So Now It's Swine Flu

[Microdizzey]

Looking at the map and seeing OUTBREAK SPREADING all over the news is really eerie. After all the movies and video games they made about this crap... what are we suppose to think? lol

It gets even more bizarre,

Magnitude 5.6 Earthquake Hits Mexico


(Updates with new magnitude reading, comment from U.S. Geological Survey)
MEXICO CITY (Dow Jones)--A 5.6 magnitude earthquake shook Mexico City early Monday afternoon, sending frightened residents into the streets and saturating phone lines, but causing no apparent significant damage.
The quake rattled nerves of Mexicans already coping with an outbreak of the swine flu that has killed an estimated 149 people.
The combination of the higher death toll from the flu and the quake weakened the peso, which had lost nearly 5% from Friday's close to MXN13.975 per U.S. dollar.
The quake briefly interrupted a press conference in which Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova was giving an update on the flu emergency situation.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter was in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, home to the resort of Acapulco, which lies roughly 360 kilometers from Mexico City.
The earthquake's depth made serious damage less likely, said Jim Dewey, a research geophysicist with USGS.
"Certainly strong shaking could be perceived, but it wouldn't likely cause extensive damage," Dewey said. "It was 25 miles deep, so that puts some distance between it and the surface of the ground."
Telephone service in parts of Mexico City was lost briefly. A spokesman for phone company Telefonos de Mexico (TMX) said lines were temporarily saturated with call volume, as usually happens after earthquakes, and that there was no reported damage to exchanges.
Mexicans, accustomed to earthquakes, largely shrugged off the tremor, worried more about the killer flu. "Ah, we're accustomed to earthquakes around here," said Leopoldo Garcia, a 70-year-old retiree walking around the city.
Mexican state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos is operating normally despite an earthquake that hit Mexico Monday and the flu outbreak, said a company spokesman.
"We haven't seen any damage yet," said the spokesman, adding that the company is still checking for earthquake damage and that it's premature to rule out any incidents.
-By Anthony Harrup, Dow Jones Newswires; (5255) 5001 5727, [email protected]
(David Luhnow and Gabriel Kahn of The Wall Street Journal, and Charles Roth and Peter Millard of Dow Jones Newswires contributed to this article)

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090427-714613.html

 

[Microdizzey]

Hundreds of news articles on the internet. Why is WHO so concerned when there hasn't been many deaths?

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=92842&sectionid=3510212

WHO to raise swine flu alert level to 5
Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:44:29 GMT

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Considering the rapidly increasing number of confirmed swine flu cases, WHO officials have decided to raise the pandemic alert level to phase 5.

Swine Influenza (swine flu) caused by type A influenza, regularly leads to influenza outbreaks among pigs. The virus does not normally infect humans.

Confirmed sufferers in the United States and Mexico, however, are believed to have spread the disease to their families and others in close contact.

The alert level was increased to 4 on Monday, and WHO officials now say they will be forced to declare a phase 5 alert soon.

"We're still awaiting for a final confirmation from the US authorities, but it appears that there's a number of cases in New York which appear to be human-to-human transmission," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told a news briefing.

The United Nations agency also raised its alert level to 4 on Monday as the virus was detected in several European countries.

Mexican authorities say the new strain has killed up to 149 people in Mexico. About 64 confirmed cases have been reported in five US states.

 

[Microdizzey]

http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/phase/en/index.html

Current WHO phase of pandemic alert

Current phase of alert in the WHO global influenza preparedness plan

Pandemic preparedness In the 2009 revision of the phase descriptions, WHO has retained the use of a six-phased approach for easy incorporation of new recommendations and approaches into existing national preparedness and response plans. The grouping and description of pandemic phases have been revised to make them easier to understand, more precise, and based upon observable phenomena. Phases 1–3 correlate with preparedness, including capacity development and response planning activities, while Phases 4–6 clearly signal the need for response and mitigation efforts. Furthermore, periods after the first pandemic wave are elaborated to facilitate post pandemic recovery activities.

The current WHO phase of pandemic alert is 4.

In nature, influenza viruses circulate continuously among animals, especially birds. Even though such viruses might theoretically develop into pandemic viruses, in Phase 1 no viruses circulating among animals have been reported to cause infections in humans.


In Phase 2 an animal influenza virus circulating among domesticated or wild animals is known to have caused infection in humans, and is therefore considered a potential pandemic threat.


In Phase 3, an animal or human-animal influenza reassortant virus has caused sporadic cases or small clusters of disease in people, but has not resulted in human-to-human transmission sufficient to sustain community-level outbreaks. Limited human-to-human transmission may occur under some circumstances, for example, when there is close contact between an infected person and an unprotected caregiver. However, limited transmission under such restricted circumstances does not indicate that the virus has gained the level of transmissibility among humans necessary to cause a pandemic.

Phase 4 is characterized by verified human-to-human transmission of an animal or human-animal influenza reassortant virus able to cause “community-level outbreaks.” The ability to cause sustained disease outbreaks in a community marks a significant upwards shift in the risk for a pandemic. Any country that suspects or has verified such an event should urgently consult with WHO so that the situation can be jointly assessed and a decision made by the affected country if implementation of a rapid pandemic containment operation is warranted. Phase 4 indicates a significant increase in risk of a pandemic but does not necessarily mean that a pandemic is a forgone conclusion.

Phase 5 is characterized by human-to-human spread of the virus into at least two countries in one WHO region. While most countries will not be affected at this stage, the declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short.


