influenza virus that seems to be spreading in Mexico and the US?

I am. Or do you think that this is just another scare?

Yes, I am. 20 high school kids have just arrived back here from Mexico and lots of them are sick.

Tell them gee thanx ok Jen?

I DO NOT want to be sick for at least the next 4 months!

We need to fling the borders wide open so they can swarm here en mass!

It's been kept alarmingly quiet by the criminal left wing media.

I hope Pelosi gets it.

So far, the people outside of Mexico are not getting deathly sick. I wonder why? I was thinking maybe the regular flu shot might be helping.

I have my supplies all ready and stored - food, water, wine, etc.

Tamiflu is effective in treating it, but the press is downplaying the numbers as usual.


The illegal invaders will be panicking soon and will be making a run on our border for medical treatment.

The Pelosi plan is to treat them and leave us productive members of society to fend for ourselves.

I don't have a lot of faith in how fast the government will respond. If this turns into a pandemic, it is already beyond containment according to the CDC.

The illness wasn't indentified quick enough in Mexico.

The WHO says they are prepared to fight it, but they also claim the US and Mexico have enough meds to do it. Last I heard, Mexico has only a million doses of Tamiflu and there are 20 million people in Mexico city, plus it has spread to different states in Mexico.

And the US is still thinking about whether they need to produce vaccines, which take a couple of months to make.

Meanwhile, flights are still going out of Mexico City to other countries, and passengers are being looked at to see if they seem sick.

YIKES! I think everyone is on their own.

I work within literally seconds from the CDC here in Atlanta.

I'm so screwed.

They just announced that the students in NY have confirmed cases of the new flu. Seems some went to Cancun on spring break 2 weeks ago.

So the incubation period seems to be 2 weeks. Wonder what will happen 2 weeks from now?

Maybe you could run over there and ask them a few questions. Not too much new info on their web site.

Since all the fatalities seem to be from pneumonia, I wonder if getting a pneumonia shot would be helpful?

The CDC is locked down like Fort Knox.

You don't go near there.

ba - Good article. I read now that the incubation period is 24 to 48 hours. They have broken out the meds and have sent one quarter to the spots in the country where there is influenza - like San Diego county, where I live.

At least they are doing something.

*sigh*

I am supposed to be flying to San Francisco this week with my fiancee. TX to CA. More or less, out of the frying pan into another frying pan. I have a couple of boxes of Tamiflu at the house. I need to check the expiration dates though.

Tamiflu is supposed to be very good against this virus. Check the expiration dates.

There are lots of Americans going to Tijuana to buy it - no prescription needed at the pharmacies there. But I heard they have run out of it.

My brother is a doc (in another state though, so I can't get anything from him). I'll ask him if the expiration issue is really an issue. I seem to recall from my days working in a pharmacy when I was in HS that drugs don't really go bad like food. They just supposedly lose their potency. What kinds of drugs this affects and how much is open to debate.

Considering that some 40,000 people die each year from regular flu makes me think this "panic" is just a bit overblown. With oil prices depressed, the credit crisis winding down, and no hurricanes on the horizon, the Panic Press needs something else to focus on, IMO. Especially now with newspaper circulation at all time lows.

It's swine flu. It only affects men because we are pigs.

Seabird - Ask your brother if it would be worthwhile for people to get a pneumonia shot. I've been thinking about that since most of the people infected with the virus die of pneumonia.

Personally, I'm worried about it, but planning to take care of myself and my family.

I had an aunt who died from the flu 1n 1918. The estimates are that 100 million people worldwide died.

believer - I'll ask him, but I think that he will say no. There isn't just one kind of Pneumonia. Causes can be bacterial, viral, fungal, parasitic or idiopathic. A "Pneumonia shot" is really just a vaccination against any one of those specific infections. A Pneumonia shot for influenza is - you guessed it - a flu shot. And then what kind of flu is it? I had a flu shot last fall. I doubt that I am sufficiently inoculated against this swine flu variant that we're talking about it now.

I totally get your concern, believer. I'm a little worried too. Especially with two kids in school and our close proximity to Mexico and all the people down here that travel back and forth. Something to keep in mind though is that in 1918, we didn't have the sort of functional medicine distribution network and contingency planning that we do today. We have more people traveling with greater speed than we did then, so the potential to spread is greater. But so is our ability to communicate and treat it.