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<p>I figured the CDC’s answer to the question relating to the 2009 swine flu which said that “swine flu infection can be serious” and, in the past, has killed previously healthy individuals was relevant. It didn’t say that those cases were swine-to-human transmission versus human-to-human, but I guess you know more about it than me.</p>
<p>That was my source, so if it wasn’t what you were looking for then I have nothing.</p>
<p>Possible swine flu hits
Amherst College</p>
<p>AMHERST, Mass. (WWLP) - President of Amherst College Anthony Marx released a campus wide e-mail confirming that,</p>
<p>“…at least two, and perhaps six, students have tested positive for Type A influenza, which may be H1N1, commonly known as swine flu.” </p>
<p>[Possible</a> swine flu hits Amherst College](<a href=“http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/news/local/Possible_Swine_flu_hits_Amherst_college_20090501]Possible”>http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/news/local/Possible_Swine_flu_hits_Amherst_college_20090501)</p>
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<p>A relative with a student there is thinking of pulling the student out tomorrow.</p>
<p>I saw, personally, for the first time large numbers ofpeople walking around Times Square wearing masks today.</p>
<p>I saw a few masks at the airport on Sunday (Burbank, CA). Local public HS in No California just closed for a week. I believe they will run school a week longer, like the East does for excessive snow days. So the kids will prob all go hang out at the mall or the movies, breathing all the germs in regardless!</p>
<p>Fact: When avian bird flu scare was going around, friend who owns a mortuary was called to a special meeting by the local Board of Health - just in case, if you catch my drift, and they were making plans for excessive deaths, just in case. Interesting fact is - police and funeral home workers, and their families, get priority inoculations, if there are not enough to go around! They need the cops to keep the peace, the funeral homes to bury the dead, and they will not come to work if their own families are sick, so they have to keep their families healthy as well. Share this tidbit at your next cocktail party!</p>
<p>Two schools one town over from us (about 3 miles) have closed for a week. Two brothers have confirmed cases of Swine Flu. They live with 10 people in their home, so good chance there will be more cases in that family.</p>
<p>BCEagle91, </p>
<p>My D who is at Amherst has said the students are all quareteened.(sp). When I asked her what dorms are they from, or what classes were they in, she has no answer. She is the kid that doesn’t believe anything bad will touch her! UGH…</p>
<p>It is everywhere.
One school district and several private schools in my area are closed.
Now an interesting tidbit 
:
DH went to lunch today with coworkers. One of them, let’s call him Bob, gets a call during the meal from wife - turns out daughter has been admitted to the local hospital with Influenza A, probable swine flu (but confirmation is pending).
What happened over the last few weeks is interesting. Bob has been sick about a week ago, the same time that both my son (with 104 fever) and myself have been confined to the living room sofa for a few days each. We even made comments between husband and I, that it is a nasty virus going around, since Bob is a workoholic and does not call in sick for a stupid cold. Well, Bob’s daughter has been sick for a few days and she is actually getting better now, on regular Tylenol, rest, plenty of fluids treatment, but her mom decided to take her to a doctor, since everybody is talking about the SWINE FLU.
After two hours in a doctor’s office they decided to put the recovering flu girl in a hospital and confined her immediate family to home. Wife called while Bob was at a restaurant with several co-workers. And he is scheduled to fly to Johannesburg tomorrow:) He most likely will, unless CDC locks him in the house, but in all the reality it looks like he gave the virus to his daughter.
Like I have said, it has been around for a while .</p>
<p>Kelowna, there has been a nasty virus floating around my area about 1 month ago, and we have seen scattered Flu A since Feburary. BUT, most of the flu A we have been seeing is resistant to Tamiflu so it is not the same virus, so I will be interested to see if all these flu As are swine flu or more of this resistant seasonal flu A. I had lunch with one of our infectious disease docs and he felt there has been some degree of over-reaction, but he is quite concerned that we will over-treat this swine flu and that it will develop drug resistance.</p>
<p>How does Tamiflu work? Anyone know?</p>
<p>Cangel - that is exactly the talk I had with my H today!
