Swine Flu - whats it like where you are

[SWM]

I work for the National Health Service and although I work in a psychological service I and all of my team are being sent for training to be able to provide a physical health service for swine flu. I find this contrary to the messages that are being sent out through the media from the Department of Health. The news we are told publicly is that N1H1 is not a dangerous virus and that we should not panic we are also told that if we do have the virus we should stay athome and avoid contact with other people. So I am puzzled why are all Helath Service staff being retrained to provide a service for a benign virus. plus we have also been forewarned that at a certain point in the spread of this virus that our team, the psychological services team, will be withdrawn from contact with the public but we will have to continue working as a provider of services for flu.

anyway this got me wondering what  is happening out there where you folks are. are there conflicting messages form media and pucbliic services, or any other unusual goings on realted to the H1N1 virus?

[liza123]

Yes, the same thing is happening here. There are many contrary reports going here as well.  Some people are walking around wearing surgical masks.

There was an article about swine flu that I read at this link, http://lifephilosophy.today.com/2009/05/04/the-swine-flu-pandemic-fact-or-fiction%e2%80%8f. It connects to a very interesting read about swine in terms of media, publicity and truth about swine flu.

[DarkPoet]

People are freaking out everywhere, it's a little eccentric but that's what the media does, causes panic, boosts the ratings on their program by people tuning in for updates.

Personally I haven't done anything out of the ordinary.

[SWM]

i had my training 6 days ago. the chemist who delivered my training said hat it was all a fuss about nothing, the tamiflu is little better than useless, it will only relieve the symptoms very slightly and reduce the the illness by a day at best.

it seems as in most things in my work life the only people winning from the whole debacle are the drug companies. mergh!

[liza123]

Yes, it seems as if there is a lot of fuss so that the drug companies can make a lot of money. I have a question, "Is the vaccination really effective?"
From whatever I have read, it seems that more or less the same precautions seem to apply for normal flu. Is death inevitable if you are caught with the flu?

[Kallisti]

Death is pretty rare with swine flue, the only real difference is that otherwise healthy young adults have died, which normally doesn't happen.

You also have to figure in that where the deaths were really bad was one of the poorer areas of mexico city, not the best hospitals available.  The percentage of deaths have been much lower in the US, only about 3 times more deadly than normal flu.

[SWM]

there are two different types of drugs that are being produced, one is the anti-viral that is available now and is being used to treat the virus. the vaccine is not available here yet. we are told sometime in august, so anytime soon really.

[liza123]

Death is pretty rare with swine flue, the only real difference is that otherwise healthy young adults have died, which normally doesn't happen.

You also have to figure in that where the deaths were really bad was one of the poorer areas of mexico city, not the best hospitals available.  The percentage of deaths have been much lower in the US, only about 3 times more deadly than normal flu.

i think that it should be pretty rare as well based on the symptoms, etc. if someone is suffering from other serious illness, etc, then, i think that it might cause death. as you said, the hospital conditions are also important.

[liza123]

there are two different types of drugs that are being produced, one is the anti-viral that is available now and is being used to treat the virus. the vaccine is not available here yet. we are told sometime in august, so anytime soon really.

as far as you know, does the anti-viral 'really' work?what is the percentage of effectiveness?

[Ronaldo10]

@liza, i think its around 80%, iv read it somewhere i just forgot what site was it. anyway, you can check google about it.  try searching on the product first, and look for reviews.