Swine Flu

[Bodicifer]

Where have all the nuff nuffs gone who were spruiking how devastating this pig flu thing was going to be and how it was going to kill millions and destroy the world Are they in bed sick with the flu or something?

 

[Atavistic]

I heard on Lateline last night that the Federal Government might forego human trials and rollout the vaccines asap if the situation worsens greatly.

Untested vaccines? NO thanks.

 

[Freo Big Fella]

A friend of mine was recently quarantined in Beijing - apparently the way the Chinese are treating anyone infected is pretty ordinday.

 

[Geelong_Sicko]

A friend of mine was recently quarantined in Beijing - apparently the way the Chinese are treating anyone infected is pretty ordinday.

What do they do, just put 'em in a room and keep the door shut/locked? Yeah, I'd hate to be quarantined over there. Only just missed that kind of bullshit with the SARS outbreak a while back when I was going to Mexico via Japan and Vancouver. I thing they started getting infected passengers a matter of days after I went through.

 

[Chops_a_must]

What do they do, just put 'em in a room and keep the door shut/locked?

Nope. Charge them with stealing a state secret - the swine flu.

 

[Eagle87]

A friend of mine was recently quarantined in Beijing - apparently the way the Chinese are treating anyone infected is pretty ordinday.

Its actually interesting watching the Chinese tourists coming through Bangkok (and a large number of the Japanese and Koreans), ALL wearing their masks and in many cases also wearing gloves!! Like surgical gloves.

Really enjoying their holiday.

There does seem to be even greater paranoia in some of those places than in the West.

 

[Eagle87]

I heard on Lateline last night that the Federal Government might forego human trials and rollout the vaccines asap if the situation worsens greatly.

Untested vaccines? NO thanks.

Yep, the Thai government announced today that 2.1 million vaccinations will be available next week or two for "high risk" people in Thailand - these are health care workers and senior executives confused...

And in the announcement, he noted, "just like the rest of the world we have to agree to no recourse against the company that developed the vaccine" WTF???

 

[Geelong_Sicko]

Nope. Charge them with stealing a state secret - the swine flu.

Heh. Wouldn't surprise me if it was a Chinese bio-weapon. Wouldn't surprise me at all.

 

[Freo Big Fella]

What do they do, just put 'em in a room and keep the door shut/locked? Yeah, I'd hate to be quarantined over there. Only just missed that kind of bullshit with the SARS outbreak a while back when I was going to Mexico via Japan and Vancouver. I thing they started getting infected passengers a matter of days after I went through.

That's basically it - if you tested positive you got locked in a room with a bed and a toilet and left there till you recovered. Meals passed through the door, no TV/Papers/any form of access to the outside world.

They were basically chucked on a bus in the middle of the night, driven out into a medical facility in the back of beyond somewhere and treated like criminals. Our consulate said it was "standard procedure" and basically said there was nothing they could do.

 

[campbell]

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25800762-3102,00.html

Seems Qld has the most cases. I know its putting immense pressure on Emergency Departments.
I like that we are being cautious about a vaccine.

 

[rdhopkins2]

Sad news yesterday with a mother giving birth shortly before dying from complications of swine flu.

 

[campbell]

Sad news yesterday with a mother giving birth shortly before dying from complications of swine flu.

very sad.

 

[Geelong_Sicko]

The baby wouldn't be affected by its mother's illness would it?

 

[Chops_a_must]

The baby wouldn't be affected by its mother's illness would it?

Turned out to be a piglet.

 

[rdhopkins2]

LOL bit harsh.

Bit like AIDS / other viruses where the baby doesn't necessarily carry it. Reports I've heard suggest the baby doesn't have it.

 

[Dry Rot]

A Prediction re economic fallout of swine flu in the UK - Ernst & Young report

Swine flu threatens deflation slump, Ernst & Young ITEM Club report warns

Britain risks sliding into a long deflationary recession if the H1N1 swine flu pandemic develops along lines predicted by the Government, according to the Ernst & Young ITEM Club report today.

By Angela Monaghan and Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Published: 11:29PM BST 19 Jul 2009
The group said a pandemic reaching 100,00 cases a day by August, and lasting six months, would lead to a 7.5pc fall in GDP this year. The lingering damage would cause a further fall of 1.2pc next year.
"With the western world still teetering on the brink of deflation it is not an exaggeration to say that a pandemic on this scale could tip it over the edge," it said.

The figures are based on projections made by Sir Liam Donaldson, the Government's chief medical officer. The report assumes that infections will ultimately reach 50pc, with a mortality rate of 0.4pc. Most of spread will occur before a vaccine is ready. "Sir Liam is an expert on pandemics. We think his advice should be taken very seriously," said the report.
"The main effect on the supply side will be that sick employees cannot go to work. On the demand side, spending on discretionary goods and services such as restaurants or tourism is likely to fall as people stay away from public places to avoid infection. Uncertainty about these developments is likely to make businesses further postpone investment projects," it said....

