Let's not overreact: Some Swine Flu Facts

The incubation period for the flu is 2-5 days.[1] This means that if you went to Mexico two weeks ago and have not shown symptoms, you do not have the flu. If a co-worker went to Cancun over Christmas, she does not have Swine Flu.

You can not catch swine flu from eating pork.[2] Cooking pork kills the swine flu virus.

There are drugs to treat swine flu patients.[2] Four drugs are used to treat the flu: amantadine, rimantadine, oseltamivir and zanamivir. The recent strain of swine flu has been resistent to amantadine and rimantadine, oseltamivir or zanamivir seem to be effective.

In the U.S. alone, 36,000 people die each year of (non-swine) flu and about 42,000 die of car accidents.[3][4] With one confirmed death in the U.S. so far and 159 in Mexico, swine flu is still very low on the list of things likely to kill you.




[1] - http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/news/20031205/raise-your-flu-iq
[2] - http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/key_facts.htm
[3] - http://www.cdc.gov/flu/keyfacts.htm
[4] - http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx

Video: US Health and Human Services news conference on H1N1

U.S. Health and Human Services news conference update on swine flu:

Spanish and Swine Flu Targets 25-35 Year Olds

One of the key differences of the Spanish Flu which killed 50 to 100 million people in 1918/1919 was the fact that young, healthy victims died at a much higher rate due to the way it attacked the body. The virus causes one's immune system to go into a feedback loop called a "Cytokine Storm" in which T-Cells, which normally fight the infection, are produced at a tremendous rate and cause the victim's body to shut down. In many cases the inflammation would severly obstruct the lungs causing the face to have a blue tint. Young adults, with strong immune systems, would succumb to the flu in a matter of days, whereas, children and older adults died at a much smaller rate.



Initial reports of the Swine Flu from Mexico indicate a similar pattern of it targeting young adults as the Spanish Flu of 1918 did. This is a large part of the reason why the response from government and health officials has been so strong.

Swine Flu Google Map

A biomedical researcher from Pittsburgh has put together a great Google Map of the currently confirmed Swine Flu cases.

Links and Stats from CDC's Investigation

The CDC has posted a page about their ongoing Swine Flu investigation.

Confirmed cases as of April 26, 2009 9:00 AM ET:

• California - 7
  
• Kansas - 2
  
• New York City - 8
  
• Ohio - 1
  
• Texas - 2
  
• Total U.S. Count - 20
  

Some good news is that, according to the CDC, lab tests have shown that the swine flu virus (H1N1) does respond to antiviral drugs oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza).

What is swine flu ?

Swine Influenza (swine flu) is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza that regularly cause outbreaks of influenza among pigs. Swine flu viruses do not normally infect humans, however, human infections with swine flu do occur, and cases of human-to-human spread of swine flu viruses has been documented. See General Information about Swine Flu.

From December 2005 through February 2009, a total of 12 human infections with swine influenza were reported from 10 states in the United States. Since March 2009, a number of confirmed human cases of a new strain of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection in the U.S. and internationally have been identified. An investigation into these cases is ongoing. For more information see Human Swine Flu Investigation.

(from U.S. CDC)

First Hand Accounts from Mexico

The BBC is publishing first hand accounts of the swine flu outbreak in Mexico.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/8018428.stm

The reports are definitely concerning. For example:

I'm a specialist doctor in respiratory diseases and intensive care at the Mexican National Institute of Health. There is a severe emergency over the swine flu here. More and more patients are being admitted to the intensive care unit. Despite the heroic efforts of all staff (doctors, nurses, specialists, etc) patients continue to inevitably die. The truth is that anti-viral treatments and vaccines are not expected to have any effect, even at high doses. It is a great fear among the staff. The infection risk is very high among the doctors and health staff.

There is a sense of chaos in the other hospitals and we do not know what to do. Staff are starting to leave and many are opting to retire or apply for holidays. The truth is that mortality is even higher than what is being reported by the authorities, at least in the hospital where I work it. It is killing three to four patients daily, and it has been going on for more than three weeks. It is a shame and there is great fear here. Increasingly younger patients aged 20 to 30 years are dying before our helpless eyes and there is great sadness among health professionals here.

Antonio Chavez, Mexico City