We're all going to die (AKA Flu thread) MERGED

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Apparenly, our health authorities have conluded that shaking hands is now aiding the spread of swine flu.
http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/public-urged-not-to-shake-hands-at-mass-419270.html

Honestly, it's backward the HSE is going. It's more and more like some sort of medeaval witch doctor or something.

galwayrush

So it's not the pigs fault then.:rolleyes:

Abi

I'm not normally the church going sort, but I think I'll have to make an exception. I suspect I have swine flu, seems such a waste.

brummytom

There was some ridiculous story yesterday in the paper about churches stopping people from drinking from the Chalice because they could catch swine flu.

I mean ffs, 35million people in the world have HIV - 1 in 3 people in South Africa.
That's a fúking epidemic.
This shît isn't - I've had it; it's a bad cold basically... I've had worse 'normal' flu

jumpguy

We should start running the country like Mexico City was at the height of the flu. It's not like our economy could go much farther downhill...
I heard the other day a priest wanted holy water to be scrapped to stop the spread, I wrote an email suggesting holy disinfectant would solve that.

holly1

Are you saying the vaccine may be dangerous and it has not been tested properly???

MayoForSam

goldenbrown wrote: »

only 2, only 2 irish bishops have suggested stopping the shaking of hands in churches while we are dealing with this Very very very serious swine flu problem........watch closely as our ability to move quickly and sensibly to reduce its spread is tied up in knots ... by turf protecting bishops arguing the pros and cons of suspending all hand shaking, and empting 'magic' water fonts .... watch now as common sense is held back by small numbers of people too concerned about being asked nicely with all proper forms of address...remind me reader....how do I address a bishop is it 'your grace'? or 'buddy this epidemic is carrying people off daily in england now should we move quickly?'


get ready for closed schools and churches long after initial steps could have been taken.....in the UK they are baffled by its speed......see todays sunday times front web page....

Even easier solution, don't bother going to mass in the first place.

Mrmoe

Ikky Poo2 wrote: »

Apparenly, our health authorities have conluded that shaking hands is now aiding the spread of swine flu.
http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/public-urged-not-to-shake-hands-at-mass-419270.html

Honestly, it's backward the HSE is going. It's more and more like some sort of medeaval witch doctor or something.

Whats wrong in what they propose? You would be surprised the amount of transmission that occurs this way. In general people do not know how to wash themselves properly and thats when they even do it in the first place..

My name is URL

Its better to be safe than sorry.

Why not warn people not to shake hands? Its the easiest way to spread an infection apart from coughing on people

Some people don't take shit seriously enough until its too late

chalkitdown

This flu virus is similar to the one which propagated in Ireland and elsewhere around 1977/78, so if you are old enough to have been exposed to that one you are very unlikely to die from the current one.

phasers

Good, I hate handshakes. I hate strangers touching me in any way

galwayrush

phasers wrote: »

Good, I hate handshakes. I hate strangers touching me in any way

True, some of them may not wash their hands after having a ****.

jumpguy

galwayrush wrote: »

True, some of them may not wash their hands after having a ****.

That's just one of the gigantic risks you take...when touching another person.

tallaght01

Kids get more normal flu than old people every year. There's nothing new about that, or this situation.

Old people just get hit really hard by it. But for some reason old people haven't ended up getting smashed by it the way we were expecting. The theory is that they may have been exposed to a similar virus in the past (possibly in the late 60s) and have some protection against it. Who knows.

The problems with this bug are multiple:

There's no immunity in the general population, so it has the potential to spread through the country at high speed. So far that's not happened. A person infected by normal flu spreads it to another 1.3 people on average. IN the case of swine flu it's been about 1.4 people. BUt this may change significantly in the winter when the conditions for spread are much better.

There's a o.1% death rate with it. So that's 1 in 1000 people who get it die. That could be a lot of people if it affects a few hundred thousand.

The other concern, in terms of knock on effects is that it's putting 0.6% of sufferers into ICU on life support. Now most of these people will make it out. But because they usually end up on life support with it for over a week, you'll find a lot of other surgery cancelled, as they won't have ICU beds to put them in after the operation. This will have significant knock on effects for people who need operations. For example, my nan needs life saving heart surgery in the next few months. She'll need to be in ICU for about 3 weeks afterwards. But if all the beds are taken up with swine flu patients, they can't operate. She may run out of time. That's an example of how it can affect lives of people who don't have swine flu.