We also came to the conclusion that due to an overreaction we will overtreat this flu (I bet there are thousands of people who are taking Tamiflu right now as a precaution!).
Antiviral drugs are actually recommended only for people who have higher chances of developing complications: very young, elderly, pregnant, cancer patients, chronically ill. Unless the flu appears deadly, which this one certainly does not!</p>
<p>Antiviral drugs, like Tamiflu, prevent the virus from multiplying in the host system, thus reduce the severity and time of ilness.</p>
<p>cangel, this is one of my concerns, too. I’m afraid that people will start self-medicating with “Canadian prescription” Tamiflu, and it will cause all sorts of problems. It’s bad enough that we have MRSA and MDR TB bacteria… A bullet-poof nasty flu virus is worse, IMO, because it is way more contageous.</p>
<p>There is no indication yet that the so called swine flu is any worse than your garden variety flu. The CDC made a point of emphasizing that the child who died in Texas had underlying medical conditions that complicated the case.</p>
<p>I’ve seen people out there with masks… I wonder if these people realize that masks don’t actually work and in fact there’s an argument to say that they could even make you MORE likely to get infected because:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The virus is small enough to pass right through most masks that people are wearing</p></li>
<li><p>If the outside of the masks becomes contaminated with the virus (eg by touching it) now you’ve got something with virus on it 1 inch from your nose and mouth all day long… hmmm.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Wash your hands and just use common sense.</p>
<p>Rocketman - actually those regular “surgical” masks are good enough for a flu. That is what we are regularly using in my hospital when we have a flu patient. The “respirator” masks (N95) are needed for things like TB. Those are quite difficult to fit around your face well though, and they need to be “well fitted” to be effective.</p>
<p>How does Tamiflu work? Apparently, according to the manufacturer, it prevents the new copies of the virus from escaping from the infected cells, where the original virus settled and replicated itself, although the exact mechanism is still not known. This is from the FDA’s document: “The proposed mechanism of action of oseltamivir is via inhibition of influenza virus neuraminidase with the possibility of alteration of virus particle aggregation and release.”</p>
<p>Rocketman, actually, the virus doesn’t fly around by itself. It is spread with droplets of saliva, snot, or whatever (gross!), and masks trap these droplets. Masks work as long as one changes them frequently and does not touch the mask. Which means masks do not work for the majority of the population, since the majority is not aware of these limitations of masks.</p>
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<p>Yes, but a lot of people are wearing non-surgical masks (eg the sort of thing only meant to keep dust out).</p>
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<p>Yes, that’s exactly the issue. A mask can accumulate such things and, if not changed frequently, simply accumulates such material. Furthermore if it’s not the right type the warm moist environment created by your breath only helps keep the virus alive and it will pass right through many of the masks that people are wearing.</p>
<p>I should just also make it clear that I have nothing against anyone who chooses to wear a mask in public (even if it’s the type that are essentially worthless for protecting against flu) I just find it interesting to what how some people respond to such situations and the way some seem to think it’s a magic protective force shield… eg I saw one person walking down the street, pull down the mask, rub their nose, then put the mask back on… I had to chuckle a bit at that.</p>
<p>I just saw on Nightline that the schools in Texas were closed to limit contact among the students so they interviewed parents who sent their kids to the mall and a baseball game since they were home from school.</p>
<p>I heard that Tamiflu stocks are skyrocketing. Seems kind of immoral to me, trying to capitalize on all this, but I guess you could say the media is, too.</p>
<p>The mask thing… the assumption is that people wear them to protect themselves from those who may be infected. But wouldn’t it be more effective if sick people wore them and washed THEIR hands frequently? How many of you use wash your hands/use hand sanitizers when YOU have a cold or flu to protect others from being infected? (I have to admit that it never really occurred to me until now.)</p>
<p>Back during the SARs scare, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing stock did well because they’re a big company in making filtration products (including masks).</p>