Besides doubting the implied security of a widely circulated press release stating that “Virginia Has No Swine Flu” we now claim that we can predict the future by adding “Yet” to any press release claiming something isn’t true. I digress.
Yesterday, Virginia published this press release:
State Health Commissioner Karen Remley, M.D., MBA, said today that the state has received confirmation of its first two H1N1 flu cases, also called swine flu.
The patients are an adult male from eastern Virginia and an adult female from central Virginia. Each had traveled to Mexico, both had mild illnesses and are recovering well, and neither required hospitalization. Neither are students.
Given the size of the state’s population, seasonal travel patterns and the ease with which the flu virus is spread, Dr. Remley said that it is likely there will be additional cases in the Commonwealth.
“Our local health districts are working in close collaboration with their community partners in monitoring developments and providing guidance,” Dr. Remley said. “We remain in contact with clinicians, hospitals, and pharmacists to furnish them with up-to-the-minute care and treatment guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
The current H1N1 influenza outbreak is caused by an influenza A virus not previously detected in humans or animals. Symptoms are similar to those of seasonal flu and typically include fever, cough and sore throat. Additional symptoms may include headache, chills and fatigue. Persons with H1N1 flu are contagious for up to seven days after the onset of illness and possibly longer if they are still symptomatic.
So, someone in Central Virginia (Charlottesville?) traveled to Mexico and got swine flu? Maybe jon was right when he said “um … aren’t there like 12 cases at UVA hospital?” but we’ll never know.
[pic from Ben Chau]
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Tagged as: swine flu, Virginia
It was Chesterfield, not Charlottesville, for the Central Virginia case.
lilith never would have let this happen.
You’re still going to defend her after all the birthdays and little league games she’s missed? Maybe Thor should just send you to live with HER, would you like that?
“Swine flu”? No, no, that name is inappropriate. We prefer “Coughing Pig Death.”
Everyone knows that the crane-style kung flu is stronger than the pig-style.
Or perhaps PIGSARS.
Can someone explain to me the difference between epidemic -bird/swine/the one from the 50s or 60s- flu and normal flu and why the former is so dangerous?
Actually, the CDC (the illness one, not the local drinkers) notes within the US, 36,000 people die annually from flu-related illnesses. And that’s just in the US, and just regular old flu. However, most of these deaths are the elderly, very young, or others already sick. The epidemic flu is bad because it sickens people of all ages, is pretty contagious, and it mutates quickly. These epidemics are deadly most of the time because the body creates cytokines to fight the infection; too many cytokines is not good, and your organs (for most of these outbreaks, your lungs) can’t take it.
Lots of technical stuff, but you get the idea. Side note: There have been some reports that the swine flu is less deadly than the regular flu.
i’m under the impression that these are mutating/evolving and resistant viruses, with aggressive rapidly invasive-destructive progress of the disease. also more readily communicable and for a longer time. Much depends upon the organs or systems targeted? Valley Fever, common in the southwest, starts out with similar simple flu-like symptoms but spreads quickly through the body and often quickly causes a form of meningitis. i get the impression that swine-flu is similar in ferocity of attack, resistance to treatment, and prolonged period of high communicability. I guess the real flu disaster was in the early 20th century (there’s a great book on it, gina kolata’s, Flu).
Not really, it’s highly treatable. We are shitting ourselves over nothing. A hundred Americans died from the “other” flu this week.
http://doihaveswineflu.org/
And I’m still going to Busch Gardens tomorrow. Considering faking the symptoms to see if it gets me through lines faster…
aren’t there a lot of popular Spring-Break destinations in Mexico? WE probably gave the flu to THEM. You didn’t hear a thing about Mexican outbreaks until recently, AFTER we all got back from Spring Break. Besides, Mexico can’t afford swine, all they have is dusty chickens and old burros wearing tattered straw hats. I’ve seen the movie. {I’ve seen the movie = i did the math}
Why can’t I add a bloody answer, man?
/frustrated.
Read the newspaper, it’s not that complicated. There are three types of flu, this is a variant of the first, and may be designated a fourth major type. It lacks the evil protein that was on the 1918 flu.
be as smart as a fuk grater
Woops they’res a pae window if yu done comme in frum Google. Uze thes ling insted:
wsj via http://news.google.com/news?um=1&ned=us&hl=en&q=peter+palese+site%3Awsj.com