The Ernst & Young report works from the assumption that virus remains mild with a low death toll....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...p-Ernst-and-Young-ITEM-Club-report-warns.html

 

[Eastern Rangers]

The baby wouldn't be affected by its mother's illness would it?

It would have immunity, the mother would have died of complications directly relating to the pregnancy brought on by the flu. On the very rare occasions flu's do have fatal consequences for some woman during child birth.

On the subject of swine flu ive had fever, cough, stuffy nose, achy body, muscle pain, stomach pain, sore throat, headache, diarrhea and vomiting. So im pretty sure ive had swine flu as the chances of it being a Gastric Flu are now pretty slime.

Just coming down from it at the moment, the cough is really killer. The worst aspect is the body aches and pains, still got them but they where really intense. As far as the "im going to die fever and headaches" ive had worse when i was in primary school.

 

[campbell]

http://www.theage.com.au/national/pregnant-women-urged-to-show-swine-flu-caution-20090721-drs0.html


sad stuff.
The risk man stuff, on hand hygeine is so so important imo.

I have alco wipes I use on door handles, even at home. alco hand wash stuff in rooms, bedrooms etc. It works.

 

[BomberGal]

no reason for the personal attack imo.

Bombergal and I are totally different in the health field, there fore have different ideas and data we work with.

I am a Clinical Nurse, she is a Lab Tech. Totally different.

Actually she's a qualified scientist who does biomedical research, no tech work involved, but thanks for your input.

 

[Eagle87]

Actually she's a qualified scientist who does biomedical research, no tech work involved, but thanks for your input.

Any signs of the virus mutating in any dangerous ways?

Just wanting to check when I need to start "zombie proofing" my house.

 

[campbell]

Actually she's a qualified scientist who does biomedical research, no tech work involved, but thanks for your input.

except. in one of your posts this year you said you were a lab tech. Thats why I said that. A research scientist and a clinician are chalk and cheese in this discussion, and I assume people do realise the difference is huge. One is in a lab doing research, the other is in the wards working daily with treating the actual patients with up to date evidence based practice. research is terrific, but is not practiced daily, its for things in the future. without research we are screwed.
what research are you doing actually? Glad you are a scientist, Good luck to you in your career.

 

[BomberGal]

except. in one of your posts this year you said you were a lab tech. Thats why I said that. A research scientist and a clinician are chalk and cheese in this discussion, and I assume people do realise the difference is huge. One is in a lab doing research, the other is in the wards working daily with treating the actual patients with up to date evidence based practice. research is terrific, but is not practiced daily, its for things in the future. without research we are screwed.
what research are you doing actually? Glad you are a scientist, Good luck to you in your career.

Find the post where I said I'm a 'lab tech' and I'll do any public (BF) dare you name. My correct title is actually on my profile if you care to look, but you should probably look up the title if you do not understand what it means. Hint, I am not assisting anybody. As for what I'm doing at the moment, I research a few genes which are candidates for causing certain skeletal defects in children, attempting to understand where in the biochemical pathways they fit in. Actually would really love to get into a cancer field. But it's not relevant really so I won't continue that here...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've always understood clinician to mean one has a medical degree.

Scientists must constantly be up to date with literature, and as a biologist my own background in how a virus works must clearly be at least solid. Your expertise in dealing with patients is one thing, but it doesn't make you equipped to discuss why a virus will or won't mutate, or what it is about this type that makes it more or less dangerous. I'm no expert either but to suggest research is "not practised daily" seems to imply you are ignoring the vast amount of scientific knowledge one must understand first. At any rate, I was perfectly capable of reading the literature available on PubMed which goes into a lot of depth, at the molecular level, on the issues with swine flu - and there really is no reason to be alarmist.

Neither of us are virologists, and I can't make any grand claims about swine flu that anyone should trust over a specialist, but dealing with patients and being aware of treatments is nothing to do with the genetic potential of a virus. You are just as free as me to research the literature, but you know your own capacity to understand the molecular detail or the medical applications of this, so if you are going to do this, please only discuss it here honestly and sensibly. Alarm really will never help anyone.

 

[Dry Rot]

Any signs of the virus mutating in any dangerous ways?

Just wanting to check when I need to start "zombie proofing" my house.

Dunno about dangerous, but this isn't helpful

Quebec man caught drug-resistant swine flu
Last Updated: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 | 4:22 PM ET Comments5Recommend9
CBC News
A 60-year-old Quebec man is one of a handful of people around the world to catch a strain of swine flu that is resistant to drugs.

Health officials said the man likely contracted the virus from his son and did not require hospital treatment.

Canada's lead researchers are trying to find out more about what this means for the effectiveness of millions of doses of stockpiled antiviral drugs.

Dr. Guy Boivin, Canada Research Chair on emerging viruses and antiviral resistance in Quebec City, said Tuesday the new strains of drug-resistant swine flu raise a red flag but should not scare anyone.

