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#11 |
Elminster
![]() Join Date: April 15, 2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 451
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A friend of mine said that somebody at her work came down with it, and now they all have to be careful. Also read that it has now killed someone, a small boy.
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#12 |
40th Level Warrior
![]() Join Date: October 29, 2001
Location: Western Wilds of Michigan
Posts: 11,752
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Actually, it's now killed someone in the US. All the other deaths were in Mexico.
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*B* Save Early, Save Often Save Before, Save After Two-Star General, Spelling Soldiers -+-+-+ Give 'em a hug one more time. It might be the last. |
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#13 | |
Ironworks Moderator
![]() Join Date: February 28, 2001
Location: Boston/Sydney
Posts: 11,771
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Thing about this is that things are changing so rapidly that people don't fully understand the scope yet. There's been one fatality, a 2yo kid in Texas. According to unconfirmed reports from Mexico there have apparently been 150+ deaths, but only 7 confirmed due to swine flu. Probably because the remaining 143 haven't been tested/autopsied yet. The media has been beating it up, but on the other hand flu is highly contagious and can be transmitted aerially, and this is a new strain that people's immune systems haven't seen yet. The risk is minimal, but it is there. But will it wipe the world out the way the Black Death did? Don't think so. Unless it starts moving to poorly developed countries in Africa where sanitation is poor and barrier nursing is not well practiced, and antiviral drugs are unavailable, then you're going to see a lot more fatalities (which is the case with influenza and other pathogens like malaria, typhoid etc anyway). In rich, well developed countries like the US, Western Europe, Australia and Middle-Earth, you probably won't see a lot. From a personal point of view I'm not taking any additional precautions at this stage though. If a few more cases are found close to home/work I might! Last edited by Memnoch; 04-29-2009 at 03:24 PM. |
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#14 |
Jack Burton
![]() Join Date: May 31, 2002
Location: Ireland
Posts: 5,854
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I want to clarify something. This is not downplaying the outbreak but for some reason, what is underreported by the media and government is that the swine flu is not a fatal disease. People are terrified, because on some level they think if they catch it, they will die or be hospitalized. No, it is just the flu - a new strain with the same symptoms. New strains are identified every so often (Bird flu). If you treat it you will recover, if you don't it could lead to complications but understand these are the same complications that the "regular" flu can lead to and are no different, in essence.
The danger issue is mainly this: The new form cannot be stopped by vaccines or shots, so older and very young (or otherwise weakened) people can have issues. Typically, elderly people cannot handle a bad flu the same way us youngens can. It can lead to pnuemonia etc. But younger, healthy people can catch this and shake it off with the usual bedrest and attention and thus their bodies have assimilated the latest strain of the flu and beaten it. It is a new form of flu, but the flu nonetheless.
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Still I feel like a child when I look at the moon, maybe I grew up a little too soon... |
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#15 |
Zartan
![]() Join Date: July 18, 2001
Location: America, On The Beautiful Earth
Age: 51
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Be calm, the hype is more dangerous than reality. Once again the media fails us with a bunch of useless sensationalizing. Anybody remember bird flu? Well they may as well play the same tapes as when that appeared. I'd make a bet that more people died from regular flu last year than will die from pig flu this year.
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Support Local Music and Record Stores! Got Liberty? |
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#16 | ||
Ironworks Moderator
![]() Join Date: February 28, 2001
Location: Boston/Sydney
Posts: 11,771
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#17 |
Jack Burton
![]() Join Date: May 31, 2002
Location: Ireland
Posts: 5,854
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Well, many of these were indeed young people with immature immune systems or elderly or otherwise sick/ not taking care of themselves. More than 1000 in mexico are infected with it but only a hundred or so have died. This is mostly to do with Mexico's healthcare system and poverty level. A flu can be a big issue if you can't afford meds. The first death in the US was a 23 month old child. I say again, the flu is the flu. It is no more deadly in itself than all the other strains, but people who aren't vaccinated against it and cannot afford to get sick are susceptible to this one.
