Swine Flu

[merithyn]

I was actually talking about the Mexican study toward the bottom of the first page and through the second.

[garbon]

I thought part of the idea was that there was concern the flu would change and become more deadly this fall and beyond and then is concerning because a lot of people who don't typically get the flu were getting it at high rates.

[merithyn]

What I found interesting was that while more kids were getting it than the seasonal flu - and worse cases of it - the number of kids dying of it wasn't any different than for the seasonal flu. Like they said, it's hard to know what are real numbers, of course, since they don't - and can't - test everyone who dies, but that's the case with the seasonal flu, too.

H1N1 is dangerous, but it doesn't seem to be more deadly than any other flu. Or am I reading that wrong?

[saskganesh]

just an update.

according to the city, vaccinations are still NOT available for my non prioritized risk group (I guess Malthus is under 6, is pregnant or has chronic health issues  ). and apparently  the threat is receding. Hamilton is closing vaccination centres now. oddly, Peel is closing its centre because of vaccine shortages.

[saskganesh]

Got my vaccine today. There was no-one lined up - there were something like 50 booths set up, and not a single person wanting vaccination.

we have been told not to go.

H1N1 shots are available to people in priority groups.

    * People under 65 with chronic health conditions
    * Pregnant women (clinics now have non-adjuvanted vaccine available)
    * Children 6 months to less than 5 years of age
    * Health care workers
    * Household contacts and care providers of persons at high risk who cannot be immunized or may not respond to vaccines
    * Police and firefighters, frontline institutional correctional workers, and people aged 65 and over who live in institutions like long-term care homes.

If you are not in one of these priority groups, you will not receive a vaccination at this time.

I guess you qualify because Karl is high risk?

[Malthus]

Got my vaccine today. There was no-one lined up - there were something like 50 booths set up, and not a single person wanting vaccination.

we have been told not to go.

H1N1 shots are available to people in priority groups.

    * People under 65 with chronic health conditions
    * Pregnant women (clinics now have non-adjuvanted vaccine available)
    * Children 6 months to less than 5 years of age
    * Health care workers
    * Household contacts and care providers of persons at high risk who cannot be immunized or may not respond to vaccines
    * Police and firefighters, frontline institutional correctional workers, and people aged 65 and over who live in institutions like long-term care homes.

If you are not in one of these priority groups, you will not receive a vaccination at this time.

I guess you qualify because Karl is high risk?

No, I'm high risk. For the last few years, I've had chronic and severe recurring bronchitis (the one thing that finally forced me to quit smoking, or face probable death  ).

Doc told me to go, I just didn't wanna face 6 hour lines.

[Drakken]

Mrs Drakken finally got vaccinated with her family this Tuesday, and she is fine. Only some dizziness and a pain in the arm. Seems the illuminati's uberplan to cull humanity is a gargantuan failure. 

As for me, a few weeks ago I got some mild illness symptoms (sudden headache, malaise, tickling cough at first, growingly dry cough with days, slight fatigue), yet no fever at all (the highest I got was 36.6 degs on the thermometer, although one morning I woke up a little soaked and sweaty). Muscle aches? Yeah, most probably due to me continuing to work out during my illness. but it hurt a little more than usual. I said jokingly that if it was the flu, it was the mildest flu I ever had, but I was pretty certain it was only a cold. An odd cold, but a cold nonetheless. Most of the symptoms went away after 7 days. Yet...

Three weeks later now, still have some headaches, a little sweat now and then, and my cough is now reaching three weeks and counting, with no sign of going away. I've tried syrup, Vicks, mouthwash, and yet it remains. It mostly tickle, then I need to cough really, really deep. Could be a bronchitis, yet oddly it remains very dry and no mucus is produced. Sometimes I even spit to be sure, and only saliva is present. And everytime I got a cold, it was with loads of mucus and nasal congestion, and it went away after two weeks. 

I go see a doctor tomorrow morning. I'll ask a throat swap to see if I am of the lucky few who got a very, very mild case of swine flu. I highly doubt it, but you never know. And if it is the case, imagine the number of people I have threatened with death infected in that time. 

