Swine Disease
 

As usual, the seriousness of the swine panddemic is greater than we are told by the authorities as they strive to contain panic, but the fact is that there are over 100 reported deaths in mexico, several in USA, more and more cases appearing daily, several in spain here and I imagine increasing world-wide as we deliver the disaease on board airliners circling the globe....anyone out there that can describe in laymans terms the disease ??:eek:

Your qualifications to make that sweeping statement being . . . . . . ?

being that already economically strapped people out there are perhaps not going to have medicine at an affordable cost in places where the governments cannot provide it free, and meanwhile, airlines and tourist agencies are cancelling flights, shredding the already slim chance of making some revenue, stock markets are falling again.....do I need a master degree to see panic is just around the corner ? It has spread to over 7 countries and continues.....of course our respective Governments will lie again.

What were the bodies being dug up several weeks back in Yorkshire, the victims of flu in the early part of the last century. Was that swine flu? The TV article said they were needed for research.

I've had a little bit of a cough since Friday and have decided to name it Piglet cough :D

Right, and how many times have you seen the WHO and the CDC this spun up?

Never.

Mmm... Let me think... BSE (206 deaths worldwide), SARS (775), bird flu (257). :p

Marco

K, I'd bet you a plate of carbonara that this one passes the rest.
J

Mmmmm, will be interesting to see. It is now nearly 40 years since I graduated from medical school, and in that time I've seen more press-induced sensations than I could possibly remember. Remember how HIV / AIDS was going to obliterate the human race ? Guess what, the world population continues to rise ! Remember how fashionable it was to be affected by cyclamates / aspartame ? Old hat now, my dear !

Then it was the ones already mentioned here, BSE, SARS, bird flu. But all, of course, relegated from the front pages by a politician or a footballer within a matter of days !

Let's review this thread in exactly two weeks from now, and consider just how much coverage is still being given to piggy flu by then, eh ?

In most planes, there isn't exactly a "recycled air" problem. Planes leak like sieves. The cabin pressure is maintained by bleed air or, in the case of piston engines, turbocharger air, which is brought in from the outside world and compressed/conditioned. The actual number of air changes per hour in an aircraft is substantially higher than in an operating room. (of course, there are more people in an aircraft, and no amount of air changes will keep some shmo from sneezing on you)

A more permanent knock on effect
 

A more permanent knock on effect

I understand that they have 'Banned All Pork Products in Dubai' - could this be the longest lived consequence of the current outbreak!!!:{:=:*

PZU - Out of Africa (Retired)

Calm down, calm down. Pig farmers since x years ago have been prone (due to their close day by day proximity to pigs) to contracting pig flu,.nothing to worry about.

Chill out they still live....Daz

Piggybank 28th remark
 

Back to my remark about the bodies being dug up in Yorkshire for research into flu. It was on BBC World Service. I assume all hygiene precautions were taken, but my question is, was this a case of good timing , that the "medical authorities" knew a swine flu outbreak was just a matter of time. Or, on the other hand, had some cases already been suspected?

Have to mention the irresponsible reporting of Swine Flu by the BBC last night. Some journalist standing in front of a big computer screen explaining what could happen, apparently...millions dead worldwide and over 100,000 dead in the UK. Give me strength.

Sensationalist crap which serves no purpose other than to scare the life out of people. Media induced hysteria again.

Ooooh. I'm typing this through gritted teeth....

Flu, the normal [is there a norm?] kills approx 38,000 USA citizens each year, so I have been told.

Only Mexicans have died so far from this Media Hyped Pig Flu strain. The Texan death was a Mexican child of barely 24 months......

Shouldn't we be alarmed about our regular flu brand, which is killing so many more of us than a flu that happens to be able to be mentioned alongside Spanish Flu of the 1919, when there were no drugs/vaccines available and the World War had weakened the entire planet's human population.

If no one other than Mexicans has died yet isn't it likely that the flu is weakening and once again we have a similar situation to Bird Flu, SARS, BSE - overhyped and under performed [in the killing stakes].

Is this flying Pig flu any different to all the other flus we take in our stride?
Thousands die every year due to "ordinary" flu.

The ones who have had it have reported fairly mild symptoms. Headache, sore throats, aches.

The sort of symtoms your GP would not blink an eye at but tell you to go home take a lemon drink and go to bed. Ok the elderly and infirm who have other problems are at risk but???

"Ahh yes say the TV experts but if it dies out because we are almost into summer it could reappear as a SUPER VIRUS next winter it could mutate with Bird Flu making Flying Pig Flu :)

Gordon Brown will have the tanks on the street to face these super bugs rolling down the streets of the capital.

Now whatever happened to that Mini Black hole which would develop when particles are crashed together at the speed of light in switzerland?

Didnt the media warn us that the black hole was going to gobble the planet up with one large Burp? :)

Pace

Pandemic my hairy arse.
 

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Swine flu spread 'not sustained'

Enough said.

If you catch this would you lose your medical? I hope it is treated like other influenzas.

The answer is NO, simply because you would be unlikely to be ill for long enough to warrant being made T/U (temporarily unfit). From the aeromedical certification point of view this recent virus would not be treated any differently to ordinary, so-called "seasonal", flu. As with the latter, you could expect to be off work for a week or two, but the certification authorities would not be interested.

In the light of all the present media hype, if a commercial pilot WERE unlucky enough to get this, then I suspect that going back to work afterwards would quite a palaver ! !