Swine Flu Outbreak At PAX 374
whisper_jeff writes "There's been a confirmed outbreak of Swine Flu at PAX. Those who attended and are feeling under-the-weather after the con should not write it off as a typical convention cold and go see a doctor to make sure, just in case." The linked post also lists the airplane flights of the cases known so far, so if you flew from Seattle on Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday for any reason, you might want to compare your itinerary.
Wash your hands! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Spread the FUD (Score:5, Informative)
I think his point is that regular influenza also kills healthy kids, teenagers, and young adults. The mortality rate of H1N1 is no higher than for regular flu.
Re:Alright (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Spread the FUD (Score:2, Informative)
And, in fact, there is evidence to suggest that it may even be slightly lower than your ordinary, garden variety seasonal flu.
Many people don't realize that influenza can be a fatal, especially in those who are immunodeficient; this would include the elderly, diabetics, AIDS victims, small children, those undergoing chemotherapy, etc.
Of course, even the ordinary seasonal influenza can become very serious even for those who aren't immunodeficient -- if you don't take influenza seriously enough and ignore the symptoms and go strolling through life as usual without any extra rest, chicken soup, etc., you can wind up in the hospital.
But you're right in that swine flu > regular flu == False; the hysteria over swine flu is entirely media-generated. The press, looking for ever more pairs of eyeballs, hyped it up to keep people glued to the Internet news sites, TV, newspapers, radio news, etc. The public is very, very gullible.
Re:Spread the FUD (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=103052 [thedailystar.net]
"Swine virus 100 times lethal than seasonal flu". Of course, it could still be statistical noise. But it seems trends are starting to emerge - there are targets who are not at risk from seasonal flu, but are more vulnerable to swine flu: namely pregnant people, obese people, and teenagers.
Re:The PAX (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Spread the FUD (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Colloidal Silver (Score:4, Informative)
Bzzzt. There is no medical evidence of colloidal silver's safety or effectiveness. OTOH it may very well turn you blue. I wouldn't try it.
Swine Flu perspective (Score:2, Informative)
Re:It's the FLU! (Score:2, Informative)
Seriously, FFS, if you think you have Swine Flu, pretend you have the "normal" flu (which you do) and act accordingly by staying home and not bothering your doctor. :P
You're under the, imo, false assumption that most people stay home for the flu. A lot of people pressure their doctor into giving them something to make them feel better. Its sad but most people don't realize how little doctors can do to treat viral infections.
Re:Spread the FUD (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, but it's a new strain, so few people have antibodies. It's hitting young adults harder than the usual victims (elderly and babies). See http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2009/09/when_swine_flu_kills.php [scienceblogs.com] for a good discussion of why we should not take this lightly.
http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1/ Great flu blog
http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/ Another flu blog.
Re:Spread the FUD (Score:3, Informative)
Not true. Novel H1N1 was killing around 0.05% while normal influenza is around 0.1%.
Re:Spread the FUD (Score:5, Informative)
Good lord, you can't even quote your own source correctly. It says "People who die after getting swine flu are 100 times more likely, compared to seasonal flu, to have been killed by the virus itself rather than secondary causes." Which is a rather odd way of putting it to start with (by "dying from the virus itself" they really mean "dying due to overzealous immune reaction"), and not helpful from assessing mortality rates in general. If 1000 people die of swine flu, and another 1000 die of seasonal flu with complications, it's not really that important from a lethality standpoint. If the seasonal group's secondary infections would not have occurred absent the seasonal flu, then the seasonal flu was still responsible for the death.
Secondly, the article itself notes that "Both seasonal influenza and the new A(H1N1) virus that has swept the globe since May appear to have roughly the same mortality rate of one-to-five per 1,000 infections," though it notes that the swine flu figures are sketchy.
Finally, your source is suspect to start with. It's a single scientist, and the results haven't actually been published, just posted to a research sharing website (no real vetting has occurred). In case you've forgotten, science reporting goes for sensation over accuracy [smbc-comics.com].
Re:What the fuck is PAX? (Score:3, Informative)
One would think that this being discussed on /. would have tipped you off.
Here, I'll help you out a little.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Pax_tux.png [wikimedia.org]
whats all the fuss about? (Score:2, Informative)
folks, I had swine flu and recovered from it
Ididn't tkae tamiflu or the vaccine
took about 6 days to recover, and was nor even a tenth as bad as normal flu
why is everyone worrying? the death rate is absolutely miniscule!
Re:Spread the FUD (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah, the issue with H1N1 doesn't have to do with its lethality. The bigger concern is that because it is different enough from previous flu strains that a given individual's immune system is unlikely to have a useful level of immunity to it. So basically you're more likely to get sick if you're exposed to it.
If you do get sick, your chances of becoming severely ill and/or dying is not higher than with the average seasonal flu. It really only becomes an issue on a larger scale. According to the CDC website, between 5-20% of the US gets the flu in a given year, and on average they estimate about 36,000 die each year. If H1N1 infects 50%, at 0.1% mortality rate, then you're looking at 150,000 dead. And while that's not civilization ending by any means, it's still a lot of extra dead people.
Re:Wash your hands! (Score:3, Informative)
Let's just face the facts: If you venture out of the basement to attend a convention, then you're not sufficiently introverted.
I went to the PAX convention, and oddly enough there were slobs there who didn't shower. Every now and then you'd walk down the hall and get a wiff of bad BO. Seriously (rant not aimed at the parent ;)) if any of you are reading this and you go to a public place without being clean what kind of slob are you?
Same thing at Blizzcon - and it happened in the hotel nearby where there were plenty of showers placed conveniently in the room where you are staying.
Re:Spread the FUD (Score:4, Informative)
Of course this is in addition to all the people who get the seasonal strain as well (some people will get swine but not seasonal, some will get the opposite, and some will even get both). But either way, if more people are sick at the same mortality rate, the total dead will also increase. The short way to say it: worry less about mortality rate, worry more about transmission rate.
The big worry isn't all the athletic, healthy, strapping young gamers at PAX. It's their high-risk friends, family members, co-workers, etc who can easily contract the virus from them. Worry less about the cosplayers, worry more about the cosplayer's teacher's ailing mother who ends up severely ill or dead.
Re:Why would you go to doctor? (Score:5, Informative)
Here's what the CDC says [cdc.gov].
They list warning signs that advise seeking medical care for adults on that page: Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath; pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen; sudden dizziness; confusion; severe or persistent vomiting; or flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough.
Re:Spread the FUD (Score:3, Informative)
I got home, bought some Nyquil, Aspirin, Halls, a gallon of OJ, and have been getting tons of rest. As of right now I feel way better and just have an annoying slightly plhegmy cough.
All these swine flu stories are total crap and need to stop being sensationalized. The doctor cannot help you so don't go out there and clog up the hospital with your uncurable crap. Go home, get someone to run out and buy you a cocktail of over the counter drugs, and sleep it off.