Swine flu now Human Flu

[Eric Day]

After a ton of days of holidays, my girls finally went back to school.
Nobody that we knew got the flu, so had bad was it, only God knows. Looks like things are getting back to normal now.

[Dallen]

Glad you're all OK. I still say the whole thing was blown way out of proportion.

[Marion McClellan]

My 14 year old daughter tested positive for Influenza A, 2 weeks ago after getting sick at EFY- the silly health care staff just gave the sick kids Tylenol and sent them off to the activities    For those of you who do not know- Swine (H1N1) is an Influenza A.  As of two weeks ago, the state was no longer typing all Influenza A swabs for H1N1.
I did not read it before, except as referred to as "the same as the regular flu"  But many people confuse Influenza with the stomach flu.  They are not the same.  Influenza's main symptoms are very similar to the common cold, but more severe.  Fever, aches, FEVER, cough, congestion, and an overwhelming feeling of being VERY SICK, etc.
My daughter was quarantined for 10 days, which was really hard!  We sent the three of our kids away who had no contact with her.  She was limited to her bedroom, the living room and one bathroom in the house.  No one else was allowed to go in the living room.  I brought her everything she needed to the living room.  We used paper products for her and she had her own garbage can in the living room.  If she needed to leave the living room to use the bathroom, she had to sanitize her hands and put on a mask.  She was not allowed to use the sink in the bathroom, as my little boys could reach it.  She washed her hands in the kitchen and used her own roll of paper towels.  I would then go and Lysol every surface when she was done, especially light switches, toilet paper and holder, sink edge, door knobs, the door, paper towels and kitchen sink.  When she showered, I had her put all of her laundry directly into the washer.  I of course used sanitizer and hand washing to avoid infection- this was the week before UVM and I was SO scared that I would get it--- aside from the worry of my daughter becoming more ill.  She was put on Tamiflu within 24 hours of the symptoms starting and was feeling much better in about 3-4 days
The only thing the rest of us regular folk can do to avoid the spread is to either stay home 100% or teach our families and selves to wash hands frequently, do not touch our faces or put our hands in our mouths/eyes, always wash hands before preparing or eating foods.  We can only get sick if the virus gets inside of us.  Yes, someone could come up to us and sneeze or cough in our faces, but we are more likely to contract it (any contagions really) from touching a surface and then putting it into ourselves, ourselves
Boy, my 2 cents ended up being more like a quarter
BE WELL!!!!  Run away from sick people.  Tell sick people to GO HOME!!!  Overblown- yes, BUT, the media did it.  Instead of creating an undue panic early on, they should have been responsible and told people- Don't panic just do what your grandma always told you, wash your hands, STAY HOME if you are sick and don't touch your face.  Fever = STAY HOME!!!

[Eric Day]

Marion, I'm sorry to hear that your daughter got the influenza. Also glad to hear she is better now. Yes, so easy to get, and the only protection we have is to stay clean, so simple but so complicated, right?
Well, take care, and wash hands often!   

[Marion McClellan]

Thanks Eric   We were really lucky.  The doc threatened her that if she did not keep drinking and urinating, that he would put her in the hospital.  I bought her every liquid that remotely sounded good to her.  I gave her my laptop and she had her cell.  I think she watched about 70 movies   She is great now and the rest of us (7 others) did not get it   I feel victorious   There are still some morons who think that their job/work/shopping is so important, that they CAN'T stay home when ill. 
A lady came into my work looking horrible.  I asked her if she was drunk and she said no, SICK!!!  I wanted to toss her out.  As soon as she left we lysoled and sanitized the joint! 
One of the pipers on my girls Bagpipe team showed up with H1N1 to practice and the rest of the team turned on him and sent him packing.  They had to close a local Boy Scout camp as 7 staff members tested positive for Influenza A.

[Bonnie]

Sorry to hear about your daughter Marion, I am glad she is getting better -- and thank you for the reminder about staying home when sick (and washing our hands).

Part of the problem with this flu - and why they are making such a big deal about it in the media - is that it is following the same pattern as was seen with the flu pandemic of 1918.  A nasty flu virus "takes over"  a flu that is not that dangerous (the ones we generally see).   Usually, strong, healthy people that have good immune systems can fight off the regular flu (that we are "used" to), we immunize those people without healthy (or developed on the part of young children) immune systems.  The reason that this flu, H1N1, is killing healthy, young, people is that it is through the "cytokine storm" (inflammatory response by your body to fight off stuff like this) that the virus kills.  Therefore, the stronger your immunity the increased chance of you actually getting sick.  The flu pandemic of 1918 took almost 2 years for the flu to reach the point where it spread all over the world and killed over 50-100 million people.  The virulence of that strain of flu looked a lot like the current H1N1, it did not immediately kill a bunch of people, it came in two waves and the second wave was much larger than the first. The current virus is spreading much more quickly than the 1918 virus because we travel more now.  Great book on the topic is "American's Forgotten Pandemic: the Influenza of 1918" by Alfred Crosby.

Basically, it is not over, and I don't think it is being over-blown by the health officials.  By the media perhaps, that is what happens when you have to fill 24 hours with news and compete with other stations with 24 hour news.  But this is not nearly over and people are getting sick, spreading the virus (and unfortunately dying) every day.

sorry about the long-winded response, I just don't like the media's coverage of this -- there are a LOT of very smart people (from the CDC and WHO) who know a lot about this stuff, and they are worried; so I am worried.

