Swine Flu - anyone else not worried?

I can't say I'm that concerned either. It will be annoying if I contract it, never having suffered from any kind of flu before, but I'm not unduly worried. I think the 'at risk' groups have some cause for concern (as with normal flu) but not otherwise healthy people. My place of work has made contingency plans to ensure there is critical cover available should there be an outbreak but, apart from there being a very obvious stockpile of boxes of tissues ?, it's very much business as usual.

Do you think you would be worried if you went down with flu-like symptoms?

I work in a hospital and am worried about a mad rush of people flooding A&E with mild flu symptoms but apart from that I wouldn't be worried at all if I wasn't heavily pregnant and already feeling exhausted and run-down so a cold or flu of any description wouldn't be welcome.

The media seem to be trying to tone down the panic factor in the last few days - that makes me suspect that the media had slightly overdone things with the Armageddon type reporting, as they did with bird flu, this is why I have tried to stay away from the media this time around.

Its funny you should ask this question, as I was ill last week, I was in bed for most of the week - took a few lemsips and got lots of rest and now I feel fine, I didnt even think to call the helpline - OH is fine too as is the boy, he is 5 and is 100% , - I normally get whatever he brings home from school. So I assumed as I normally would that it was from him.

I was fine until yesterday when a week of people telling me I have it then someone local(ish) being diagnosed with it took it's toll. Today, rational is returning but hearing it has passed from person to person between the local person and their spouse as spooked me a bit. I'd have been more worried if more person to person infections had been reported today as that would have been about right time wise. It doesn't mean I'm not worried because I am but it has settled my mind a little bit.

A GP was on TV today and she was questioned as to whether the media reports had been excessive. She said it has in some ways it may seem like that and it's certainly making some people worry but on the other hand, people are coming forward with possible cases and if it wasn't for the news, they probably wouldn't have. A GP in her practice visited someone who thought they may have it and the GP thinks they do. They are now in isolation at home and being treated with tamiflu, awaiting the results. She hasn't been to Mexico but it wasn't said how they could have contracted it.

This is what makes me aviod the media- people watch the news and are panicking and going to A&E at the mildest hint of a sniffle. Although, yes, if I were pregnant I would be much more concerned and listening to the media, instead of doing what I am currently which is head in sand, ostrich style

My mum is a nurse and she is simply telling all of us to make sure we wash our hands regularily, and to sneeze into a hankie rather than on a hand etc which I do anyway

I'm not overly worried about it as despite there being 5 people in the island who have been tested for swine flu all of them have come back as negative results so chances as are the moment there is only a pretty remote chance of me or my family coming into contact with it. As a general rule i'm very very rarely ill (to the extent that i seem to avoid even catching a cold despite being surrounded by people with colds and i've never ever been signed off work sick).

So for myself i'm not concerned. What does niggle at the back of my mind though is that if this does turn out to be a full blown pandemic and a lot of people go down with this i'm concerned if my dad should get it as he has MS and I suspect it would be more serious in his circumstances.

Mrs Magic - reading your reply has actually made me feel a bit anxious - that is really worrying, i hope you and your family are all OK -

At least the patient in your local village is now in isolation and being treated with TF - that should hinder the risk of person to person infection whilst they wait for the results

Dooby, I feel the same, the niggle in the back of my mind is for my Nan & Grandad who have rubbish immune systems as it is then to top that off OH has just recovered from pnuemonia which was pretty traumatic, but then, as I said earlier, he seems fine and is totally oblivious to the media storm that is going on globally

Sorry, I didn't meant to make you anxious!

I'm absolutely fine (well I'm not, I just don't have Swine Flu), I've just had most of the symptoms on the list (not unusual for me really) and I know a cross of people from hypochondriacs to wind up merchants! It does breed paranoia though.

I'm glad your family are all getting better from your bug! ?

Mrs Magic , That was bad wording on my part, I meant Anxious for you!!! ? I really hope you feel better soon, the lemsips worked a treat for me x

Oh bless you, thank you. ?

I'm not worried at all. Personally I think the people who have died in Mexico probably have a different strain or there is another, as yet, unknown reason why they have died and others around the world have not.

I overheard a particularly stupid young girl in Morrisons the other day telling her colleague she was absolutely convinced she had it because "someone's got it in Redditch". ?

I'm not. At the minute. I will be worried if any cases come to light near where I am due to frail members of my family though I imagine.

I'm not worried, but maybe I should be considering someone from where I work has been diagnosed with it. However, they seem to be giving people antibiotics and sending them home, so judging by them I'm thinking it can't be too serious, although I understand my view maybe a little bit niave.

Thats how I feel Betty B - I worry that by being ignorant I am being v niave... that perhaps I should be more concerned!?!?

Well, my husband started a new job last week, his boss is currently on holiday in....... Mexico, due back on Tuesday.

To be honest if it was just the two of us I wouldn't worry but I have a 6mo and am a neurotic first time mother so it does cross my mind, we're avoiding the tube and I'm refusing to let MasterI suck on the hand rails on the bus <good mother icon>

Being asthmatic I am slightly concerned but am trying not too panic too much

Am not worried in most respects, although both H and I work in large Universities, we have 2 kids at school (well one is at the Uni nursery) and see his brother and wife who are both consultants in local hospitals (and they have 2 kids in preschool!).... so I guess we're in a high contact environment. If you're gonna get it, you're gonna get it.

