<p>When do you have to cancel by in order to lose as little as possible? Could this be deferred to next summer? </p>
<p>I would not want my kids travelling to Mexico at at this time & probably for some months after all of the dies down. Orphanages have a reputation of having humble lodging with likely crowded conditions–an undesirable situation if you’re trying to minimize infection spreading. Even tho the official CDC travel advisory has suggested postpoining/cancelling all nonessential travel to Mexico, I’d listen to the kids’ doctor, since he does have their best interests at heart.</p>
<p>mom2010grad - I would hold off on canceling if you can. I really believe we will know more within the week how this is spreading and how virulent it is.
It could be gone from Mexico in 6 weeks.</p>
<p>Novelisto - it was Ft Leavenworth, I believe. That part of the books was simply amazing how the recruits got sick and died within a matter of hours.</p>
<p>I just spoke with the church sponsoring the mission trip and we have to cancel by May 12th and would only be out our $40 airfare deposit. They have an option of possibly going on a mission trip to an Indian reservation in Montana instead. It sounds like that may be the safer option at this point (my first Mexico concern was the drug wars and now the swine flu.) </p>
<p>I would think the church will opt to do the Montana trip to be on the safe side.
My H is a public health official involved in this and I can tell you he would not be comfortable about our two college-aged kids going to Mexico now or in the near future.</p>
<p>My d’s laughing at me because I went out and bought hand sanitizer and told her to put it in her back-pack. Even though the flu’s not in fl, I told her she needs to get better at remembering to wash her hands. She just left to work out at the gym, and she grabbed her hand sanitizer. I gave her a look, like “what? you’re not laughing …” She’s like, “well, gyms are notorious for people passing things back and forth off the equipment, couldn’t hurt,” followed by sheepish look. :)</p>
<p>zebes, who just restocked her hurricane supplies a month early. Ah well, when Charley, et.al., came through we ate better without power for days than we normally do. <g></g></p>
<p>In neighboring Richardson, Texas ONE child at an elementary school has been diagnosed with the “swine flu.” They have canceled classes for the rest of the week as a precaution. That’s pretty unusual.</p>
<p>If your lungs fill up with fluid, there are procedures which will remove the fluid. It is called a thoracentesis. </p>
<p>The current anti-virals are an improvement but they are still not that great. The ones which are normally used for flu, amantidine, tamiflu, relenza, have to be started within a day or so of initiation of symptoms.</p>
<p>The CDC does have a stockpile of anti-virals available to those who need it.</p>
<p>Correction Nova10, when the pleural space fills up with fluid it can be removed by thoracentesis. The “lungs filled with fluid” referred to in descriptions of the influenza of 1918 is pulmonary edema or diffuse alveolar damage, and not treatable by surgery. It remains to be seen if modern supportive care and anti-virals could make any dent in an influenza virus as virulent as that seen in 1918 - we would probably save some people, but not everyone.</p>
<p>Pulmonary edema is the primary cause of death for the hanta virus (something the local med school actually treats on a regular basis where I live–along with bubonic plague. Only in New Mexico!) I would imagine the supportive treatment given to hanta victims would be similar to that flu-based pulmonary edema victim would require: mechanic ventilation and respiratory support. With hanta, the survival rates have improved to about 60% in recent years. But the treatment is intensive, expensive and requires an substantial outlay of resources and personnel. In the case of an actual epidemic, hospitals could be easily overwhelmed.</p>
<p>To my surprise, our school district put out an automated phone message about the swine flu tonight. They communicated that there have been no cases in our district, that the nurses are carefully paying attention to symptoms, that the custodial staff is washing common areas down more frequently, and to please keep sick children home (a welcome change from the constant automated calls about the importance of attendance.) I was relatively shocked that a school district that is imploding on many levels, managed to respond in such a seemingly efficient manner.</p>
<p>By the way, news reports are the airlines are allowing folks to cancel trips to Mexico without penalty, so you might want to look into it if you have any planned to see if it applies to you & your plans.</p>
<p>Just spoke with the pharmacy in our state–both of the distributor/wholesalers which stock Tamiflu for our state are out of Tamiflu & have no date when they expect to get more in stock! <sigh></sigh></p>
<p>My S has a lot of air travel scheduled for this summer–flying to HI, LA, VA, LA, Bejing, LA, VA, LA. It will be interesting to see how all of this works out and when the distributor gets a new supply in again.</p>
<p>I thought they were not sure yet if the flu vaccine from this year would be effective or not. The problem with screening peple for fever is that by then you have been shedding the disease for 24 hours. . My concern is that we nip this in the bud. My H says the government does not want to make us nervous. I say I would be less nervous if I knew we were addressing this aggressively. I also read the book the Great Influenza . It was sobering. I do not believe we should panic but it is very concerning. It is also, possible for them to develop a vaccine for next winter, as the virus may lessen in the summer and get worse next winter. Of course addedwith all the nerves about kids going off to college, will be this concern, as they will be exposed to people from all over the world. Anyway I don’t want the US to be complacent, we have a tendancy to think we can handle anything. I don’t like the new homeland security secretary either.</p>
<p>it is my understanding that this is a new strain and the current vaccine won’t provide protection. However there is time to develop and market a vaccine for next winter. It does take months for this to occur so time is short.
