l_b_rex

TORONTO - The World Health Organization says it is very close to declaring that the swine flu outbreak is a pandemic.


The WHO's top flu expert says it's clear that the virus is spreading in the community in parts of Australia, which is a sign the agency has been looking for to declare the outbreak a pandemic.


http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/0...u_who_pandemic

TJ Belfiore

We're screwed, huh?

sobeit

What I do not understand is how they can call this a pandemic when about 800 people a week die from the normal flu. Or is this a way for different health/world organizations to scam money from governments.

TJ Belfiore

EXACTLY! Finally, someone agrees with me. Everyone needs to just get over this bullcrap flu that doesn't even concern you, me or anyone else.

simpswr

. . apparently not everyone gets over it . .

TJ Belfiore

Oh, I forgot the 400 who died.

l_b_rex

Pandemic definition:

A pandemic is a worldwide epidemic that, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), has to meet three conditions:

The microbe infects and causes serious illness in humans.
Humans do not have immunity against the virus.
The virus spreads easily from person-to-person and survives within humans.

Just thought you should know what it actually means. It has nothing to due with people dying. It just means a sickness has spread to a point where atleast 2 countries are heavily infected and the sickness is still spreading.

I am not sure why certain members feel the need to make the same comments over and over. If you want to argue just PM me. Other than that why not let people make their own conclusions. I am providing info for others to use their own "good" judgement. Some may think this whole thing is a joke but as long as 1 person that reads this is aware of what is/could happen than I am satisfied.

Maybe someone, no names, should make a thread for arguements on this topic.

l_b_rex

Influenza A(H1N1) - update 48
12 June 2009 -- As of 07:00 GMT, 12 June 2009, 74 countries have officially reported 29,669 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection, including 145 deaths.


There are only 145 deaths. If you click on one of the links you will see this.
Comments are fine but atleast know what you are talking about, lol.

sobeit

you may want to clarify what you are talking about here since you are quoting me. I sure hope you are not talking about my honest question/comment

l_b_rex

No this person knows who he/she is.

TJ Belfiore

I thought it was nothin to worry about at 400 deaths, but you made me realize it's 145.. LOL.

Sad, though. I hope this all gets worked out, or else we might get another 2-3 deaths soon.

Zealex

http://www.optimum.net/News/AP/Article?articleId=571203

TJ Belfiore

Scary. Time to contact headquarters!

Zealex

Time to chill in my bubble.

l_b_rex

Windy, the next 2 or 3 deaths just might be your family.

WereBo

Europe's just had it's 1st fatality to Swine Flue

l_b_rex

One thing I find strange is WHO is only updating their site every few days now. They were updating 1-2 times aday until about a week ago. Either this is disapating or it is getting to a point where they are trying to hide the severity of the results.

The odd part is that it is heavily infecting 4 countries now. I wonder why so few updates are coming in?

40sondacurb

"Humans do not have immunity against the virus. "
They say those exposed to it in the 80s have a far more mild reaction to the disease.

I wonder if their biggest worry is that this thing is out of season, causing more total flu deaths for the year than normal.

l_b_rex

The real concern is that it will likely mutate when mixed with other virus'...like seasonal flu which will create a new strain of H1N1. I have read a bit about influenza and they are very well known to mutate many times. So right now people were worried early on because we thought it would be a lot more deadly than it has been. As you look at the stats you can easily see that it luckily has not been very deadly. Many people think it is not worthy of the hype. I believe that this influenza WILL mutate (like they all do) and who knows what it will do.

This is a computer forum, so let's use computer viruses as an example. You could have 1 virus that makes your computer slow but still functional then along comes another virus meant to do the exact same thing but they can't co-exist as 2 individual viruses so they integrate with each other and all of a sudden you have a fatal BSOD.

Right now we are 1 virus but when the actual flu season comes around it will change and viruses dont usually mutate to be friendlier :)


I hope this makes sense.

WereBo

Yep - The same way that a lot of bacteria have mutated into 'Superbugs' that are resistant to all present-day antibiotics.

It's not the short-term effects of H1N1 that's the risk, it's what it will evolve into, some years down the line, and you can bet it won't have evolved communication skills.