However, I am in 2 minds about going away in a couple of weeks. H needs to book a trip away to Japan and we were planning to go with him (have been dead excited) and at the moment I really feel torn. On the one hand, if we get ill over there, well I'd rather be ill at home.... equally, I don't want my little 'un getting scared by people walking round in masks etc

Like I said on another post, it has made me more aware of others behaviour. So when someone sneezes, I have watched what they do afterwards (I mentioned before that one of our team was sneezing into her hands and just carried on the other day... bleeee in general <shudder>

Well I'm going to say something slightly different. I was anxious earlier in the week, but that's because I struggle to deal with health related issues in my family - it's a core issue with me and not really rational.

However, with my rational head on, whilst I don't think there is any need to panic, and I do think the media are whipping things up, I also think the Government and the WHO have done exactly the right thing.

This episode might prove to be nothing, but that doesn't mean that they weren't right to take precautions. It migth be that their precautions prevent it from turning into something more serious, or it might be that it was never destined to be more serious, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't act.

Sooner or later we are due for a global pandemic and that probably means that a lot of people are going to die.

To be honest I am not even slightly worried, just fed up with the media hype and panic-mongering. If you read the more sensible reports you will find that in fact the Mexican authorities are admitting that quite a lot of the poor people who died did not in fact have swine flu but another type of flu. Also thousands upon thousands of people die every year from "ordinary" flu strains and there is no over the top media reporting, life just goes on as normal, except of course for the families of the victims. This type of flu doesn't actually seem to be any more virulent or contagious than any other strain, it is just different and therefore being reported more and the media seem to be whipping us up into a frenzy of panic, probably because it's a slow news week.

I will of course take all this back if it turns out to be a world wide pandemic on the scale of the 1918 flu outbreak but this is unlikely as the reason so many people died then was because there were no antibiotics etc then.

I agree that the WHO and Government have done exactly the right thing. I also think that the worst is yet to come of this thing - I just hope the media don't start flinging mud really.

I agree on the media but the truth is it's a bit early to tell on the virulence of this particular strain. It does seem likely it's milder than it could have been but we dont' know for certain yet - and even if it's mild now, it might ome back more strongly in the autumn.

Even if it does, the majority of people will make a good recovery, of course, but there will still be casualties.

Of course there will, unfortunately, but it would seem, on current evidence, that these are no more severe than those that occur with the sort of flu that happens every year and which no one remarks on, although in actual fact thousands of people die from flu every year, particularly the elderly and other vulnerable groups (which by the way some reports on the Mexican deaths seem to indicate is the case with the casualties there ie they were from vulnerable groups in the first place). Sorry, very long and involved sentence, blame the rum and coke!

I am even less concerned as the days go by. The Mexican govt seems to be backpedalling with regard to the severity of the outbreak there, the number of cases elsewhere has been pretty minimal, with no fatalities that I'm aware of, and the family of the local Chipping Sodbury chap has spectacularly failed to contract the virus despite being in close contact with him throughout. Unless it mutates into a more virulent strain, I think it'll blow over pretty soon.

Of course, one problem is that the story of a well-prepared government and medical profession working in perfect sync to banish a potential health problem is far less exciting than the story of a hideous apocalyptic plague ravaging half the population and leaving piles of corpses.

In actual fact, if the outbreak has been pretty much contained outside Mexico, this is clearly a major news story and worth trumpeting from the rafters - but instead it's being met with shrugged shoulders and "well, it probably wasn't that bad to begin with, I don't know what all the fuss was about." Largely because we're as bad as the media.

I agree - I think it shows an admirable swiftness of response on a national and global level and is testament to a great deal of foresight and planning. We're all ready to knock the authorities when they do something 'wrong' but it's a shame we're not ready to extend praise for doing a good job, which I think this is. It's only been a week and emergency plans have been activated, practised, people trained, supplies transported to needed areas and so on. That's actually really good.

Lmao at the targetted Google ads "Heal Swine Flu: Use spiritual countermeasures Protect yourself thru prayer!" ?

I'm pretty much as high risk as they come with regards to exposure (currently working in acute medicine) but I'm not worried about catching it myself. It's making work busier but that's how it rolls.

I'm not really worried either, I have a baby and a 3 year old and obviously wouldn't like it if they got a flu of any description, but I just think yet again it's something that appears to have been blown out of all proportion by the meeja.

See how many basic errors of fact, logical fallacies and general instances of scientifically-illiterate gibberish you can spot before turning to the comments! Mind you, I'll give credit where it's due: they appear to be uncensored, which is a pretty impressive deal when you consider that most of them are ripping the original post to shreds so fine you could market the end result as flour substitute and get away with it for some time before being rumbled.

what makes this the case? I don't really get why the fact something has happened regularly in the past means it has to happen in the future. Do advances in healthcare not play a part in ensuring that this won't necessarily happen?

L
xx

Well, I suppose it depends on where the pandemic occurs, but it's certainly true that inconceivably huge medical advances have been made since 1918 (the last really devastating flu pandemic, with millions dead) - as I think was pointed out above, we didn't even have antibiotics back then, quite apart from healthcare infrastructure in general being overstretched by having to cope with four years of the most devastating conflict the globe had seen up to then. So there aren't too many bases for valid comparisons.