Swine Flu Outbreak At PAX 374
Posted
by
timothy
from the crowd-I-walked-through-too dept.
from the crowd-I-walked-through-too dept.
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.
Just got back from Mexico (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Screw swine flu. (Score:3, Interesting)
Because after the fall of the roman empire, people just seemed to stop bathing and threw their trash into the streets - And no one really knows why.
Re:Spread the FUD (Score:4, Interesting)
Isn't it just influenza?
Most people haven't had the flu in years. Most people also call any heavy cold a 'flu'. Now when experts describe the symptoms of swine flu as 'mild', most people think of a cold, meaning having the sniffles for a few days.
People who have recently experienced the actual flu remember that 'oh yeah, that used up two years worth of my sick leave last year', or 'oh yeah, that's what put mom in intensive care last winter'.
A mortality rate of 0.1% sounds like no risk at all, but if a third of the population gets it during an epidemic, that means 300000 people dead. The 99.9% survivors include people who needed intensive care, anti viral treatment, weeks on a respirator.
Most people don't bother to get flu shots, because they (probably rightly) assume that the flu wouldn't kill them. They forget that while it might not kill them, they are likely to infect a dozen others, who each infect a dozen others, etc, some of which include someone's newborn baby, or someone's grandpa, or a pregnant woman, or a kid with asthma, all of whom run a much greater risk than 0.1%
Re:Spread the FUD (Score:3, Interesting)
Not "Had", actually.
From the Health Services website linked to from the article:
http://www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices/health/preparedness/pandemicflu/swineflu.aspx [kingcounty.gov]
"Do not seek medical care if you are not ill or have mild symptoms for which you would not ordinarily seek medical care. If you have more severe symptoms of fever, cough, sore throat, body aches or are feeling more seriously ill, call your health care provider to discuss your symptoms and if you need to be evaluated."
But that's not really the reason the numbers are different.
To compare them from CDC stats:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no01/05-0979.htm [cdc.gov]
An estimated one third of the world's population (or 500 million persons) were infected and had clinically apparent illnesses during the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic. The disease was exceptionally severe. Case-fatality rates were >2.5%, compared to 0.1% in other influenza pandemics. Total deaths were estimated at 50 million (5-7) and were arguably as high as 100 million.
Compared to the recent stats cited in the news:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/india-tops-h1n1-mortality-rate/509543/ [indianexpress.com]
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as on August 21, there have been 1,799 deaths in total 182,000 laboratory confirmed cases across the world, which makes 0.9 per cent the mortality rate across the world.
But the stats are not all that clear taken as a whole.
From the same article:
With 584 deaths, Brazil tops the list of countries reporting fatalities due to the H1N1 virus. The mortality rate in Brazil is 0.29 per cent. However, if one takes into consideration the 5,206 laboratory confirmed cases, the mortality rate is 10 per cent -- much higher than India's.
Re:It's the FLU! (Score:4, Interesting)
I came back from PAX with a fever. When I heard about the H1N1 outbreak I thought "Eh, I'll give my doctor's office a call to see if they want to track me as a statistic or something.". So I did, and they said "If you thing you might have swine flu then you should come to urgent care right away wearing a mask!". I was confused by this but did as told. After an hour of waiting around with an uncomfortable mask on, the doctor told me that maybe I have H1N1 but it wasn't worth testing specifically since it's no different from regular flu. To which I said "That's what I thought. So why did you make me come in?". He didn't have a good answer.
Just doing my part to contribute to skyrocketing health care costs...
Oh, cruel irony (Score:3, Interesting)
I played the PAX Pandemic game, where the Enforcers handed out stickers to attendees that read [Carrier] [Infected] or [Immune] (There was also a [Patient Zero].
I got the [Immune] sticker, and by the time I got home on Monday, it was clear that I had the flu. I've had a fever between 100 and 104 all week that finally broke last night, but I'm going to the doctor today because I think whatever I had settled into my lungs. I'll tell him about the H1N1 outbreak and get tested if he wants to run the test, but at this point I think it's safe to assume that I was [Immune] to the Pig Plague, but definitely [Infected] with the damn PAX pox.
Even though it's been a week of misery, it was entirely worth it, and I don't regret going to PAX for a single second.