Pregnant women. There have been a good few pregnant women with this bug. A lot of them have gone into labour prematurely. That shouldn't cause panic. Only a tiny % of pregnant women will get swine flu, and a smaller number again will have problems. But during the winter we need to keep away from pregnant ladies if we have a flu. That's going to be very important.

Tamiflu: It's useful for preventing infection in some people. It's pretty safe. It's very likely that it will be used for people who won't be able to fight off the infection for themselves.

The vaccine: It's being tested at the moment. Lots of people being talked about it being rushed through etc, and insufficient testing. I don't think that's the case. It will be like the normal flu jab that lots of us get every year. There's no need to put any new ingredients into a vaccine, when there's one that already works. But, safety is very important. In fact, one of the testing centres put back their tests on kids until they have more data on it's safety in adults. This will delay it's release by a couple of weeks. But safety does genuinely come first.

I think it's a mistake to underestimate this bug. But, on the other hand, I'm not losing sleep over it. I think if we're all sensible about it, and stay away from vulnerable people if we get sick, then it will be ok. I think the health service will be stretched, but will just about cope.

People will die in Ireland of swine flu. But we all need to be sensible if we're to minimise infections.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Mrmoe wrote: »

Whats wrong in what they propose? You would be surprised the amount of transmission that occurs this way. In general people do not know how to wash themselves properly and thats when they even do it in the first place..

What's wrong is that it's blatant fearmongering bull****. If it was true, there'd have been far more pandemics in the last twenty years, especially without modern drugs and medicine. A bit like the "people don't know how to wash themselves".

My name is URL

Ikky Poo2 wrote: »

What's wrong is that it's blatant fearmongering bull****. If it was true, there'd have been far more pandemics in the last twenty years, especially without modern drugs and medicine. A bit like the "people don't know how to wash themselves".

Only the media are 'fearmongering' and blowing it out of proportion

The people giving the advice are professional scientists and doctors

Calling the HSE backwards and medieval for advising people isn't really fair tbh

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

My name is URL wrote: »

Only the media are 'fearmongering' and blowing it out of proportion

The people giving the advice are professional scientists and doctors

Calling the HSE backwards and medieval for advising people isn't really fair tbh

I seriously doubt the HSE have involved professionals. Not in terms of quality, anyway.

tallaght01

Ikky Poo2 wrote: »

I seriously doubt the HSE have involved professionals. Not in terms of quality, anyway.

What bogey advice have the HSE given? I'm in oz, so haven't seen it.

I'd imagine their infectious disease docs and public health docs are advising them. I also doubt the advice is much different from other countries. But I could be wrong.

brianthebard

Just don't go to South America and you'll be fine people!

http://incakolanews.blogspot.com/2009/07/south-america-swine-flu-sweepstaks.html

Wertz

I'd welcome the clergy's move on this whole shaking hands thing (I always thought that it was nonsense even when I was a kid) even though I've not been to mass in a long time, bar funerals.
In the absensce of any concrete instructions from health professionals, the bishops have recognised the risk that the mass handshake presents even if it is only small and have acted. That's to be applauded not to be seen as some form of over reaction. We're already told repeatedly by the HSE about hand washing and iatrogenic infections, so the logic of that can be transferred to public gatherings such as mass.


I find it almost laughable that people are still being somewhat blasé about this thing...I couldn't really care as I'm outside the age which seems most at risk according to the latest findings, and I don't have children, but that doesn't mean that I or people like me shouldn't be worried or take simple pre cautions.
Mass panic doesn't do anything but create more problems, but head in the sand, never happen to me type thinking is equally likely to cause problems.

Latchy

I have a supply of Tamiflu and it's mine, all mine .....he he he he

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

tallaght01 wrote: »

What bogey advice have the HSE given? I'm in oz, so haven't seen it.

I'd imagine their infectious disease docs and public health docs are advising them. I also doubt the advice is much different from other countries. But I could be wrong.

I said I seriously doubt they hired a professional scientist has advised them to tell peopel to stop shaking hands. My theory is that someone realised it can be spread of human contact and then told everyone to stop shaking hands because that's touching.

tallaght01

Ikky Poo2 wrote: »

I said I seriously doubt they hired a professional scientist has advised them to tell peopel to stop shaking hands. My theory is that someone realised it can be spread of human contact and then told everyone to stop shaking hands because that's touching.