Understand, the regular flu can do all this. People die from flu every single year due to lack of treatment, mistreatment, complications, immune system disorders, etc. but is is not reported because it is considered commonplace by now. The media is doing us a disservice by playing up the fear here. It is a pandemic but it is no different than any other strain. Next year, this strain will be in vaccinations. The previous swine outbreak actually had the vaccines causing more damage than the virus. When you have any flu you do the following. Do not go to work and overwork yourself if you have the flu, drink lots of fluids, take at least 3 proactive medications and get plenty of fresh air (the last one people don't practice much). If you ignore these, you open yourself up to complications and even death, as your body pushes itself to the limit while fighting the virus. Mr. Gupta is talking fear here. There are no new crazy symptoms with the swine flu. He is not lying per se, but what he's doing is making it seem like swine flu causes new and crazy symtoms with fluid in the lungs caused by an autoimmune response. What he is describing are the complications that can arrive from any flu if you don't take care of it. This is well documented in medicine, and this is what happens to the elderly when they get it. Now, these people may well have these issues arising, but these are considered cases of complications arising. For him to almost suggest these are an integral part of the swine flu symptoms is BS, I just helped treat someone with it last week and they have fully recovered with nothing like this arising, simply because they took care of themselves and did what they needed to do.
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Still I feel like a child when I look at the moon, maybe I grew up a little too soon... Last edited by SpiritWarrior; 04-29-2009 at 06:35 PM. |
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#18 |
Elminster
![]() Join Date: April 15, 2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 451
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I'd still prefer not to get it. Stuff up my day, that would.
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#19 |
Fzoul Chembryl
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Join Date: July 16, 2003
Location: Wa\'eni\'n
Age: 39
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That never happened. As far as I know, the pandemic with the most casualties was the Spanish flu, and that one only managed to kill about 1-5% of the population. See, it's dangerous to use such highly suggestive formulations as "wipe out" when you don't even know the facts. Of course we have this idea that such pandemics are dangerous but that's because we've been given that image through the media for since before I was born.
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#20 | ||
Ironworks Moderator
![]() Join Date: February 28, 2001
Location: Boston/Sydney
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In comparison, bubonic plague killed approx. 75m people. According to Wikipedia the world's population reduced from 450m in 1350 to 350-375m in 1400. That's an overall reduction of 16 - 20% of the world's population at the time. 50-60% of Europe's population was "wiped out" (excuse the pun). Obviously no plague or pandemic has totally wiped out the world' population if you take this literally, otherwise none of us would be here. But if you look at the impact the Black Death had on society in 1300 vs other pandemics that occurred either before or after, it was possibly the most significant. Why? - medical knowledge in the 1400s was very different to 1918 - there were no antibiotics or antiviral drugs - public health considerations were minimal as nobody knew of the nature of contagious disease at the time - it significantly changed Europe's social structure - the Roman Catholic Church lost a lot of the power it had as they could not "save people from the Black Death" - most of the dead were from lower classes of society ie. peasants, farmers, serfs etc. Their deaths had a significant impact on agriculture and the economy - the feudal system that had been in place declined after the plague, as higher status jobs that had been lost (eg physicians, clergy, gravediggers) had to be replaced, freeing serfs and peasants from duties that the social status they had been born in had locked them into. See below: Quote:
- the mortality rate caused a lot of people to a ) lose their belief in God, as well as to b ) live in a more decadent manner, as death seemed inevitable So maybe not "wiping out the world", but it certainly redefined society, particularly in Europe but also in the Middle East. Wiped out what had been there before and replaced it with something new - a new social structure, a new set of values, a new set of beliefs. This is not to diminish the severity of the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, where more people died. However, I feel that the impact to society was less, because: - the world's population was much greater at the time, and the social upheaval was not to the same extent as the Black Death - the fact that WWI had just happened and devastated communities across the US and Europe minimised the societal impact of the Spanish flu pandemic Of course, tell that to the 20-100m people who died in 1918 and they would likely disagree with me. In fact, if I were to look at plagues that significantly changed the course of human history, right alongside the Black Death I would put Justinian's Plague in the mid 500s. It prevented Justinian and the Byzantine Empire from ultimately retaking Italy and re-forming the Western Roman Empire, and the Byzantine Empire never reached such heights after it. Last edited by Memnoch; 04-30-2009 at 03:05 PM. |
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