Flu or a State of Fear

[pmapp]

Originally Posted by Baph

Symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Some people get diarrhea and vomiting too.

Uh oh, that's me on my last legs then. It's been nice knowing you all.

I was sick of hearing about it three days ago before the media Blitz started. I'm trying to contract it now so I don't have to listen to the hysteria any more!

... actually, I'm working alone in an abandoned shipyard in Scotland at the moment and I thought " Well, there's not a lot of chance of me getting it here" until I went to the chip shop at lunch time yesterday. There was a contractor there that was working on someone's house that had just returned from... Cancun! Doh!

I'll let you know if I grow trotters!

C

[Biker Biggles]

Media panic.Dont they just love it?

I guess it's not this flu virus that we should worry about but the next one...when everyone with a sniffle demands tamiflu, 33 million doses get handed out, the virus mutates and becomes resistant to the vaccine...

Originally Posted by Tris

To me that all sounds like "normal" flu which knocked me flat just after Christmas - but I'm an Enginner so what do I know

I wonder how many of us popped our clogs due to normal flu last year
I am certain the number dying from man flu will be significantly higher of course

Ah, but Influena A (H2N2) is expected in winter. That's the common flu virus (with the same symptoms as H5N1 - swine flu).

In the middle of summer, you're not that likely to get any type of influenza, unless you spend a lot of time around Seals near the North Pole - and then it's going to be Influenza B.

Basically, if you get all of the above symptoms, and you live near a pig farm, go to your GP if you're worried. If you don't live near pigs, the disease cannot be caught from dead meat (only the living animal/person). The caveat to that is obviously to ensure pork is properly cooked etc - if it's not & you eat it well, you'll probably get ill, but I doubt that'll be flu.

Why do I know so much about all this? Well, Jen gets paranoid at the slightest thing, and the youngest is a little lathargic. So I did my research so that I could stop the panic fest.

[Spiderman]

Were all gonna die. Simple.

Originally Posted by eviltwin

I guess it's not this flu virus that we should worry about but the next one...when everyone with a sniffle demands tamiflu, 33 million doses get handed out, the virus mutates and becomes resistant to the vaccine...

It's ok we are already working on a new specific vaccine.

ive got the swine flu

least, i have matching symptoms

The flu is a big killer of people every year in this country

as for swine flu i would like to see the details for them that have died in Mexico probably the old and infirm