[Marion McClellan]

Yes- Bonnie, you are exactly correct.  I feel it is because of the medias initial over reaction (crying wolf, if you will), that people aren't being cautious or precautious.  My daughter was at a week long conference where she was exposed in the first 24 hours of being there (monday).  By thursday evening, there were several kids in her smaller group that were sick- I don't know about the rest of the kids.  In the morning they had fevers and the health nurse just gave them Tylenol and sent them off to activities.  By the time we spoke to her in the afternoon (friday), she was hysterical.  She was SO sick, we took her straight to the doctor.  The administrators just said, "oh, you are taking her???  Will she be back?"  I looked at them and said, "SHE HAS A FEVER and is obviously VERY sick!  She either has strep or influenza.  FEVER = CONTAGIOUS!!!"  They just looked at me like I was over reacting.  When I called back to tell them that she had tested positive, they said, "Hugh?".  They had NO idea how serious it was.  I told them to call their bosses RIGHT now and tell them!  Our Doc called them too and got a hold of the heads of the conference.  The only thing they did was, at the dance that night- thousands of kids- they made an announcement saying that if you feel sick, go see a doctor.  How many teenagers are going to make sure that happens?  I am SO irritated with them.  Sending thousands of kids home, to thousands of homes all over the country without so much as a note for the parents.  All it would have to say is that there was an influenza exposure at EFY, and if you child shows any symptoms, please take them in immediately! 

One of the main problems with this as well, is that people who are sick are waiting for it to blow over, see if you get better on their own, like we do with colds, etc.  With influenza, the anti-virals need to be started VERY soon, within 24 hours of the first symptoms.  People need to get in and get seen so, #1 anti-virals can be started and #2 they can get under quarantine!!!  I was fairly confident that Ash would be OK- but what about my younger children or another person who is compromised in some way?  There is too much at risk for our population to not understand, truthfully, what is at risk and take very reasonable precautions!

Sorry- too much passion behind this topic for me

[Maurine Lee]

Yeah - I've had a co-worker coughing and hacking all over the office for 3 weeks now and he finally admitted this week that his grandfather and mother are both hospitalized with the swine flu.  I wasn't worried too much about myself - but pointed out that there are several people in adjoining cubicles to his that have small children and that he was potentially spreading the sickness. He just said - well I took most of my sick days when my back was bothering me - so didn't want to use any more now.

[Jeffrey McClellan]

so, I just found out yesterday that I have the H1N1 virus.  I am just curious to know how many other people here on the blog have come down with the swine flu?  I have heard of a lot of people coming down with it lately, so I wondered if lots of people here on the blog have come down with the flu as well.

[MarkP_]

I had it in early July when it first swept through the County.  I just stayed in bed for 3 days and drank juice.  The doctors were useless, "go home and get some rest."  I was very tired and sleep a lot.  After the illness, I ran the Desert News 10K about 8 days later.  I actually think the bed rest helped my running (although not my 10K time).  A few weeks after the flu, my running and speed increased.

[Benn Griffin]

I'm sick of hearing about H1N1.. it's not that big of a deal. More people die from the common flu than the swine flu. Yes, there was the 1918 epidemic, but basic hygiene and medical care has certainly advanced since then. I'm sick of getting 10 emails a day from college and school telling me beware. blah blah. Just goes to show that Americans are lemmings. As if we didn't already know that.

[Bonnie]

As a person who works in public health I think you are mistaken Benn.  This is much worse than the common flu, and more people do not die of the common flu than of this current strain, especially not *healthy, young* people.  I think that the media is doing more harm than good, but your facts just are not correct.  The CDC has very informative, scientific (rather than media-hyped) information on their website that I would encourage you to read.  As well as the WHO website. 

[Benn Griffin]

Well everyone in NY that has died from it was someone with preexisting conditions. It may strike younger people, but they are people that have already been hit by something else. If you are a normal everyday healthy person you won't suffer more than the mild effects. As with anything though that is hyped in the media, there's hysteria. Theres moms going crazy to vaccinate their kids. Kids die from chicken pox too you know and my mom never went apeshit over protecting us from chicken pox. She encouraged us to play with the kids that had it so we'd get it and be done with it. Just my opinion though. Everyone's entitled to their own, but I feel that too many people believe only what the media tells you. As someone that's been sick once or maybe twice his whole life, 13 yrs perfect attendance in school and the whole nine yards.. I've seen people that are sick and should stay home but don't. If anything it's the ones infected that are contributing to the mass  hysteria. . there were 400 kids absent from a local high school because of swine flu... all this before anyone was confirmed to have contracted it! You think all 400 had swine flu? Nope. Not a one! I think you have to take the news with a grain of salt.

[Benn Griffin]

As for the state of this country's healthcare, it's appalling. I'll be without health care come December when I graduate. Good old USA right there! Way I see it if we took some of the money we're wasting on this swine flu crap and reinvest it in universal healthcare program maybe I'd be more willing ot go to the docs. Ever since I went for a checkup for the first time in four years last year and got billed 180 bucks when I HAD health insurance since I did not have a "preexisting condition", I have been a healthcare skeptic. They're just all in it for the money. No better than sports players.

[dave rockness]

Jeff, sorry to hear you've been hit with the flu.  Regardless of "hype", it's a tough strand and it stinks to be sick.  Get rested and hope you feel better soon!