In 1918 it began in the spring/summer then died out, only to come back hotter the next winter. Hopefully, this can be prevented.</p>
<p>Heard last night that the Obama administration is without a HHS Secretary, Surgeon General and Director of the CDC. They must be scrambling.
Since Dr Gupta on CNN was up for Surgeon General, I am listening to him. ;)</p>
<p>Two schoolkids got it where my son goes to school. They returned from a trip to Mexico. Son asked me about it and I just told him to get lots of rest, keep the stress levels down and practice good hygiene. It’s spreading around the world now and noone has died outside of Mexico. I’m not sure what the circumstances there were around the deaths but the availability of medical care may be a contributor.</p>
<p>Tourists returning form Mexico said that people were wearing masks and they did not know why. Why did the government not tell them? Why did’nt they ask? People are so busy trying to protect their interests that they forget to protect the people. We should have protocols for these things. Why do we wait until something bad happens to do something?</p>
<p>We are spreading half thruths and rumors here. It does not help anybody.
The fact is, at least at this moment:
We do not know /have not announced if the vaccine given to people last fall gives any protection to this virus.
We do not kow how many people in Mexico have been sickened witht he virus. We might be only seeing the tip of the iceberg there.
We do not know how virulent this virus is. We need some time to figure this out. So far we know that a person can get a virus in Mexico, get sick with it and then pass it on to another person. We do not know if that person can pass it any further or if the virus weakens significanlty by this point.
Antibiotics will help with secondary infections.
No hand sanitizer will substitute good handwashing.</p>
<p>We can speculate as to why we are seeing deaths in Mexico but mild cases in the US and the rest of the world.
Most of the time the vaccine can be obtained in about 8 weeks, but then months are needed to produce sufficient amounts.
As for the tamiflu and lack of it - someone, somewhere is already making big money on it.</p>
<p>So, relax, quit thinkg about stockpiling tamiflu, wash your hands well, like you always should. Stay home if you are sick - might be a novelty to us Americans but that is how it always should have been. Panic does not help anybody.</p>
<p>mimk6 - I can relate. Our school is as well guilty of this stupidity. My son has currently bad grades from teachers who count participation towards final grade as I kept him home for a week when he had a flu like illness recently.</p>
<ol>
<li> Don’t agree. The vaccine given last fall will not provide any protection. It’s not the same strain of flu.</li>
<li> Agreed.</li>
<li> Agreed. This will take a week or two - maybe longer.<br></li>
<li> Possibly. If their is a true bacterial infection and the antibiotic is not resistant. However, if Tamiflu is given at the onset this can greatly reduce the severity of the influenza and prevent a secondary infection.<br></li>
<li> I so agree with this! Never understood hand santizing - use good old soap and water.</li>
</ol>
<p>No need to panic. But I dont really see anyone panicing - it’s good to be informed. There are some developments that are not the “norm” for typical influenza.
Be vigilant but don’t get freaked out.</p>
<p>I told my kids away in college that if they get a fever and/or other symptoms go to the health center. If they wake up with a fever they should call the health center and me and not to leave their room until they do.</p>
<p>The thing is, we don’t know how many people in Mexico normally die of the flu or similar causes there. It’s confusing when folks spread incomplete & inaccurate information.</p>
<p>Wearing masks may or may not provide any protection, depending on which masks you use and which reports you believe. The N-95 masks are the best but there are conflicting reports as to how much protection they provide. For our family, it’s moot, since most of us can’t tolerate wearing masks anyway.</p>
<p>Panic does no one any good–except perhaps those who own the pharmaceutical companies that make Tamiflu & Relenza, which are the two anti-virals that reduce severity of infection if taken within 24-48 hours after 1st symptoms. I have taken Tamiflu twice for two separate infecitons & it made a world of difference for me. I have a severe chronic lung condition and am at risk for complications but taking the med after 1st symptoms made a HUGE difference.</p>