Swine Flu

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First we called it N1H1. Then swine flu. Then hamthrax. Now it’s called …

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 | Funny Ha-Ha | Permalink | No Comments |

Now Katie and I have piggy flu, too

Thursday, September 17th, 2009 | Home Life | Permalink | 2 Comments |

I’m official as of yesterday’s doctor’s visit and Katie is official as of this morning’s doctor’s visit.

Melissa isn’t official, but she’s been tired and achy and she has the same ear infection as Natalie and me. I keep kidding her, telling her she’s in denial. She asked Katie’s pediatrician about it. He told her if she didn’t have a fever she didn’t have the flu. Then tonight she got a fever, so we’ll see.

When I saw our family doctor he went ahead and wrote Melissa a Tamiflu prescription, so we’ve got that if she needs it. Katie is now on Tamiflu. My doctor and Natalie’s pediatrician thought we wouldn’t benefit from Tamiflu, because we had been sick too long. You need to start taking it within 48 hours of the onset of fever.

So we’re hanging in there. Natalie seems to be fine now. I’m still under the weather, but today is the fifth day. It should be over soon. With any luck the Tamiflu will keep Natalie and Melissa from experiencing the worst of it.

Tags: swine flu

Natalie has swine flu

Monday, September 14th, 2009 | Home Life, Photos | Permalink | 3 Comments |

Melissa just got back from the doctor and tested positive for swine flu. That’s the bad news. The good news is the doctor thinks the worst of it is already over.

Natalie was sick last week with a temp of 104.5, so Melissa took her to the doctor Thursday. At that time they tested her for swine flu and she came back negative, but mentioned that sometimes it’s hard to detect early on and that she had the symptoms. We kept her home from parent’s night out and declined some invitations to make sure she got some rest and that we didn’t spread anything.

I’ve been sick since Saturday with fatigue and flu-like aches, though my fever hasn’t run nearly as high as Natalie’s. I stayed home today and will likely stay home again tomorrow. If this is swine flu it isn’t nearly as bad as the regular flu Melissa and I had two winters ago. Knock on wood.

Anyhoo, here’s looking forward to Natalie feeling better. Here’s another Natalie picture I like.

Natalie has the curliest hair you’ve ever seen. Melissa put some straightener in her hair and took this picture. Within a couple of hours of being out in the humidity her hair curled right back up. Natalie’s three and has never had a haircut, so it’s sort of amazing when you see how long her hair really is.

When we wash her hair it looks very dark, darker than Katie’s, even. It’s just the ends that are light and make her look very blonde. Looking at old pictures I was blonde in preschool and only became brown haired later.

Tags: swine flu

Swine flu back in the news

Thursday, July 9th, 2009 | News | Permalink | No Comments |

Parts of Britain near epidemic.

More concerns about a possible U.S. epidemic this fall.

There’s plenty of time to buy some masks, hand sanitizer and canned goods, folks. Better safe than sorry and a little preparedness prevents panic.

Tags: swine flu

Sunday, May 3rd, 2009 | News | Permalink | 2 Comments |

The Google Maps flu tracker I’ve been linked has moved to flutracker.rhizalabs.com. (FWIW, I could never get it to load completely.)

Meanwhile reader Rick pointed me to this much better swine flu Google Map. Here’s tonight’s snapshot:

Thoughts on how cases are counted. “When we talk about `lab confirmed cases’ it is important to realize that those are just the tip of the iceberg – or in this case – the top of the pyramid.”
And another, on those supposed 36,000 deaths from regular flu every year. “As it turns out, virtually none of the 36,000 people said to die from regular flu each year have been confirmed in any lab whatsoever.”
3rd swine flu case reported in TN; hospitals limit visitors
Closer to home still, a Knoxville middle school closes because of suspected swine flu.
Six mysteries about swine flu.
Mexico swine flu deaths ebb; But it is spreading across Europe and Asia, could mutate

And on the lighter side…

Swine flu? Passe. H1N1? So last April. Now it’s Hamthrax.

Tags: swine flu

Swine flu news

Thursday, April 30th, 2009 | News | Permalink | 2 Comments |

First, your daily snapshot of the Google Map for swine flu infections.

Yesterday’s map and swine flu post here. Quick tip: all of these posts are tagged with “swine flu”. You can access all of them by clicking on the swine flu keyword tag page.

LA Times: Scientists see this flu strain as relatively mild:

As the World Health Organization raised its infectious disease alert level Wednesday and health officials confirmed the first death linked to swine flu inside U.S. borders, scientists studying the virus are coming to the consensus that this hybrid strain of influenza — at least in its current form — isn’t shaping up to be as fatal as the strains that caused some previous pandemics.

