2009, CDC has confirmed 91 human cases of swine flu in 10 states and 1 death: Arizona: 1 California: 14 Indiana: 1 Kansas: 2 Massachusetts: 2 Michigan: 2 Nevada: 1 New York: 51 Ohio: 1 Texas: 16 (1 death)
Add MN to that list Greg! Email from Saint Cloud State University: According to the Minnesota Department of Health, testing by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed the state’s first case of H1N1 novel influenza virus, also known as “swine flu.” The patient has not been identified, but is said to have ties to the Rocori Middle School in Cold Spring. That school, as well as neighboring St. Boniface School, is closed until at least next Tuesday. At this time, this is the only case of the H1N1 virus to be confirmed in Minnesota. Gov. Tim Pawlenty, speaking this morning in Cold Spring, said: "I want to remind Minnesotans – this situation is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic." State health officials recommend that unless changes occur and more cases are confirmed, individuals who have not been exposed to the disease by direct contact with persons who have been in Mexico, Imperial or San Diego counties in California, San Antonio, Texas, the New York City area (Bronx/Queens), or had direct contact with the confirmed flu patient in Cold Spring may go about their business as usual. The university continues to monitor closely all information available concerning this situation and recommends observing routine public health guidelines for preventing the spread of flu. Information is continuously being updated on the St. Cloud State Web site: http://www.stcloudstate.edu Dr. Brent Nielsen Medical Director Health Services
We have two cases in our County alone, it is within a half hour of my home. I have been off work since yesterday but apparently we had some employees that couldn't come in because of schools being closed. It this that much worse than the regular strain of flu??
What I am confused of, isn't it treatable just like the regular flu? Like, if you catch this bug would you not just go to the doctor as always, find out you have a new kind of flu, take the prescribed meds, and get better?
I believe so but the problem, as I understand it, is you can be contagious for a number of days before you show sysmtoms and go to the doctor. By that time you could infect small children or old folks and they are the ones that are at high risk. A healthy young adult probably could get by with out any medicine but if a person has any unknown underlying health isssues, or even known health issues, then the problems caused by the flu become very big. Flu is a big deal because it wreaks havoc on the very young, the very old and people that are not robust and healthy and that happens to be a whole lot of people. I have a 7 year old daughter and an 80 year old father. The flu wouldn't be nice to either of them.
