Swine Virus (4 Viewers)

[Official]

=o, on the news this morning it said that there is a potential for 1/5 of ALL Australians to be diagnosed with Swine Flu

 

[Prashant Sallan]

=o, on the news this morning it said that there is a potential for 1/5 of ALL Australians to be diagnosed with Swine Flu

thats in victoria only..

 

[Graney]

thats in victoria only..

Swine flu to hit one in five as virus continues to spread

SWINE flu is expected to infect one in five Australians (by years end), threatening lives and costing the economy double the price of seasonal flu, authorities said yesterday.

 

[XymoxLilac]

I don't think the government is taking enough precautions to prevent it from spreading. They could have kept it out of the country to begin with if they wanted to.

 

[Graney]

No, there is no way they could have kept it out of Australia forever.

 

[pman]

Gee I feel sorry for you and I hope you don't get this flu.

I am sorry for maybe seeming crazy, but, seriously I take the train into the city everyday to go to uni and I wake up every morning thinking is today going to be the day that I get it and I thank god every day that I wasn't one of those people who contracted this virus.

I have contracted the normal flu many times before and its not exactly a comfortable experience. But then again when you get the flu you don't really think that you'll die (I have contracted croup before and it is much more terrifying than the flu as you literally can't breathe), people don't really tally how many people get the flu but when some viral infection such as the swine-flu is tallied who really can't be somewhat afraid. Because I know that this whole thing is really scaring me!

Paranoid much!

 

[Strawbaby]

3) This flu contains lots of novel DNA and is ripe for mutating into something deadly come flu season (Which for us is quite soon), similar to the Spanish flu, which came in 4 waves, the first one very mild.

Perhaps we should all get the mild version now.

Like cowpox.

 

[JonathanM]

No, there is no way they could have kept it out of Australia forever.

True, but it would have been nice to delay it more so we'd have more time to immunize the population.

If this is like the Spanish Flu, which came in 4 waves, it will not be as devastating. Arguably, we are in the second wave now, and by the time the 4th wave comes, hopefully we will have immunized the most vulnerable of the population.

 

[S.H.O.D.A.N.]

True, but it would have been nice to delay it more so we'd have more time to immunize the population.

If this is like the Spanish Flu, which came in 4 waves, it will not be as devastating. Arguably, we are in the second wave now, and by the time the 4th wave comes, hopefully we will have immunized the most vulnerable of the population.

None of that makes sense

The Spanish flu was the most deadly flu in recent memory, and each wave lasted something like a year. We are barely at the started of the first wave of this flu.

Not to mention that you can't immunise yourself by contracting flu before it mutates. There's a reason people catch the flu each year even though it's often the same strain - their old resistance is useless because it has mutated.

I don't think the government is taking enough precautions to prevent it from spreading. They could have kept it out of the country to begin with if they wanted to.

Nope. That would require completely closing all our borders and even then we couldn't stop all the illegal immigrants and refugees that arrive by boat (let alone air).

 

[shak99]

NSW now has the power to force people who have come into contact with a suspected case to stay in isolation if they refuse voluntary quarantine. So if you want to keep your freedom, deny all contact with anyone suspected of having swine flu and keep any flu symptoms you have quiet.

nice way of summing it up, nicola rixon..is an idiot, she should be telling the federal government to buy the "tamiflu" pills already, not sayin: "This virus can be contracted very quickly" and spending money on a general knowledge ad. :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

people are dieing, who cares about the precautions.

 

[S.H.O.D.A.N.]

nice way of summing it up, nicola rixon..is an idiot, she should be telling the federal government to buy the "tamiflu" pills already, not sayin: "This virus can be contracted very quickly" and spending money on a general knowledge ad. :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

people are dieing, who cares about the precautions.

Nobody in Australia has died of Swine Flu and the government has already made the orders for Tamiflu, Relenza, and 10 million vaccines.

 

[JonathanM]

None of that makes sense

The Spanish flu was the most deadly flu in recent memory, and each wave lasted something like a year. We are barely at the started of the first wave of this flu.

