Is anyone taking more precautions for the Swine Flu?

So there are 2 confirmed cases of Swine Flu in the town next to mine. My daughter, the worry wort, doesn't want me to leave the house. The local expert on the news said that any one with a compromised immune system should just be safe and stay home, and of course she heard it. The grocery store I go to is on the town line, most of the workers are from the city where the flu is. She wants me to have groceries delivered. Do any other shopping online and basically become a hermit until this is over. I keep telling her that we just need to take basic precautions like washing our hands and using sanitizers. But maybe I'm being foolish. Its not like my husband and daughter wouldn't be leaving the house.

So is anyone else doing anything like wearing a mask or staying home? Just curious...

Basically just washing hands and not getting too physically close with those who are coughing or showing signs of being sick. But then I do that anyway since I am on humira.
I do think that the media is blowing it out of proportion as with everything else, but I still think taking the necessary common sense precautions would be wise. Not being careful at all isn't going to help contain it and isn't very fair to the people around you. I don't want to get sick regardless of what the illness is simply because people think that it isn't a big deal.

I'm just washing my hands even more diligently and watching to make sure I cough in my elbow and not my hand (it's hard to relearn what Mom drilled in my head as a kid!) We have a few cases in our county. I tended bar last night with a bunch of people around---I just brought some hand sanitizer to use once in a while. I did see my brand new Great nephew last weekend....I was careful with him.

I too think this is media overhype. I loved our journalist the other day "so what can do to prevent this horrible problem in our area", Doc said "just wash your hands a lot". Took the wind out of the drama

I think the biggest thing our government could do right now is mandate that the airlines allow passengers to change tickets if they feel sick (its ok to require a doctors note) without charge. I will admit flying home sick before because I couldn't afford the $200 change fee and the additional $200 the price went up on top of it. If people could change for free they would be more likely to stay where they are.

Also, it would be nice if employers were more lenient w/ sick workers and workers who have children whose school has closed. Several schools in my state closed but the non-sick children were told they could still go to each other's houses or daycare. Kind of defeats the purpose of closing. I understand not all parents can just take a week off of work but its not fair to send kids from a closed school elsewhere.

Nope, still more danger from driving your own car then from the swine flu.

Just wait until this virus hits the nursing homes, not just the travelers and their closet contacts. I do think this is going to be pretty severe and for us immuno suppressed on pred, humira etc. all precautions should be taken. Ever since I had a friend die of chicken pox while on pred (he was 31) I use caution around this type of warning. I was at two stores today just looking for hand wipe packs, and they were sold out, and there were no masks on the shelves. I wasn't buying them but noticed the empty areas. For me right now, I'm just avoiding crowded areas and no hugs, kisses and handshakes. We have a squirt bottle of purex next to the door. Fitzy's reply about the airlines is a good one. Good health to all!!

This is just like any other flu so I'm not worried. Every year during the regular flu season people die. This isn't any different, just out of season. If I catch it I catch and if I don't great. I'll still take the bus and subway from my home in Queens to my job in Manhattan every day.

I'm not worried yet, but I think that the death rate is probably a lot lower than people think. People die from the flu anyway, and the only people who are going to the doctor are the worst cases. The part that concerns me is that if the virus keeps mutating, it may become impossible to create a vaccine for it if it mutates fast enough, but once the death toll gets high enough, I will begin to worry. At this point, I don't see a point in worrying about it more than I worry about the regular flu.

njmom said...
Due to the swine flu breakout, I check the following website from the government, every day. It shows the incidence of breakouts in every state.

(Of course, for every case reported, there are more people more are sick but don't realize they have swine flu (and/or haven't gone to a doc) plus others who are infected, but have not yet come down with symptoms.) Still others seem healthy, but could be carriers.

http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/

Thank you for providing that link, njmom.

A major problem with this swine flu issue is that we are still in the very early stages of the "pandemic" (if that's what it is), so we really don't know yet how dangerous it is. According to the CDC website, in the USA there's only been one death out of 141 cases, which is a fatality rate of just 0.7%.

However, that's far too few cases on which to make an assessment. The reports from Mexico are all over the charts, with the number of deaths anywhere from 15 to 120 out of 300 confirmed cases. That's a death rate anywhere from 0.5% to 40%. The lack of reliable data makes it extremely difficult to know how serious we need to take this.

An interesting complication is that swine flu may be more deadly to people with a healthy immune system. Doctors think that the swine flu resembles the 1918 Spanish flu in that it causes the immune system to overreact, creating a "cytokine storm." However, that has not yet been confirmed. This strain of flu is so new that little is known about how it kills its victims. If it turns out that it does trigger a cytokine storm, patients using immuno-suppressive drugs might actually have a greater chance of survival.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytokine_storm

Anyway, I think that we all need to monitor this closely, looking for information from RELIABLE sources, and not pay too much attention to the sensationalistic "journalism" that passes for "news."

best regards,
Robert