don't panic, but "SWINE FLU COULD SPREAD GLOBALLY"

oh joy I have a fever after being sick for two weeks, but maybe it's just this shitty thermometer and panic

awww Hunt3r that's a nightmare!

Is H1N1 appreciably more of an ass-kicker than garden variety flu? I ask because I'm reasonably sure that I'm fluish now, but it doesn't really seem worse than any other bout of flu I've had in the past. Not that it's any walk in the park, mind, but I figured I'd feel more like warmed-over death than I do. Maybe that's just around the corner...?

(Should note that I have no idea whether this is swine flu or not. I just assumed since that seems to be what's going around.)

for me, h1n1 was a wicked wicked asskicker

i am beginning to think that i did ~not have h1n1, because my ass was not kicked in the slightest, i was just kinda sick for a bit

I know someone who knows someone who knows someone (no, really!) who was given the official H1N1 diagnosis for what felt like a moderately bad cold, so I think the answer is 'depends'...

my brother, his wife and 2 kids have got it. pretty bad by the sounds, shivering cold, a really bad flu. jack is 5 and has asthma so we were a bit worried but it seems he will be ok. doctor didnt prescribe them tamiflu as he said it causes too many side effects. there's a few kids at jack's school out sick but i dont know if its swine flu or not.

So just a heads up for anyone in MA - I'm still working at the Dept of Public Health and as of yesterday H1N1 has officially hit the state and they expect shit to get pretty bad.

Is H1N1 appreciably more of an ass-kicker than garden variety flu?

First part of the answer: most people misunderstand what constitutes the flu and misname many ailments and symptoms as flu. Best example is "stomach flu". No such thing. Influenza is a resperatory virus.

The real flu is always an ass-kicker. It will lay you flat on your back and bedridden for days and make you about as miserable as you can ever recall being.

Second part of the answer: right now H1N1 is not appreciably more of an ass-kicker than any other influenza., although it has been spreading faster than ordinary flu because most of the population hasn't been exposed to it before. It is already pandemic. Still going strong and bound to get stronger.

What matters even more about H1N1 is the sinister possibility of it mutating into something much more deadly than ordinary flu.

We know it has that possibility because it already has mutated into that sort of virulent strain before, in the flu pandemic of 1918-1920. It has been estimated that 1/3 of all humans alive at that time caught H1N1 and perhaps as many as 150,000,000 people died of it, or of complications like pneumonia. Many people died in as little as 24 hours after the onset of symptoms, and died gruesomely I should add.

Because flu virus mutates quickly and esaily, and because several hundred million people are likely to catch it this time around, the (well-grounded) fear is that somewhere along the way it will mutate into a killer such as we saw back then. That's why the WHO and CDC are on this thing like white on rice, even though right now the H1N1 virus seems to be no worse than other flus.

swine flu, catch it before it mutates into something more deadly.

my kid is doing pretty well so far, thankfully.

My two kids get their (free) H1N1 shots this Saturday, though I'm a bit bummed that after all that buildup, shortages mean my wife and I no longer fit the criteria. I want my vaccine, dammit!

Two weeks ago I spent most of the day fielding calls from ppl concerned that they were going to be forced into getting vaccinated but now all I get are calls from ppl who can't get the H1N1 vaccine because of production/shipping delays. I bet some of these calls are even the same ppl who just want something to complain about.

oh, no doubt - some people just aren't happy unless they are pissed off about something.

In other potentially theraputic news, one of the guys in the company cafe handed me a mug of steaming hot apple juice laced with huge amounts of ginger, cinnamon, cloves, fresh mint, cayenne, etc. I don't think I've coughed more then twice since I downed it.

my insurer overrode their policy and approved our tamiflu at standard copay rate. more astonishingly, walgreens took care of this and then actually called me back to confirm.

^health reform we can all get behind

Would a spit-transfer from someone who had taken the vaccine a day or two previous and an un-vaccined person do any good? Don't vaccines cause a low-grade version of the flu it's for?

depends on if they're live or dead

the vaccines, not the person

the fuck, man

Even the killed vaccines can potentially cause enough of an immune response to cause some of the flu-like symptoms, like fever and lethargy and such, since those are symptoms caused by the activation of the immune system. Cytokines!

STORM

"Cytokine Storm" sounds like a Tom Clancy novel...

it's official: it's in Belgium. already killed five people (all kids i think). :-(

At least two of them were adults, a 36 year old woman and a 70 year old man who already had pneumonia, I believe.

^ just from seeing the news on tv, not keeping an xls though

We took our kid to the doctor for his seasonal flu last week and it took both of us to hold him down for the shot. Tomorrow, it's just me and him as I try to get his H1N1 shot.

xpost I loved how on HLN.be people were all going "healthy before falling sick with the flu, LOL EVERYONE IS HEALTHY BEFORE BEING SICK!" God people can be so dumb (me included, I know).

