Oh oh. Swine Flu!

FluffyMcDeath

FluffyMcDeath

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While things seem mostly to have quietened down, the H1N1 is still percolating away.

Now it seems that we have a pocket of high transmission in Manitoba's First Nation communities.

26 people are on respirators with an average age of 35. High transmission rates like this tend to lead to higher lethality in viruses and that's a bad thing.

Don't count the swine flu out yet. The 1918 flu was mild on its first outing but came back deadly later.
 
Ya I know, my sister is taking care of at least one of them. We're not sure how it got into our far North. Can't see any of them traveling to Mexico ever. I just hope she doesn't get it. She tells me she wears a face mask with full splatter shield when dealing with her Swine Flu patient, but I'm thinking I should keep my distance from her anyway. :-)

But you're right, even though the media seem to have forgotten it, it's still out there and people's lives are at risk. I remember when the first panic hit some were saying that we have nothing to worry about and people should still go to Mexico and enjoy their vacations. What a very poor piece of advice. When we quarantined Toronto during the SARS scare we hurt Toronto's tourist industry but we probably saved the lives of many. Unless you're a thrill seeker and into extreme sports, vacations shouldn't involve risking your life unnecessarily.
 
It was officially declared a Pandemic on the 11th.
 
Deaths worldwide are still in single digits, no? And those are people who had comprimised immune systems? I understand tracking it and taking it seriously, but no need to cause panic with something along the lines of a common flu at this point.
 
You're right, the death count count is fairly low so far, but we gotta keep in mind that's partially due to the medical system going into over drive. My sister tells me all the swine flu patients being treated by her department are intubated (on respirators and sedated), as are some 40+ on the adults side. One of the complications with Swine flu is brain swelling. The machines are keeping them alive, but there's no way to say for sure there won't be long term damage. But the scary part is that we're running out of respirators. I hear there are plans for more machines to be brought in but haven't heard anything since. Of course, I'm not sure if I'm even allowed to be telling you any of this.

On the plus side, Tamiflu seems to work great on the early stages. However if Swine flu becomes resistant to it (as H5N1 has) then things can take a sudden new direction.
 
Glaucus said:
But the scary part is that we're running out of respirators. I hear there are plans for more machines to be brought in but haven't heard anything since.
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In the worst case, while the number of respirators grows arithmetically over time, the number of victims grows exponentially.
 
redrumloa said:
Deaths worldwide are still in single digits, no?
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I doubt this I think there was 150 deaths in Mexico around April/May. The US hit double digits in May. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30435064/ns ... -swine_flu shows 88.

And those are people who had comprimised immune systems? I understand tracking it and taking it seriously, but no need to cause panic with something along the lines of a common flu at this point.
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Wouldn't this mean a doubling a flu related deaths each year?
 
Glaucus said:
You're right, the death count count is fairly low so far, but we gotta keep in mind that's partially due to the medical system going into over drive. My sister tells me all the swine flu patients being treated by her department are intubated (on respirators and sedated), as are some 40+ on the adults side. One of the complications with Swine flu is brain swelling. The machines are keeping them alive, but there's no way to say for sure there won't be long term damage. But the scary part is that we're running out of respirators. I hear there are plans for more machines to be brought in but haven't heard anything since. Of course, I'm not sure if I'm even allowed to be telling you any of this.

On the plus side, Tamiflu seems to work great on the early stages. However if Swine flu becomes resistant to it (as H5N1 has) then things can take a sudden new direction.
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Very interesting, thanks for the info. You are suggesting the opposite is happening now, suppressing info for fear of outright panic?

On a side note, could you find out the company who makes the respirators?
 
A little close to home... One of our fellow staff is effectively quarantined at home (or at least, away from work) because of a confirmed case of swine flu in the family. They haven't said who yet, but it won't take long for me to figure it out. I just hope it's not someone I deal with regularly.

As for the respirator, no idea who makes them. It's not necessarily just one company either. I'm guessing you wanna invest in that company, don't you? Good thinking, but I doubt my sister would know. When I see her next I'll ask her. EDIT: One other thing I may not be allowed to say: Nurses are phoning in sick at unusually high levels. It seems they're either over worked or scared of the virus or both. Not so much in the children's hospital but more so on the adults side.

One other thing to remember about swine flu is that it's hitting relatively hard at a period where the flu viruses are generally less common. How will it spread when we're in the prime conditions for flu virus transmission? Hopefully that won't happen until after October, which is when they believe they'll have a vaccine handy.
 
redrumloa said:
Thanks for the info, I heard otherwise. I think the problem with Mexico is their numbers are questionable, but I do not want to minimize any deaths.
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Perhaps, but my theory is that before it hit the news, people probably just treated it as a regular flu and never bothered to see a doctor. Until of course they were horribly ill, in which case the doctors still didn't understand what they were dealing with AND it was too late to do much about it. By the time we saw cases in the US & Canada we had a plan of attack and people were panicked enough to get checked out early - not to mention trips to Mexico and other places were canceled. Those three factors probably mitigated the impact greatly.
 
Red, my sis can't remember the name of the company that makes the ventilators they use, but she tells me the ones to buy are oscillatory ventilation units because they take a huge load off the lungs (normal ventilators push air in and out, similar to how we breath, but people with a serious lung infection develop ridged lungs that don't stretch as well, and the oscillatory ventilation units use something similar to a speaker diaphragm to oscillate air in and out at a (relatively) high frequency without causing your lungs to expand and contract so much). Also, she tells me EKMO machines may be needed as we see more severe patients (these are heart and lung machines). I think we have only 4 of them in Winnipeg Children's hospital, but we typically ship these types of patients to major units likes Sick Kids in Toronto.
 
Rupert Grint, aka Harry Potter's best friend Ron Weasley in the movies, has come down with swine flu.
 
faethor said:
Rupert Grint, aka Harry Potter's best friend Ron Weasley in the movies, has come down with swine flu.
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He got better.

They better get on with filming the last of this. Having to change Dumbledores was bad enough. Needing a new Ron Weasley or ... Hermione Granger (gulp) would be just too much.
 
July 21st --- A World Health Organization (WHO) official told reporters the H1N1 virus has killed more than 700 people, well above the 429 deaths listed in the WHO's last official update on Jul 6.


The Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) vaccine advisory committee will meet Jul 23 to discuss clinical trials of vaccines for the H1N1 virus and related FDA regulatory activities.
 
Interestingly, we haven't had any NEW H1N1 cases severe enough for intensive care in two weeks here in Winnipeg. And that's adults + peeds.
 
Well, I've just had it. Wasn't too bad for me, I was fine as long as I didn't do anything. I had a week of watching TV.
 
minator said:
Well, I've just had it. Wasn't too bad for me, I was fine as long as I didn't do anything. I had a week of watching TV.
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:shocked: :shocked:

Man... Glad you are ok!
 
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