New school year postponed ?

[zk229]

Interesting to hear how your part of the world is coping.

New Zealand is coming out of winter and as such out of the main flu season.
Back in mid June we like Aus had a rapid and unrestrainable escalation in swine flu.

Response was switched from isolation of individuals to management/containment.
Basically stay at home
Ring the GP – don’t go into his surgery
Specific swine flu centers were set up to cope as primary point of assessment if needed.
Education campaigns were prevalent re wash hands/alcohol cleanser/masks provided outside many businesses/organizations point of entry.
Occasional schools were closed for a week to break a cycle of contact.

The effectiveness of these measures is obviously hard to quantify.
Intensive care units at hospitals were significantly busier at what is already a peak time.
Significant numbers of people (@3060 confirmed however possibly 20 thousand+ more unreported) are suspected to have contracted the swine flu and although worse than a normal dose coped in the normal manner at home.
(NZ population @ 4mil)
Young people and those with underlying conditions were more susceptible (finally an advantage in all those candles!!!)
The flu seems to affect the respiratory system more.
Deaths were recorded @26 with +ve test of virus and 13 more maybe’s.
Concerning was a small number of these that had no previous issues.

The lessons:

• Very lucky H1N1 doesn’t seem to have the horse power initially suspected.
• Oh what a small place the world is now
• Our beloved silver budgies are the modern day mosquito
• For what it’s worth on my “news paper /page number/hysteria rating”

I estimate at the June peak it was page 1 for a mere 2-3 weeks; page 3-5 for the same and now mostly AWOL and business as usual.

• Similar to reading about 7-10% unemployment- it doesn’t seem to matter until its 100% YOU!!!
• We are all the better for a practice run cos next time??????
• And if so –aviation---oops!!!