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The Mexican Swine Flu Epidemic
Topic Started: Apr 25 2009, 08:51 AM (5,071 Views)
Baldo
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It is my understanding, admittedly just an avid reader, that the current situation is definitely a pandemic at the outset. We have some smarts minds on this board and I listen to them.

The real danger is not this type of H1N1 because it is treatable by medications, but it is mimicking the 1918 pandemic which started out in the spring and spread later. It was mild at first, but it mutated as it learned the pathways into the human defenses and came back stronger in the fall.

The game goes to those once young nerdy boys and girls with test tubes in their minds as they race to develop our defenses. I am betting on them and our Healthcare professionals.


Edited by Baldo, Apr 30 2009, 05:14 PM.
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brittany

Heard on TV it will take 15 weeks to develop a vaccine.
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Kerri P.
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30471035
Swine flu shuts 300 schools across the U.S.
About 172,000 students in 11 states are affected by closures, officials say

updated 13 minutes ago

Nearly 300 schools scattered around the country closed as the nation's swine flu caseload passed 100 Thursday, and U.S. authorities pledged to eventually produce enough vaccine for everyone — but said shots couldn't begin until fall at the earliest.

The Education Department's count stood at 298 on Thursday, tripling from around 100 on Wednesday. Most will be closed only for a few days. About 172,000 students are affected in 11 states, from every region of the country.

The outbreak penetrated over a dozen states and even touched the White House, which disclosed that an aide to Energy Secretary Steven Chu apparently got sick helping arrange President Barack Obama's recent trip to Mexico but that the aide did not fly on Air Force One and never posed a risk to the president.

snip...
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brittany

Don't a lot of schools in the south close early May?
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brittany

Received this email from soccer club and will pass on . It makes sense:

A Physician has advised xxx Soccer League of the following: The Swine Flu Virus is transmitted by mouth to mouth contact, (which in the case of outdoor soccer is highly unlikely) and hand to mouth contact.
We therefore advise that until further notice teams refrain from the traditional handshake at the end of the game. In order to show sportsmanship, teams can line up as they do now and say nice game to each other without the high five or handshake. We do not want to cause concern; we are simply putting out this advisory to err on the side of caution and to insure the health of our players.
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brittany

IMO people should stop shaking hands during the sign of peace during Catholic masses. It would be nice if the priest announced this. You can just say peace.
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brittany

http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-sphof0501,0,2539621.story

Swine Flu causes U of Delaware to forfeit game. Hostra wins softball title.
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sceptical

brittany
Apr 30 2009, 05:01 PM
IMO people should stop shaking hands during the sign of peace during Catholic masses. It would be nice if the priest announced this. You can just say peace.
Originally posted: April 29, 2009

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/religion_theseeker/2009/04/swine-flu-fears-alter-communion.html

Swine flu fears alter communion

Do you hold hands during the Lord’s Prayer? Do you sip consecrated wine from the same cup as your neighbor? Do you shake fellow parishioners’ hands when wishing peace upon them? These are the questions clergy are debating as weekend worship approaches and fears of a flu pandemic spread across Chicago and around the world.

Rev. Joe Jackson at St. Ignatius Roman Catholic Church in the Rogers Park neighborhood, where one possible case has been reported at a nearby elementary school, is taking no chances. Parishioners there will receive only the body of Christ, not the blood, during communion, he said. They also will be encouraged to wave as a sign of peace until further notice.

"We’ll probably definitely keep the handshake of peace on hiatus for a while," said Jackson, whose parish offers a Spanish mass to a largely Mexican congregation and serves Loyola University students. "We can wave."

In a memo earlier this week, Rev. John Canary, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Chicago, granted priests the freedom to take safety precautionary measures during mass as they saw fit.

"If an individual Pastor would think that it is important at this time to caution his parishioners about drinking from the cup or extending a handshake of peace, he should use his prudential judgment," Canary wrote. "If the situation changes, and precautions become warranted, we will re-evaluate the situation and alert you to appropriate precautions."

Joliet Bishop J. Peter Sartain is expected to announce safety precautions for parishes in his diocese on Thursday, said Doug Delaney, his executive assistant.

Jackson said he considered offering parishioners the option of consuming consecrated wine during mass. But since he wouldn’t know how much wine to consecrate, he decided to offer only a consecrated wafer for the time being. Catholics often receive only the consecrated wafer at weekday masses, but still regard it as the Eucharist in its entirety.

The concession, however, will make First Communion a little more memorable for the many children receiving it there this weekend, Jackson said.