Not to mention that you can't immunise yourself by contracting flu before it mutates. There's a reason people catch the flu each year even though it's often the same strain - their old resistance is useless because it has mutated.

Sorry, I should have made more clear what I was saying. By 'immunizing' I meant, so there's enough time for a vaccine to be created and the population vaccinated. Presumably, once a vaccine is created we will have a greater understanding of how this virus works, and subsequently be able to deal with any mutations.

By 'waves,' I was quantifying what we are going through now as the 'second' wave, in that there was a space of about a month between when Swine Flu first arose and when it started to spread virulently as it is now - although this has only really been the case in Australia where we were able to delay the arrival of Swine flu for a few weeks.

If the waves of the Spanish flu lasted a year each, then we should have a vaccine and a greater understanding of it by the time a second wave were to come, if it does come.

 

[Omnidragon]

Numbers are rising so rapidly. The Government has done so little to try to contain the spread. Right from the outset, the Government should have quarantined anyone coming from Mexico/USA or who have been to Mexico and USA in the past 2 months.

Obviously that's something the Govt would never dare to do since this country is merely USA's shoe-shiner. If it were an Asian or African country, the Govt probably would've already blacklisted the country as they did in 2003 when SARs broke out in China/HK.

Not to mention the campaign on hygiene is pathetic. In HK, they've already sterilised all the streets in the city and everyone is encouraged to wear a mask. I sure hope I don't get it but if I do I know who I'll be holding responsible for this. As for any ALP supporter who gets infected, this is what you get when you vote for incompetent Govts who pay a whopping $900 to dead people. Absolutely pathetic.

 

[S.H.O.D.A.N.]

Numbers are rising so rapidly. The Government has done so little to try to contain the spread. Right from the outset, the Government should have quarantined anyone coming from Mexico/USA or who have been to Mexico and USA in the past 2 months.

Obviously that's something the Govt would never dare to do since this country is merely USA's shoe-shiner. If it were an Asian or African country, the Govt probably would've already blacklisted the country as they did in 2003 when SARs broke out in China/HK.

Not to mention the campaign on hygiene is pathetic. In HK, they've already sterilised all the streets in the city and everyone is encouraged to wear a mask. I sure hope I don't get it but if I do I know who I'll be holding responsible for this. As for any ALP supporter who gets infected, this is what you get when you vote for incompetent Govts who pay a whopping $900 to dead people. Absolutely pathetic.

Moron, that would entail quarantining anybody who'd been in contact with anybody who'd been in contact with anybody who'd been to Mexico or America in the past 2 months: i.e. about 20 million Australians.

Not to mention face masks are suspected of further propagating infection after about 30 minutes of use when they become saturated (every man and his dog uses facemasks way past their expiration time). Oh, and facemasks don't prevent contact infection - the typical transmission vector.

God job trying to politicise the issue, but the fact is the Coalition would be doing exactly the same things about Swine flu as any other government.

Were you born inept?

 

[extensorindicis]

303...

 

[aLexTasyy]

there are 2 people who go to my school who were on the Pacific Dawn. 10 people who went and saw them. they have been to school.
My schools gonna get infected and we're all gonna die... either that, or im just being uber paranoid.

 

[JonathanM]

Numbers are rising so rapidly. The Government has done so little to try to contain the spread. Right from the outset, the Government should have quarantined anyone coming from Mexico/USA or who have been to Mexico and USA in the past 2 months.

That is simply not possible. Hundreds of thousands of people come from USA/Mexico every year, it is not only logistically impossible, it would also be doing our economy and diplomatic reputation no favors.

Obviously that's something the Govt would never dare to do since this country is merely USA's shoe-shiner. If it were an Asian or African country, the Govt probably would've already blacklisted the country as they did in 2003 when SARs broke out in China/HK.

