Post 103. There are times I doubt my existance 
I did in fact read your response. The poster who asked the question evidently hadn’t. I guess if I was a really good doper I would have referred them to your answer rather than try to grab all the glory myself with another mention of the same thing.
I will be a better doper.
I will be a better doper.
I will be a better doper…
Its okay, I will just be over here consumed in self doubt…
Sorry, I just had time to browse the thread, but are they doing anything to slow/halt travel from Mexico. I read someplace that they are warning people about going to Mexico. are there screenings of some sort at the airports and the borders.
Also, for those in the medical field, at what point, if any, is it wise to halt travel from Mexico?
The problem with this is that the poor will be more severely impacted, as they are less apt to go to the doctor, or as quickly. This can exacerbate the problem further due to the fact that many of the poor live in closer proximity to each other in inner cities. Also, if they do feel the urge for medical attention, this could really overflow our emergency rooms, as for some of the poor—and illegal aliens—that is their “going to the doctor”.
Wait, are you suggesting people don’t go to the doctor and just tried it as a cold?
That’s because the strain is extra-terrestrial and is floating down from space so young people come into cintact with it more.
It’s TRUE! I saw it on TV!
Yeah, Litzman is pretty much an asshole. A *fundie *asshole. Sorry to say, we have them too.
I know better than to generalize someone like that to all Israelies. Hell, on the whole, Israel is probably culturally less religious than the US is. The ultra-Orthodox people just make all the noise.
I don’t even understand why ‘swine’ would be offensive to Jews. We’re just not supposed to eat them! Do Israeli fundamentalists routinely freak out about stuff like this?
WAG: Maybe it is the thought of having viral pig DNA (ETA: Not phrasing it the most correctly here, but I think I made my point?) in their system, it is too much for them to bear, and they’d rather stick their fingers in their ears and lalalalala than have the idea thrust into their face via the name of the illness? 
Well, physicians can be of help to folks with influenza under a limited range of circumstances, frankly.
1st, if they present within 48 hours of the onset of symptoms, oseltamavir (or the other antiviral whose name escapes me at the moment) may be effective in shortening the severity and duration of the symptoms.
2ndly, if one is beginning to suffer secondary consequences of the flu, like bacterial pneumonia, or other complications.
For the mass of folks in the middle, the doc will be able to say: Yep, you’ve got the flu. It’s too late to shorten the course, and you don’t appear to have complications. Drink plenty of fluids, take tylenol and/or ibuprofen, rest, and call if you develop symptoms of complications. A few might need prescription cough suppression to give some relief from their symptoms, but even this carries some risk. The cough does help keep lungs clear, and suppressing it may raise the risk of pneumonia.
High risk folks (compromised immune systems, lung diseases, very young, frail) should definitely contact their docs at the first sign of symptoms/significant exposure.
It remains to be seen who may be helped by physicians in the low risk group. We’ll have to wait for more clinical data.
QtM, it would be important for the cases to be tracked, though, wouldn’t it? Is there some way to do that (a number to call, a test you can do at home and send in to the health department) other than going into the doctor?
Depends, in general most strains of influenza the main treatment is support [rest fluids, tender care] rather than meds. Keep in mind, antivirals are NOT antibiotics, they are fairly individual and treatments have to be tailored to specific groupings.
heck, a lot of illnesses we get meds for much of the time in NON US/‘first world industrialized’ countries get nothing more than rest and fluids and support where we would be in a hospital with tubes everywhere and meds umping in at OPEC speeds.
Not that I’m aware of.
During flu season, the expectation is not to diagnose every case, as that just won’t happen. But rather, to get an idea of the relative prevalence of the type of flu appearing in a given region.
Frankly, the vast majority of cases of influenza I saw when working in the private sector never got reported; we knew the flu was in the area, we diagnosed those cases we saw based on symptoms, not on lab tests, and we didn’t report.
I only took nasal swabs to test for flu on the first few cases I’d see in each season, when there was still uncertainty as to which strain was coming into an area. These got reported.
And if any cases of flu-like illness show up at work over the next few days or weeks, I’ll definitely be culturing them, until we see what’s in the community.
Yes, because uncultured flus have a tendency to be ill-mannered boors, even piggish.
Nah, it’s just manufactured offense used for a power play. If he manages to get people to call it something else, he’ll show how much power he has over the press and the public. If they don’t call it something else (which will probably be the case), he’ll act as if the government owes him something in return - oh, the indignities he must suffer!
Pork sellers all over Thailand have reported a vast plunge in sales now because of this. The same thing happened with chicken and bird flu. :rolleyes:
CNN is down to one story all day long. They have people in Mexico City showing everybody wearing masks as they walk about. Right now the horror of the subway.
I’m headed to Boulder…see the rest of you in Las Vegas where you can meet my lil friend…
-XT
But that wouldn’t be a problem as long as you didn’t get the flu from eating pig meat. Kosher rules apply only to food. After all, most viruses we get come from other humans, and human flesh is not a kosher food, either.