[Maximus]

As for me, a few weeks ago I got some mild illness symptoms (sudden headache, malaise, tickling cough at first, growingly dry cough with days, slight fatigue), yet no fever at all (the highest I got was 36.6 degs on the thermometer, although one morning I woke up a little soaked and sweaty). Muscle aches? Yeah, most probably due to me continuing to work out during my illness. but it hurt a little more than usual. I said jokingly that if it was the flu, it was the mildest flu I ever had, but I was pretty certain it was only a cold. An odd cold, but a cold nonetheless. Most of the symptoms went away after 7 days. Yet...

Three weeks later now, still have some headaches, a little sweat now and then, and my cough is now reaching three weeks and counting, with no sign of going away. I've tried syrup, Vicks, mouthwash, and yet it remains. It mostly tickle, then I need to cough really, really deep. Could be a bronchitis, yet oddly it remains very dry and no mucus is produced. Sometimes I even spit to be sure, and only saliva is present. And everytime I got a cold, it was with loads of mucus and nasal congestion, and it went away after two weeks. 

You've described my symptoms the past month or so almost to a T.

[Alexandru H.]

Mine too...

Weird as hell

[Drakken]

If it is indeed the case, then, perhaps we three are what happens when one catches swine flu in its mildest cases.

Got back from the clinic, I have a bronchitis caused by whatever I had three weeks ago. Never had one before, not even in my baddest cases of flu in my youth. She said it was quite possible I had indeed the flu, since the onset was rather rapid and it doesn't cause the usual nasal congestion and wet, mucus-filled coughs seen in colds.

It could be another virus alltogheter, although by you confirming you had the exact same symptoms, on three different parts of the planet in the same timespan, I doubt more and more now it was just a common cold. It could be coincidential, but that we had that flu remains possible.

[Grey Fox]

#4.

[garbon]

It could be another virus alltogheter, although by you confirming you had the exact same symptoms, on three different parts of the planet in the same timespan, I doubt more and more now it was just a common cold. It could be coincidential, but that we had that flu remains possible.

[Drakken]

#4.

Indeed.

Observing from the EUOT as well, I notice that, while it remains anecdotal, we witness a sudden spike in the number of bronchitis in people of have had mild symptoms of... something in the air right now.

Again, it might all be coincidential. But it's puzzling.

[Drakken]

http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/news/newsreleases/2009/H1N1protection.htm

National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
http://www.niaid.nih.gov
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, Nov. 16, 2009    

NIAID MEDIA AVAILABILITY
Immune System of Healthy Adults May Be Better Prepared Than Expected to Fight 2009 H1N1 Influenza Virus


A new study shows that molecular similarities exist between the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus and other strains of seasonal H1N1 virus that have been circulating in the population since 1988. These results suggest that healthy adults may have a level of protective immune memory that can blunt the severity of infection caused by the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus.

The study team was led by Bjoern Peters, Ph.D., and Alessandro Sette, Ph.D., of La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, Calif., grantees of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

The investigators looked at molecular structures known to be recognized by the immune system—called epitopes—on 2009 H1N1 influenza and seasonal H1N1 viruses. Viral epitopes are recognized by immune cells called B and T cells: B cells make antibodies that can bind to viruses, blocking infection, and T cells help to eliminate virus-infected cells.

Using data gathered and reviewed from the scientific literature and deposited into the NIAID-supported Immune Epitope Database and Analysis Resource (www.iedb.org), the investigators found that some viral epitopes are identical in both the 2009 and seasonal H1N1 viral strains. Those epitopes that could be recognized by two subsets of T cells, called CD4 and CD8 T cells, are 41 percent and 69 percent identical, respectively. Subsequent experiments using blood samples taken from healthy adults demonstrated that this level of T-cell epitope conservation may provide some protection and lessen flu severity in healthy adults infected with the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus.

Analysis of the database also found that among six viral surface epitopes that can bind antibody, thereby preventing infection, only one is conserved between 2009 and seasonal H1N1 viral strains.

These results suggest that healthy individuals may have immune memory that recognizes the 2009 H1N1 strain and therefore can mount some measure of an immune attack. The findings also may help explain why the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic affects young children more severely than it does healthy older adults and also why two H1N1 vaccinations are needed to protect children ages nine years and under.

[Grey Fox]

Did the GSK fire you?