Not to mention the campaign on hygiene is pathetic. In HK, they've already sterilised all the streets in the city and everyone is encouraged to wear a mask. I sure hope I don't get it but if I do I know who I'll be holding responsible for this. As for any ALP supporter who gets infected, this is what you get when you vote for incompetent Govts who pay a whopping $900 to dead people. Absolutely pathetic.

Well, two things with that: Australia can't really afford to do that, it would be ridiculously expensive. The second thing is that we have what is called "responsible" and "representative" Government (whether it's Labor or Liberal) in Australia, that is held to account by a very ravenous media, whereas China don't. The Government is already being widely criticized for over reacting to the Swine Flu outbreak.

I believe that under the circumstances, our Government is doing an excellent job handling the virus. It is true that the P+O Cruise ship debacle could have been handled much better than it was, but hindsight's a bitch, isn't it. There are public announcements through numerous media, a very fast response health authority, thousands of people being quarantined, airport monitoring, school closures, extra orders of anti-viral drugs, special clinics being opened and a HUGE order of vaccinations for almost half the population once a vaccine is developed etc. etc. etc..

 

[Ashabella]

Okay....


So I have flu like symptoms.


I haven't been worrying about it too much, but do you think I should be?

Should I be visiting the doctor?


x

 

[Omnidragon]

Moron, that would entail quarantining anybody who'd been in contact with anybody who'd been in contact with anybody who'd been to Mexico or America in the past 2 months: i.e. about 20 million Australians.

Not to mention face masks are suspected of further propagating infection after about 30 minutes of use when they become saturated (every man and his dog uses facemasks way past their expiration time). Oh, and facemasks don't prevent contact infection - the typical transmission vector.

God job trying to politicise the issue, but the fact is the Coalition would be doing exactly the same things about Swine flu as any other government.

Were you born inept?

Find me the source that facemasks saturate the virus. Love it when people talk like they're some medical expert.

And Jonathan, I don't really have much faith in media. The amount of articles where they mislead people is staggering... I'm sure everybody has had experience of that, especially when the media reports in their field. There might be criticism that the Govt is overreacting, but there's also criticism that they're not doing enough. It's all about how you view the coin.

 

[S.H.O.D.A.N.]

Find me the source that facemasks saturate the virus. Love it when people talk like they're some medical expert.

And Jonathan, I don't really have much faith in media. The amount of articles where they mislead people is staggering... I'm sure everybody has had experience of that, especially when the media reports in their field. There might be criticism that the Govt is overreacting, but there's also criticism that they're not doing enough. It's all about how you view the coin.

Very well. You sound like a silly paranoid right-winger, so it's really not worth responding to you, but oh well.

First off: I may not be a medical expert, however, my parents are. Secondly, here's a source, the Centre for Disease Control (America): CDC H1N1 Flu | Interim Recommendations for Facemask and Respirator Use to Reduce Novel Influenza A (H1N1) Virus Transmission

The most effective use of face masks is probably to prevent already sick people from coughing the particles out, but the masks won't stop the spray completely and are altogether useless once they become saturated (as I said, after about 30 minutes of use, from both the air and one's own breathing). They are also only to be used once, yet many people ignore this.

So what am I saying? If everybody wore face masks 24/7, replaced theirs every 30 minutes (but did not remove it and place it back on at all), AND avoided all physical contact (including with things touched by potentially infected people, such as keyboards, mice, taps, handrails), and washed their hands up to their elbows for 30 seconds (the proper method), then the rate of transmission may drop significantly (we don't know whether face masks would even do anything if they were used!). Otherwise, snowball's chance in hell.

Not to mention that this flu is currently about as deadly as the average flu, meaning it would be an immense over-reaction right now. This flu is only interesting because of its novel mutation potential.

And here's a news story on the effectiveness of face masks, just for laughs (because you've already said you don't trust 'the media'): Face masks aren't a sure bet against swine flu - Los Angeles Times

And here's another: Do Face Masks Protect From Flu? : NPR

And another: Do face masks offer effective protection against swine flu? | World news | The Guardian