WHO likely to declare swine flu pandemic on Thursday

link
Well, there are 27 new confirmed cases in Germany, so I guess it is spreading faster.

Quote :

The World Health Organization
held an emergency swine flu meeting Thursday and was likely to declare
the first flu pandemic in 41 years as infections climbed in the United
States, Europe, Australia, South America and elsewhere.

Quote :

Since swine flu first emerged in Mexico and the United States in April,
it has spread to 74 countries around the globe. On Wednesday, WHO
reported 27,737 cases including 141 deaths. Most cases are mild and
require no treatment, but the fear is that a rash of new infections
could overwhelm hospitals and health authorities — especially in poorer
countries.

Right now, though, fear is the biggest problem.

Quote :

Panic has already gripped Argentina, where so many people worried about swine flu flooded into hospitals this week that emergency health services have collapsed. Last month, a bus arriving in Argentina from Chile was stoned by people who thought a passenger on it had swine flu. Chile has the most swine flu cases in South America.

Quote :

WHO says its pandemic announcement would not mean the situation was
worsening, since no mutations have been detected in the virus to show
it is getting more deadly.

No reason to panic, after all.

At bloody last. Swine flu has probably been pandemic for a while now, as most of Europe has been refusing to test anyone with flu symptoms unless they had been to Mexico or the US.

Just wash your hands regularly and sneeze into a tissue, and everyone will be fine. Oh, and maybe stock up on the old chicken soup

Wasn't this supposed to have killed us all by now? At least, that's what they media played it off as. 

Sai wrote:

Wasn't this supposed to have killed us all by now? At least, that's what they media played it off as.

Over here it was two days of "WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE" and when we didn't, the media decided that Gordon Brown must have been scaremongering in order to cancel the election. *shrug*

I read in the newspaper the other day that there are something like 30 reported cases in Amsterdam, all people having visited the US. I didn't sense any particular panic, but I'm rather out of the loop on such things. I turn the telly on once a week and mostly just read local newspapers, occasionally glancing at De Volkskrant every now and then.

We have like eight new cases in here or something, last time I checked. But honestly, I'm not really feeling the panic anymore.

Madagascar is totally fine. Again.

It more or less seems to have died down over here now--no evident new cases reported at all.

Psy-4 wrote:

Madagascar is totally fine. Again.

Quick! Head to the airport before they close their borders in like... five seconds.

oh shi-

I think it's a good time to post this link again.

Has Madagascar Closed its Ports?

A few rugby players in Australia caught swine flu. They might have to cancel matches because of it. Not that I really care anyway... I usually fall asleep if I trying watching footy.

Snake Bandage wrote:

I think it's a good time to post this link again.

Has Madagascar Closed its Ports?

They still haven't? This is an uncharacteristically slow response.

That virus thing is still going around? It had totally dropped off my radar.

Ugh, I am so over this swine flu thing.

WHO cares.

Mafiosa wrote:

Ugh, I am so over this swine flu thing.

WHO cares.

*rimshot*

InkWeaver wrote:

Mafiosa wrote:

Ugh, I am so over this swine flu thing.

WHO cares.

*rimshot*

Thank you thank you. I'll be here all week.

But seriously, the media already milked this thing for all it's worth.

Mafiosa wrote:

Ugh, I am so over this swine flu thing.

WHO cares.

But then people would have to find another excuse to panic.

KJM wrote:

Mafiosa wrote:

Ugh, I am so over this swine flu thing.

WHO cares.

But then people would have find another excuse to panic.

DID SOMEONE SAY PANIC?!
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HIT THE BUTTON!

As I noted previously, they are bound and determined to turn Hamthrax into The Andromeda Strain, aren't they?

Freezer wrote:

As I noted previously, they are bound and determined to turn Hamthrax into The Andromeda Strain, aren't they?

Because OH NOES we can't have news about the economy sucking balls again!

As long as this thing isn't too deadly, I'm not going to worry about it any more than I worry about viruses as a whole (which isn't too much. I just make sure to wash my hands and not get in too close of contact with people who are coughing on me).

There are some cases in my area, but it seems pretty contained right now.

Oh yeah, I don't know if I mentioned this, but apparently it's better to catch it now, as if it's anything like the 1918 strain, it'll come back nastier in the winter, but the people who caught the spring bug might be protected.

On the other hand, deliberately going out and catching swine flu because some girl off the internet from a pseudo-medical science told you to is retarded.

I'm going to a seminar tomorrow about swine flu, I shall return with some (hopefully) decent advice from the UK advisory board

I've never seen this as much to worry about much less panic over - just make sure you wash your hands and keep things generally sanitary.

Hasn't stopped any of my friends/relatives from cracking jokes that I'll get swine flu from my guinea pigs, though.

Chalchihuitlicue wrote:

I've never seen this as much to worry about much less panic over

Outside of SARS... and Bird Flu... and Mad Cow.

I think, it might be, that the Powers That Be are (understandably) paranoid over another AIDS debacle - who knows what might have been had they treated AIDS/GRID as something other than "That gay disease"? An understandable overreaction, however, is still an overreaction.

The thing with swine flu that's got them running scared is that unlike most flu viruses, this one kills the young and healthy rather than the old and infirm. Pretty callous, maybe.