Well they wouldn't have hired someone to just tell people to stop shaking hands. But it's very good advice. Proper hand washing by everyone would probably slow down the spread of this bug quite significantly.

Calibos

Netwhizzkid,

Still think you had 5 colds or throat infections tbh. Maybe they hit you like a ton of bricks because of a compromised immune system. I know there are multiple Cold virus strains on the go at any one time and thats why one can have several colds per season, but I didn't think there would be multiple flu strains on the go. ie. We need a new flu vaccine every year because the Flu mutates, but its only one vaccine. If multiple seasonal flu strains did the rounds every season, wouldn't we need a vaccine for each strain. And it would have to have been 5 different strains of flu for you to catch it 5 times because your body would have developed immunity the first time you got it. So why wasn't there 5 different vaccines released that year?

As for the Cytocine storm. That got me worried after claiming in a post just before the link, how I had such a healthy immune system!!

Happy to read a follow on poster explain that it was un primed healthy immune systems hyperactive response. That put my mind at ease. I have no allergies that I know of which would be an indication of a hyperactive immune system. I am also 'Theres a happy medium' kinda guy which I apply to everything, whether its points of view on a given subject or how much or what I eat. ie. Everything is OK...in moderation etc etc |I apply this world view to germs and cleanliness. Obviously one extreme is the filthy ****er and the other is showering twice a day, washing hands 20 times a day and disinfecting every surface in the house every other day. Middle ground people!! We need some germs to keep our immune system primed and used to making appropriate responses to infections.

Moriarty

Ikky Poo2 wrote: »

I said I seriously doubt they hired a professional scientist has advised them to tell peopel to stop shaking hands. My theory is that someone realised it can be spread of human contact and then told everyone to stop shaking hands because that's touching.

I seriously doubt you know a single thing about what you're moaning about to appear hardkore and anti-establishment. Despite 'common wisdom', there are actual experts that know what they're talking about. They can even be employed by the health service at times, as crazy as that sounds. Crawl back under your rock and go back to moaning somewhere else about how you could do it all so much better, please.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Moriarty wrote: »

I seriously doubt you know a single thing about what you're moaning about to appear hardkore and anti-establishment. Despite 'common wisdom', there are actual experts that know what they're talking about. They can even be employed by the health service at times, as crazy as that sounds. Crawl back under your rock and go back to moaning somewhere else about how you could do it all so much better, please.

Oh jesus, not this "anti-establishment" **** again. Where the **** does it come from? Please?

I shake hands with people. I'm not ****ing scared. I've got a brain. The establishment can do what it likes.

Oh and I do't have flu. Strange...

dresden8

Ikky Poo2 wrote: »

A bit like the "people don't know how to wash themselves".

Especially medical professionals.

Do you not remember "Ask your doctor has he washed his hands"?

Moriarty

Ikky Poo2 wrote: »

Oh jesus, not this "anti-establishment" **** again. Where the **** does it come from? Please?

Sounds like it follows you around. How strange, eh?

Ikky Poo2 wrote: »

I shake hands with people [...] Oh and I do't have flu. Strange...

I've got one bullet in a six-barrelled pistol. I've put it to my head and pulled the trigger once, so clearly it's totally safe. Duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I smarts.

derry

I cant swear blind to you that I got the swine flu and survived but am fairly sure that I did get it in june 2009 while on holiday is Spain

First I caught a plane to Spain to Malaga and bought a bike and tent and started cycling south.After a few days suddenly I didnt feel so well and opted to stop at a cheaper camping site for a week as the weekly rate was better than the daily rate.Then the next day I got mega sick with sorta mix like a bad cold and a bad flu.

