How much do we really need to worry? Swine Flu in london

[Nosha123]

News just announced swine flu case being examined in Isleworth - 10 mins down the road from me!

How much do we really need to worry and should I be buying tinned food and staying home for a week???

Arrrghhhhh

[jake-the-peg]

Make sure you buy corned beef and not ham!

[Bbbananas]

I have come into contact today with a work colleague - just returned from a cruise. One of the stops was Cozimel in Mexico & on the way home they stopped off for half a day in New York. They were in N Y airport for hours mingling with US holidaymakers back from S.America, then shared the plane with UK holidaymakers from, you guessed it, Mexico.

If she sneezes in my range, I shall freak out.

[paraffin]

Good time to open a respirator business!

[VHG]

10 people a day are killed on Britains roads.

Does that stop you driving a car, or crossing the road, or getting on a bus.

Of course not.

Nobody has yet died of swine flu in the UK, yet we all seem to be worrying about it.

There are over 50 million people in this country, why do you think it has to be YOU that may catch it.

[clydeserani]

There are two active cases of Swine Flu being treated Very close to me..
What I wonder though with all the Scare Mongering thing is...Do our Governments/Health Services etc deliberately make things seem more scary than they really are so that we, the gullible public, (No Offence Anybody, just a phrase...) will breath a sigh of relief and say,, They Saved Us All, Arent they just brilliant...

I cant help but be sceptical having worked alongside certain agencies who have commonly used this tactic for different things.

I hope to God that it isn't a serious threat to the health of our nation but I cant help but wonder whats really going on in reality...

hmm..I dont know...

[Booldawg]

I've been rolling out my centuries old 'oinkment' joke since Sunday.

[whifffey]

I wouldn't be worrying. The only deaths from the virus have occurred in Mexico, everywhere else prompt treatment has contained it so far.

Who knows why, but in any event, USA needs to open its borders to all Mexican citizens who need treatment. Most of course won't bother because their lifestyles in Mexico are so superior to those in USA.

[aniani]

12000 people die of flu in the UK every year, 86 people have died of swine flu in the WORLD ever ....

[DSnewsKE]

...a bacon roll has already shot up to �4-50...didn't take them long to cash in...

[naomi24]

Do our Governments/Health Services etc deliberately make things seem more scary than they really are so that we, the gullible public, (No Offence Anybody, just a phrase...) will breath a sigh of relief and say,, They Saved Us All, Arent they just brilliant...

Well, it takes up to front pages and stops us talking about things the government would rather we forget - and we're falling for it - yet again - so yes, the public is gullible.

How much do we really need to worry? If there is a real threat, what's the point of worrying? You can't do much about it.

[dustypuss]

AHHHHHHHH choooooo >

OH sh1t

[abstibus]

I was working in Guangzhou (the epicentre of SARS) during the time the western media were working themselves up to a frenzy about it equivalent to the coming of the Apocalypse.
I'm stil alive and kicking.

[Kromovaracun]

This link gives an interesting overview of threat analysis from some people who know what they're talking about:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8022102.stm

General rule of thumb is, we can't be absolutely certain how much of a threat it is but we're doing pretty much everything we can. Some early indicators are worrying (like the virus' unprecedented nature), some are positive.

As naomi says, at this time as members of the public it's pretty much out of our hands.

[Twenty20]

Why do we always have to have something to worry about? Is this the latest panic? Have we moved on from global warming now?

[jake-the-peg]

Sorry Twenty20 Global warming's not going away - wish it were!

Thing is right now nobody knows what the risk is - we don't even know what the chances of dying from it are.

We believe that 150 have died in Mexico of it but only a small number are definately confirmed.

However a word of warning before the press tires of it.

In 1968 1957 when the last flu pandemics hit the UK, the virus first got into the UK in the spring/summer but it didn't really take hold until the winter.

We could easily be lulled into a false sense of security

[Davethedog]

By the time the winter comes they should have concocted a vaccine that will combat it.

Five months is what has been reported.

However it is now impossible to prevent the spread its epicenter may be in Mexico but its going global now.