“We know the exact, specific mutation, and this is a mutation that has been reported before in human viruses that were resistant to Tamiflu, so it's not totally unexpected,” said Boivin.

Boivin said he suspects the Quebec father was already infected when he was given a low preventive dose of the antiviral drug Tamiflu. Boivin suspected the father’s virus adapted to the drug at that point, becoming resistant.

Never in hospital

Boivin said the good news is that the father recovered well and was never taken to hospital. He said the next step is to find out how quickly the drug-resistant strain reproduces, and whether it's more potent and dangerous.

“We are using a lot of Tamiflu since [the] beginning of the pandemic, so using more antivirals probably means there is more chance of developing resistances,” Boivin said.

He said he'd also like to see a greater variety of antiviral drugs on the market, in case more people develop or contract a drug-resistant swine flu.

There are only two antiviral drugs currently available, and Tamiflu makes up 80 per cent of the 50 million doses reserved for Canadians.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2009/07/21/montreal-quebec-man-swine-flu-drug-resistant.html

Bits in bold are more of a worry

Hong Kong Tamiflu Resistant Pandemic Sequence Released
Recombinomics Commentary 06:57
July 7, 2009

The NA sequence from the Hong Kong teenager with oseltamivir Tamiflu resistance, A/Hong Kong/2369/2009, has been released. The sequence is clearly that of pandemic H1N1 and exactly matches (other than H274Y) the sequence of an earlier isolate A/New Jersey/1/2009. Similarly, the HA sequence is also swine and has two recently acquired polymorphisms, one of which is also in New Jersey/1/2009. Thus this sequence is in circulation and as was seen in the isolates in Denmark and Japan, the H274Y is appended onto a swine H1N1 background.

These results mimic that seen in seasonal flu, where H274Y was appended onto multiple seasonal flu background. The polymorphisms jumped from one background to the next, via genetic hitchhiking and recombination. Thus like seasonal flu, the pandemic H1N1 has no evidence of reassortment. The H274Y is on an evolutionarily fit H1N1 that will allow the H274Y to move about through the pandemic H1N1 gene pool. This movement will be facilitated by widespread Tamiflu usage, which will select minor populations as happened in Denmark and Japan, where H274Y was identified in patients receiving a maintenance dose of Tamiflu.

However, in Hong Kong, like the many examples of H274Y in H1N1 seasonal flu, the resistance is in patients not receiving Tamiflu. However, the lessons of H274Y in seasonal flu were not learned. Recent comments have described H274Y acquisitions through random mutation and reassortment. However, there has been no examples of recent seasonal H1N1 flu genes in the pandemic H1N1 sequences, and the H274Y in patients receiving Tamiflu likely represent selection of a minor population with H274Y that is silently spread. The release of the sequences from Denmark and Japan would be useful.

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/07070901/H274Y_HK_Seq.html

 

[campbell]

Find the post where I said I'm a 'lab tech' and I'll do any public (BF) dare you name. My correct title is actually on my profile if you care to look, but you should probably look up the title if you do not understand what it means. Hint, I am not assisting anybody. As for what I'm doing at the moment, I research a few genes which are candidates for causing certain skeletal defects in children, attempting to understand where in the biochemical pathways they fit in. Actually would really love to get into a cancer field. But it's not relevant really so I won't continue that here...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've always understood clinician to mean one has a medical degree.

Scientists must constantly be up to date with literature, and as a biologist my own background in how a virus works must clearly be at least solid. Your expertise in dealing with patients is one thing, but it doesn't make you equipped to discuss why a virus will or won't mutate, or what it is about this type that makes it more or less dangerous. I'm no expert either but to suggest research is "not practised daily" seems to imply you are ignoring the vast amount of scientific knowledge one must understand first. At any rate, I was perfectly capable of reading the literature available on PubMed which goes into a lot of depth, at the molecular level, on the issues with swine flu - and there really is no reason to be alarmist.

Neither of us are virologists, and I can't make any grand claims about swine flu that anyone should trust over a specialist, but dealing with patients and being aware of treatments is nothing to do with the genetic potential of a virus. You are just as free as me to research the literature, but you know your own capacity to understand the molecular detail or the medical applications of this, so if you are going to do this, please only discuss it here honestly and sensibly. Alarm really will never help anyone.

no. nurses are called clinicians as well. a job for one below. hope this helps.
http://mycareer.com.au/jobs/singapo...n+work+in+singapore.aspx?style=enhanced&s=501

 

[Dry Rot]

Just been closely exposed over the last few days to a swine flu infected friend. Had already given her a Dry Rot survival pack and she's doing all right now using it.

Have dodged 2 bullets so far with exposure to infected folk - the last one was a bloke I worked with that declined right in front of eyes at work - was ****ed when he went home. Hopefully can dodge this third one too using my Vitamin D theories.

Both of them reckon it's something to avoid if you can.