I honestly don't know how the people more afraid of the vaccine than the flu itself can even leave the house every day.

xpost I loved how on HLN.be people were all going "healthy before falling sick with the flu, LOL EVERYONE IS HEALTHY BEFORE BEING SICK!" God people can be so dumb (me included, I know).

I think they say this because most people who die from the flu have pre-existing health conditions that make them too weak to fight it. When an otherwise healthy person dies from the flu it's more news-worthy (and more scary to the rest of us).

Oh I know. But the commentators didn't get it: they didn't properly read the article and just think that either you are sick or you're healthy. They don't understand you can get a multitude of sicknesses. Did I phrase that right? (Yes, I R DUMBO as well.)

the commentators didn't get it

Clarification: the commentators = dumb ass readers who can't even write in their own language in a Have Your Say type situation on a Belgian tabloid that only publishes stories that are designed to anger the herd ("Muslim Man Gets Two Parking Tickets In One Week! What do you think about that? Have Your Say!" -> cue 400 "Exicution him to deat!" comments). Not a collection of people that deserve any attention at all, imho. :-/

Oh, I didn't realize "HLN.be people" were just readers' comments; I thought you talking about the people that write for the website.

lucked out and got vaccines for myself and my wife when we took our son into the pediatrician; no idea why they had any to spare, maybe the felt sorry for us.

"HLN.be shoppin"

over in encino today there was a big free clinic with the vaccine. i was thinking of going but when they showed some footage on the news, the lines looked nutzor. i still want to get it though -- i've been fairly paranoid about taking public transit, which is more crowded than ever because of the lousy economy.

guys I have asthma is I gonna die?

My wife had it and has asthma--basically she started taking LOTS of preventative puffs the moment she began feeling sick, and was fine. The last 2 times she had normal flu she ended up in hospital with asthma.

Fuckssake I work in hospital and routinely make deliveries in the Emergency Department but because I'm a pharmacy employee and not an emergency employee, they won't give me the shot until they get more.

The ED is basically engulfed in a cloud of H1N1 right now, btw.

Gonna die.

Also gonna kill some immunocompromised patients because I TOUCH ALL YR DRUGS.

(washing hands pretty much constantly in an attempt to not do so, I should note)

Complete idiots in charge of this place.

wish I still had some prednisone

have a box of 3 year old tamiflu, dunno if I'd be smart enough to take it in time

new screenname

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/10/24/health/AP-US-Obama-Swine-Flu.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Alex Jones's prediction has come true. How is everyone coping with the FEMA camps/police state law/involuntary vaccinations with nanobots?

How dare the US government declare the deadly swine flu to be dangerous? I'm not dead or dying, which proves they are wrong.

i think the tamiflu is harder on my kid than the flu at the moment. she seem to be ok, fever pretty much abated, takes the tamiflu and pukes within an hour :(

damn I really want to get swine flu so I don't have to worry about getting swine flu

Okay, convinced them to give me one, so I take back some of my earlier critism.

Nanobots: ACHIEVED.

I look forward to using my new nanobot powers to support our Glorious Leader, Comrade Imam Obama.

If you are eligible to receive the vaccine, getting to a vaccine clinic three hours early may not too early. We arrived two hours early and waited for five hours in line (just for the kid - I'm not a priority group). They didn't even have any injections left by the time we got up front and we had to settle for the nasal mist.

Our appointment for the kids went off without a hitch. In and out in 10 minutes, lots of local friends had just as easy a time. Friends of ours in Portland, on the other hand, waited for hours and were left wanting along with some 850 other people in line (plus the requisite news crews). Some municipalities are more prepared and organized than others.

The current "Wired" cover on anti-vaccine types sheds some interesting (though not new) light on the anti-vaccine mentality, which drives folks like my parents (both physicians, one of whom does pediatric infectious disease and the other working in a low-income pediatric clinic) nuts. Ironically, anti-vacciners also tend to be highly educated and affluent. The parent working the clinic says most of her patients are getting vaccinated. The parent in the private hospital says he's only been able to convince 1/3 of the doubters he sees to get their shots. He did, incidentally, have a doctor colleague who chose not to get his H1N1 shot, figuring as a physician he could take it. Then he got swine flu and was out on his back for 12 days. That colleague now spends much of his time proselytizing to patients. Blows my mind how so many fear the cure more than the illness. My dad likes to say that vaccines and indoor plumbing are the two greatest advances in modern health, and doing without the former you is like choosing to do without the latter.

I've stopped trimming my nose hair in case that helps save me from the swine flu. Fuck it if y'all think that's nasty.