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The one I have special feelings for is Mad Cow Disease. They named it after my sister-in-law.

Two cows in a field.
One says, "are you worried about that Mad Cow Disease?"
The other says, "bu**er me, a talking cow!"

Two cows in a field.
One says, "are you worried about that Mad Cow Disease?"
The other says, "Of course not. I'm a penguin"

So, several people here have had influenza, including me (twice). I think we're all in a fairly good position to say that it's a f**king awful thing to have. You honestly can't turn over for a sip of water because your head might explode and your guts will try to crawl out through each and every one of your joints. Then there's the horrible delirium, the icebox/furnace you become, the awful nightmares, the intense headaches, the... well, you know what I mean. Influenza is a horrible thing for a healthy person to contract. It floors you for a week in a few short hours. It regularly kills people in quantities that make 9/11 look like a simple high school massacre.

Now, the Mexican H1N1 "swine" 'flu virus has some interestingly distressing properties that make it rather impressive as a pathogen. It has eight genes. Five are common to swine 'flu, two are common to avian (bird) 'flu, and one is from the human form of 'flu. Ingeniously, the surface proteins it expresses are unique to swine 'flu, so they're nothing your immune system will ever have seen before. This means you won't recognise it and will have absolutely no antibodies floating around that can start fighting it off if you contract it. You'll have to start from scratch, and while your immune system evolves a response, you'll be feeling increasingly deathly as it goes wild. The avian component to the virus is thought to make it more easily transmittable. In some ways, it's a thing of beauty.

So, to recap: 'flu is a f**king awful thing to have. H1N1 'flu is seriously nothing you need, and its avian component gives it the potential to spread like the clap through a particularly busy Parisian brothel under Nazis occupation. Is that clear? Excellent!

Just take basic hygiene seriously. Don't rub your face or eyes before washing your hands with soap after being in a public place or handling cash - especially before you pick your nose and eat it (yes, you). Take yourself seriously for a few weeks. The authorities (those people we like to run down, yeah?) are trying to isolate the cases that arise, and are attempting to strangle the virus at birth. Help them by helping yourself.

Is simples, yes?

I just find it strange that "only" 150 people have died from this disease, from a population of 109 millions (according to Wiki). More people have probably died from the regular flu, during the same time...

Anyhow - basic hygiene is always a good thing

smoked salmon wrote:I just find it strange that "only" 150 people have died from this disease, from a population of 109 millions (according to Wiki).

Epidemiologically speaking, that's to do with the movement of people. Mexican peasants tend to stay put and scratch a grim living. Air travellers come into contact then go to other places on the planet with the virus all over them. There are few peasants that travel far enough to come into contact with other peasants, but a single traveller will come into contact with a lot of others in other parts of the world, who then come into contact with even more people, and so on.

On one level, it's actually fascinating.

I think the google map is particularly interesting, apart from America small clumps of cases together clearly showing family members coming home together, or people passing it to others after they get back

Sometimes I come to the library to use their equipment..which is always dirty. This one looks as if someone has dropped their egg mayo sarnie down it. And the other day this bloke came here and sneezed on a computer, I said "yuk" in a very loud voice and he gave me a dirty look...cheeky bu**er.
I really do think thou' that we all need to wash our bits and bobs properly. Apparently computer keypads are excellent for breeding germs.

Some people can come up with the most stupid ideas on this subject.

(taken from the website doonsbury online, under the heading 'say what?')

"What better way to sneak a virus into this country than to give it to Mexicans?...Get it going real good and hot south of the border, then just spread a rumor that there's construction jobs available."
-- radio host Neal Boortz

"Make no mistake about it. Illegal aliens are carriers of the new strain of human swine avian flu from Mexico... Could this be a terrorist attack...?"
-- radio host Michael Savage

Small minded, poisonous, idiots.

Col had the Hong Kong flu twice in the '50s, when he was a young fit lad in the army. Ended up seriously hospitalised both times.

He says on the second occasion he woke up feeling rotten, went to the MO for sick call, and the waiting area was already packed. The doctor came out, saw him sitting in the corner, and went over to him. "Have you eaten anything yet this morning?" "No." "Nurse, get me some scrambled eggs." He remembers the doctor spoon-feeding him scrambled eggs in the waiting room, and then nothing until he woke up in hospital two weeks later.