"We’re saddened by that," Jackson said. "It’s just a variety of considerations."

On Wednesday, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued guidelines, echoing those developed in conjunction with the U.S. Center for Disease Control in 2006 at the time of the avian (bird) flu.

"Priests, deacons, and extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion should be especially reminded of the need to practice good hygiene," the guidelines advise. "Ministers of Holy Communion should be encouraged to wash their hands before Mass begins, or even to use an alcohol based anti-bacterial solution before and after distributing Holy Communion. They should instruct people who feel ill not to receive from the cup."

Jackson will take it one step further. He plans to insert a letter into the weekend bulletins encouraging parishioners to miss mass if they are ill. He also might install dispensers for antibacterial gel for parishioners to use before entering the worship space.

While Episcopal Church bishops may authorize changes in worship, Clay Morris, program officer for worship and spirituality, told the Episcopal News Service that the practice of sharing the chalice, called the "common cup," generally carries a very low risk of infection. The cup bearer often wipes the rim and turns the cup after each person sips.

Intinction, the custom of dipping the consecrated wafer into the consecrated wine, may carry a higher risk since fingertips also skim the consecrated wine.

Will fears of the flu scare you away from worship this weekend or does the prospect of an outbreak make worship more important than ever

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brittany

I don't believe that wiping the cup thing. It's gross.
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brittany

White House aid who helped with Mexico has swine flu.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/30/gibbs-white-house-aides-family-likely-swine-flu/
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DANinZA
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Clowns
Apr 30 2009, 12:56 PM
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30398682
WHO to stop using term ‘swine flu’
Group seeks to prevent needless slaughter of pigs as worldwide cases climb

updated 53 minutes ago

Worldwide cases of swine flu climbed to 257 on Thursday, a day after global health authorities warned that swine flu was threatening to bloom into a pandemic and notched up their alert system to the second highest level.

Also on Thursday, the World Health Organization said it will would stop using the term "swine flu" to avoid confusion over the danger posed by pigs.

WHO spokesman Dick Thompson says the name change comes after the agriculture industry and the U.N. food agency expressed concerns that the term "swine flu" was misleading consumers and needlessly causing countries to order the slaughter of pigs. He told reporters in Geneva "we're going to stick with the technical scientific name H1N1 influenza A."

snip...
Date Line Atlanta April 30th 2009:


88 Professors of Porcine Studies posted an advertisement in the New England Journal of Medicine headed - We're Whistling.

The ad complained to the CDC that referring to the pandemic as swine-flu is specie-ist and threatened to bang pots outside the CDC HQ in Atlanta. The Professors called for the castration of the epidemiologists and threatened grade retaliation against them.

The CDC and later the World Health organization immediately apologised for the politically incorrect name and promised to work with prominent members of the Pig community to develop a name that would not affect tender sensibilities of the Professors.

They later issued a statement saying that as a preventative one should not:

Dance a jig with a Pig
Entwine with a Swine
or
Snog with a Hog.
Edited by DANinZA, Apr 30 2009, 06:14 PM.
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brittany

Waiting for O to blame the swine epidemic on Bush.
Edited by brittany, Apr 30 2009, 06:19 PM.
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retiredLEO
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Joan Foster
Apr 30 2009, 02:55 PM
Sceptical...I am so confused as to what that really means. Just that most of us WILL get this flu...but yet it is presenting as no more severe than the average flu in folks who are not high risk?

Is the concern because so many more people will get it? Or that it will be more deadly than other flus?

God only knows how right you are Joan, this is a flu, nothing more, nothing less. The MSN is blowing this making this into something it is not. It is the flu, plain and simple, it is the MSN's ability to panic us. I just can't believe that educated people are buying into this. Take 2 aspirin, plenty of liquids and lots of rest and you will be okay in a week. This reminds me of the "The Beverly Hillbillies", when granny had a sure fire cure for the common cold. Her moonshine and rest in bed for a week and your cold will be gone. That was her cure for the cold.
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wayne fontes
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If you want to understand what the flu is and how it differs from strain to strain the book to read is The Great Influenza by John Barry. It's a fascinating book. I'd recommend it to anybody.

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retiredLEO
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That was over 90 years ago, what did we have back then to combat a pig virus? We will always have some kind of virus, we had the swine flu virus back in 1976. One person died from that, but the vaccinations, did more damage then the virus. 90 year ago we didn't have the same kind of medical treatment, nor the same kind of anti viral drugs. I think this is a government trying to make a big deal out of nothing to distract us and push through "National Health Care". National health care will not cure a virus.
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