Phase 6, the pandemic phase, is characterized by community level outbreaks in at least one other country in a different WHO region in addition to the criteria defined in Phase 5. Designation of this phase will indicate that a global pandemic is under way.


During the post-peak period, pandemic disease levels in most countries with adequate surveillance will have dropped below peak observed levels. The post-peak period signifies that pandemic activity appears to be decreasing; however, it is uncertain if additional waves will occur and countries will need to be prepared for a second wave.
Previous pandemics have been characterized by waves of activity spread over months. Once the level of disease activity drops, a critical communications task will be to balance this information with the possibility of another wave. Pandemic waves can be separated by months and an immediate “at-ease” signal may be premature.


In the post-pandemic period, influenza disease activity will have returned to levels normally seen for seasonal influenza. It is expected that the pandemic virus will behave as a seasonal influenza A virus. At this stage, it is important to maintain surveillance and update pandemic preparedness and response plans accordingly. An intensive phase of recovery and evaluation may be required.

 

[hom36rown]

All the media coverage over this is completely fuckin ridiculous. Its the flu. The world is not coming to an end. Calm down.

 

[Microdizzey]

All the media coverage over this is completely fuckin ridiculous. Its the flu. The world is not coming to an end. Calm down.

Who said the world is coming to an end?

And yeah. It is the flu. 4 strains of the flu (2 swine, 1 human, 1 avian) mixed together. Transmittable through human to human. No vaccines because it's a new virus. The only thing they have is antivirals and vaccines for the human and avian flu. Maybe that should help you understand the concern about this outbreak.

 

[hom36rown]

I understand the concern over not having a vaccine, nevertheless. Like you said we have the other vaccines, and we have antivirals. Thousands will die, just like thousands die of the flu every year. No real reason to keep tally, or track it across the globe.

 

[hom36rown]

And to clarify, I wasnt speaking directly to you, more to all the paniced people in general. Actually I understand the media coverage, all though a little blown out of proportion, I am more annoyed with people acting like this is an epidemic.

 

[CanadianCoyote]

...Has anyone seen the Craig Ferguson bit where he's parading around a little stuffed pig puppet, making it dance and sing "I've got fever"...?

I don't know why, but it made me laugh more than it should've. Maybe because the puppet has sideburns and a beard.

 

[cannabitch]

Has anyone else read about how 3 vials of virus became missing from an army lab just a day or two before the swine flu outbreak in mexico? Gee, i wonder where those ended up.


http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7014902360

 

[misshestermoffitt]

Weren't those an equine virus though? I don't think it was the same kind of virus, and they're not even sure if those are missing, they claim that a fridge unit went out and they didn't inventory what was being disposed of (how unprofessional).

So that pandemic map, it has red, yellow and green signs to mark flu cases, does anyone know what the different colors mean?

My daughter works at a preschool, they're taking the "ignore it and it'll go away" stance on it...... ..... that's all we need, 35 little outbreak monkeys spreading it around.

 

[Don Gin and Ton]

chillax peeps its not gonna kill you christ how many of these have we had in the last few years SARS MRSA bird flu mad cow disease? the list goes on, we should worry more that the media will now kill off the pig farming industry like the BSE coverage did a few years back. up side is pork is gonna be cheap, ive got swine fever and its goooooooood

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72ncDubcnJM

 

[misshestermoffitt]

You can't get it from eating pork.

I worry because, my husband is a cardiac patient, he's not just a normal person. My daughter and I have severe allergies and lots of medications are included in those allergies. We can't get flu shots (not like they help), we'll most likely be unable to receive a vaccine for it either (if one gets made).

Keep in mind the deaths have all been extremely healthy people between the ages of 25 and 45. This isn't the average flu that kills the really young and really old, it's killing the really healthy.

 

[keenas]

How's this for a theory.... US government release virus to remove "credit crisis" from headlines......which in my opion is whats needed !!!(remove headlines)

just let the heat of a bit and get everyone back to what they do best!!

opinions???

 

[Don Gin and Ton]

whether it can be caught by eating pork or not the media will kill off the industry, you watch.

 

[Don Gin and Ton]

How's this for a theory.... US government release virus to remove "credit crisis" from headlines......which in my opion is whats needed !!!(remove headlines)

just let the heat of a bit and get everyone back to what they do best!!

opinions???

your a nutjob?!!?

 

[misshestermoffitt]

It is an airborne flu, what a person eats has nothing to do with it. It spreads from person to person, not from food to person.

I like the way it's all over the news.... PANDEMIC !!! , and then in the next sentence they're saying "don't panic over it".

People will panic less if ya'll shit the fuck up about it for a few minutes.

 

[TheBrutalTruth]

It is an airborne flu, what a person eats has nothing to do with it. It spreads from person to person, not from food to person.

I like the way it's all over the news.... PANDEMIC !!! , and then in the next sentence they're saying "don't panic over it".

People will panic less if ya'll shit the fuck up about it for a few minutes.

People would panic less if they weren't glued to the idiot box.

 

[misshestermoffitt]

Why is listening to the news idiotic? Would it be better to be glued to CMT or BET or MTV instead?

I'm sure it's in the newspapers too, is reading dumb as well?

 

[TheBrutalTruth]

Why is listening to the news idiotic? Would it be better to be glued to CMT or BET or MTV instead?

I'm sure it's in the newspapers too, is reading dumb as well?

Glued to the idiot box is glued to the idiot box regardless of Channel.

There's other content in the newspapers.

 

[misshestermoffitt]

Let's stick our heads in the sand and pretend it's not happening, that's right ignoring it will make it go away.