In fact, the current outbreak of the H1N1 virus, which emerged in San Diego and southern Mexico late last month, may not even do as much damage as the run-of-the-mill flu outbreaks that occur each winter without much fanfare.

Mercatus on Policy by Tyler Cown - Preparing for Pandemic Flu: What We Should Do and Should Not Do.

1. The single most important thing we can do for a pandemic—whether swine flu or not—is to have well-prepared local health-care systems. We should prepare for pandemics in ways that are politically sustainable and remain useful even if this turns out not to be a flu pandemic.

2. Prepare social norms and emergency procedures that would limit or delay the spread of a pandemic. Regular hand washing and other beneficial public customs—like not going to work when feeling sick— may save more lives than a Tamiflu stockpile.

3. Decentralize our supplies of anti-virals and treat timely distribution as more important than simply creating a stockpile.

4. Institute prizes for effective vaccines and relax liability laws for vaccine makers. Our overnment has discouraged what it should have encouraged.

5. Respect intellectual property by buying the relevant drugs and vaccines at fair prices. Confiscating property rights would reduce the incentive for innovation the next time around.

6. For the case of a truly serious pandemic, make economic preparations to ensure the continuity of food and power supplies. The relevant “choke points” may include the check-clearing system and the use of mass transit to deliver food supply workers to their jobs.

7. Realize that the federal government will be largely powerless in the worst stages of a pandemic and make appropriate local plans.

8. Encourage the formation of prediction markets— speculative markets that make forecasts on policy topics—in a flu pandemic.

9. Reform the World Health Organization and give it greater autonomy from its government funders.

Meanwhile, Shurf Joe Biden sez: “I would tell members of my family — and I have — I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places now. It’s not that it’s going to Mexico in a confined aircraft where one person sneezes, that goes all the way through the aircraft.” The White House quickly moved to damage control. Not to control the damage of swine flu - to control the damage of Shurf Joe Biden shooting his fool mouth off.

Ace adds: “Another tip from Joe Biden: Always leave yourself one bullet. If you feel an itching in your nose or throat, put the gun in your mouth and blow the virus out of the back of your head. Like they say, feed a cold, head-shot a fever.”

As always, I’m not sure how serious the swine flu really is. I’ve taken the minimal precautions (buying some masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer) along with our general preparedness plan (food and water, cooking and heating supplies, first aid and medicine, flashlights and batteries, etc.). Now I just live my life pretty much like normal and pay attention to the news to see if anything becomes more serious.

And one swine flu victim says “it’s not so bad.”

“I could hardly move. It was a chore to get out of bed. I felt absolutely terrible,” Hairsine said from his parents’ home. “I feel like it still is the flu, but it’s not so terrible that people should be freaking out the way they are.”

And on a lighter note:

John Derbyshire: Fle, Flo, Flu.
ManBirdPig Flu

Tags: biden, preparedness, swine flu

Swine flu update

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 | News | Permalink | 2 Comments |

Tonight’s Google Map of swine flu infections:

Last night’s map here.

There’s an unconfirmed swine flu case in Tennessee.

WHO raises threat level to second-highest level, says pandemic is “imminent.”

And on a lighter note:

Tags: swine flu

Existing govt. plans for swine flu pandemics, OR, “The Pig Has Flown. Repeat: THE PIG HAS FLOWN”

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 | News | Permalink | 1 Comment |

Los Alamos Natl. Lab simulation of flu outbreak:

Simulation of a pandemic flu outbreak in the continental United States, initially introduced by the arrival of 10 infected individuals in Los Angeles. The spatiotemporal dynamics of the prevalence (number of symptomatic cases at any point in time), is shown on a logarithmic color scale, from 1 or fewer (blue) to 100 or more (red) cases per 1,000 persons. Without vaccination, antiviral drugs, or other mitigation strategies, the entire nation becomes infected within a few months. Depending on the reproductive number R0, effective intervention strategies including vaccination and targeted antiviral prophylaxis can be successful without resorting to economically damaging measures like school closure, quarantine, and work or travel restrictions. This large-scale agent-based simulation involves 280 million people, and uses demographic and worker flow data at the Census tract level, as well as long-range travel statistics, to describe the geographic movement of people. In this simulation, long-range travel is assumed to occur at a lower-than-normal rate (10 percent) due to travel advisories, but with no other mitigation strategies the pandemic quickly spreads nationwide, peaking about 90 days after the initial introduction.

There’s a QuickTime video at that link simulating the spread of an uninterrupted infection. In the simulation it takes about 45-60 days for the infection to be widespread and 90 days to peak. So even if this swine flu scare becomes something of concern it could take weeks before we know it. Question: when do you count the beginning of a pandemic?

Today’s Google Map of swine flu infections: