UK SWine Flu , 3rd Wave

[graywolf]

Could someone 'outside the UK' tell us how we're doing?

We appear to be on the cusp of going pandemic (again) over the next 2 weeks (124 in 100,000 week ending 30th Dec) but our I.C. U. occupancy is already over 3 times higher than at it's 'peak' last winter (182 beds then , 738 beds now?). how do folk outside UK take this?

[sigurdur]

Well, us older folks already have titers against this flu. Hasn't seemed to have cropped up over here yet. What are you folks doing wrong?

[graywolf]

I ask myself that?
The first wave (May to Aug 09') killed my father (not logged as H1N1 though....pnumonia/kidney failure) so many of our deaths will not be included in the initial figures. Our national mortality rate has not been updated since it's big leap in wk49 (Holiday lag?) so we have no idea of the scale of this years Flu season (thurs HPA update should clear this up)
I had H1N1 (along with our severly disabled son Luke) in late Sept/early Oct of 09', he was then Jabbed with the pandemic Vaccine, we have suffered (the worst for me) another bout of some viral infection (Dec 16th/17th onset). If this was H1N1 then it has drifted beyond the calafornia09 isolate in the vaccine and this may explain some of it's spread in the UK. We also only had 1/3 of our population infected in wave 1 and 2 (and I doubt these figures as they must include every hypocondriac in the country who simply phoned the 'hotline', read out the symptoms from the list provided, and got their 'Tamiflu' [ and inclusion in the 'stats'] without ever seeing a Dr.
We will see a further 'rise' in cases in the HPA wk1 report as this will include the 'holiday' period but we also have the kids going back to school this week. Anyone 'catching' Flu over the Hols will have infected their kiddies just in time for them to take it along to school with them!

[byz]

I'm concerned about the situation here in the UK.

I've had all flu jabs due to being asthmatic, however my youngest who is just 5 years old was not able to get the jab last year and because they are too young to diagnose as asthmatic I can't get them vaccinated

Also I am shocked at peoples ignorance concerning the difference between bacteria and viruses, people seem to think that using alcohol gel will stop them getting flu, when they should be washing or using anti-viral solutions.

Having been severely ill in the past due to flu, I think the lack of any major outbreak of flu in 30 years has made people complacent and they seem to think it is a cold

Lastly the attitude of employers is shocking as they seem to think people should come into work and just take paracetamol, which just spreads the flu wider.

My only hope is that the longer Christmas break may have broken the chain in some cases also if we get another prolonged cold spell like last January, then people may stay at home (now that Christmas is over) and again the chain of infection may again be broken.

[scpg02]

They'll have to shoot me before I take their flu shot. Not a chance in hell. I had a scientist friend who was lined but to take the N1H1 last year when there was a shortage. I pitched a fit over it. He promised he would look at the research behind the shot. When he found out what I was telling him about the shot was true he took himself off the list. I'm not anti vaccine and my kids all had their shots but I do NOT trust this one.

[boxman]

Jan 1, 2011 10:52:27 GMT graywolf said:

Could someone 'outside the UK' tell us how we're doing?

We appear to be on the cusp of going pandemic (again) over the next 2 weeks (124 in 100,000 week ending 30th Dec) but our I.C. U. occupancy is already over 3 times higher than at it's 'peak' last winter (182 beds then , 738 beds now?). how do folk outside UK take this?

Propaganda... There are less people who have died from those so called swine flu pandemics than those who die from regular flu.
If they kept mentioning every case of normal flu during previous flu years then newspapers would all filled up with such stories. The reason it seems so bad is because media keeps writing a story about nearly every damn case.

Swine flu would never even have been a pandemic if it wasnt for WHO changing the definition by taking way the requirement about death rates. With the new definition ANY flu would be a pandemic.

Oh and btw.. The only people i know who got sick last year was those who took the vaccine. Even my sister who was a pro vaccine person until last year changed her mind after seeing her vaccinated friends and co workers get sick.

Edit: I have btw never taken a flu shot and never gotten the flu. My grandfather never had the flu either and he was like me and never took any vaccines.
My grandmother sadly gave in to doctors recommendation in her 60s and guess what?? She got flu during most of those years even though she also hardly ever had flu. There are new scientific studies that actually suggest that flu shot might actually double chances of flu if it happens to be a different strain than the one in the vaccine.
The increased chance of flu will even be with you at least a year after as well.

[scpg02]

Jan 15, 2011 1:33:05 GMT boxman said:

Oh and btw.. The only people i know who got sick last year was those who took the vaccine. Even my sister who was a pro vaccine person until last year changed her mind after seeing her vaccinated friends and co workers get sick.

Edit: I have btw never taken a flu shot and never gotten the flu.

Exactly!