My plan to catch the Swine flu bug had maybe worked

I knew from the news that there was a lot of the swine flu in Spain but I also knew it wasnt likely to kill people in good health.Also I wasnt going to let some bug deter me from my holiday break which I booked in febuary and there was no insurance for the flight to cancell no go no money return or rebook policy

Also I figured the sooner you catch the darn swine flu virus the better before it mutates into something more lethal in a cold dark irish winter time

This made going to swine flu riddeen spain an even better idea if I could be lucky to catch the bug there

So I figured the chances to catch the bug are raised with flying in the plane to Spain .This is because they now only refresh the air every hour where as in the old days when there was smoking they had to refresh the air in the planes every 15 minutes .
This means that bugs all bugs can get more victims per flight in modern planes than on the old fashioned planes with smokers on them .
Then I figured go to all the likely spots where the bug was likley to be the crowded bars and discos full for peoples from everywhere all down the coast and with a bit of luck catch the bug the swine flu and recover from it


Once I got sick I rang the reception of the camping with my sapinsih mobile which only cost €20 with €20 credit enough for my holidays to inform them in case they had some quarintine policy
The main girl at reception was from germany who also talked fluent english and was also as it goes trained scientist in biology .She was able to confirm what the spanish governments health and quarintine policy was at that time.
Later I spent a lot of time chatting up that girl nice girl but she left for a better job in Barcellona with a property developer and more money as the job in the camping was filler in while in between work that paid more like prorpety sales
The quarintinne policy in Spain in June 2009 was the swine flu virus was now so rampant out control virus and so no specail quarintinne was advised or needed as the swine flu wasnt exactly a killer virus
That is now similar policy in ROI in that they no longer look to see the individual cases of swine flu are logged and dont opt for quarintine as the ROI also figures the darn virus spread is out of control in the ROI also

The latest info at that time there was there was no special risks for the swine flu to kill you if you were fairly healthy and for most cases just stay in bed and and take basic stuff like Disprin whatever and if things worsened get more mediacl help.

So I opted to do that got most my food like bread milk etc dropped to my tent from the camping sites shop and camped away from the main mob .I sweated it out for a week sometimes and sometimes went the beach and suntanned if I still felt cold and then recovered somewhat. The nose stayed very runny for every day and the other symptoms dropped down .Then after 10 days I felt the tinges of the lungs getting blocked up so opted to go the local spanish hospital with a note of the previous ten days written in spanish from the camping site .Having before had lung issues I knew the symtoms that something was going on in the lungs and that I might need a bit of mediccine to clear that type of problem.That is what makes the swine flu risky it can sometimes block the lungs up for some people and is a classic swine flu symtom

I went to A&E in this small town about the size of Rosslare and I presented my E11 medical card .I waited in there in the short queue for maybe 20 minutes .Then I went the doctor who read the note checked my vitals heart pulse check with stetoscope.They asked a few questions which strained my broken Spainish and were fairly happy from my reply.Then they gave me a prescription for the drugs penissilin for six days and sent me packing .

I went back the camping and after six days was recovered and then continued my cycling holiday for the rest of my one month stay in spain.Total time to be sick 15 days

Another german guy aged about 40 a trained nurse in the camp site had virtually exactly the same symtoms as me and he was sick also about 15 days .however he chose not to bother to go the doctor as he said as far as he was concerned it was the Swine Flu and that as he like me being fit and active as in daily he did wind surfing that our risk to die wasnt worth the hassle as the flu was rampant all over Spain .

So with a bit oif luck my holiday has immunised me from the swine flu virus and sure beats to be sick lying beside the beach sun tanning in the day time sometimes and surfing the net at night time with my computer.
I had with me in case I got bored my appple G3 notebook 12 inch screen and the camping had wifi thrown in at no extra cost so I could still write to boards from my deck chair if I was really bored.I think I wrote twice in the month to boards as a month in spain is along time not like a week holiday so I would check the boards sometimes once a week to se hat gives

I still got most of two weeks of my holiday as normal non sick holiday and some ten days pretty bad sick ands some 5 days recovering as in able to still cycle the local region for sight seeing .

All my research shows that the region of spain I went to was rampant in that time with the swine flu virus which is not suprising with half the world passing through on holidays and the symptoms are exatly what the swine flu is like.

Now all I need is a T shirt been there done that survived the swine flu:D

What will really piss me is if that was just some local bug which mimicks the swine flu and later I get the swine flu and have go through a similar experience in ROI where there isnt any sun shine . As that bug whatever it was was evil real evil you couldnt do anything at all for days barely even eat anything all I can hope is it was swine flu so as to save me from the return of the swine flu mark two version:eek:

Hopefully mission accomplished :pac: and hopefully when I nip back to Barcellona next month for the weekend the german girl will still be as friendly to me and I wont get stung in the winter with a pig flu virus

Derry

JohnGalt

There is no way I am reading all that