Tuesday 28 April 2009

Too much info can be a bad thing.

Theres me worrying about my own problems when something major is happening all over the world.  Swine Flue. Well I'm certainly paranoid, scared and freaking out at the moment.... mostly due to the scaremongering that is being created through the media regarding Swine Flu. This is what the papers have said recently....

Health officials learned over the weekend that more than 1,600 people in Mexico are possibly infected with the swine flu virus. With the first confirmed case in Spain, the disease has hit European shores. And the tally of confirmed swine flu cases in the United States has now hit 40, according to a statement by the World Health Organization on Monday. Health officials have warned that this number is likely to rise.

Papers and the news state that this pandemic could rival or exceed that of the 1918 pandemic where researchers estimated that 21.5 million people died as a result.

Amonst other things, my curiosity got the best of me and now I'm looking at the life feed of the spread of the outbreak via Google Maps, as shown below. I'm now quesitonning my own sniffles and coughs... I hope that we are all safe at the end of the day, I hope to god we all are. I am probably overreacting, but the facts are scary.

The flu is a mutated case of flu that infect pigs. .... Why Babe? How can you give us this deadly mutated flu!


View H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger map

Pink markers are suspect
 
Purple markers are confirmed or probable
 
Deaths lack a dot in marker
 
Yellow markers are negative

The experts say there are everyday actions people can take to stay healthy.

Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.

Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hands cleaners are also effective.

Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread that way.

Try to avoid close contact with sick people

Influenza is thought to spread mainly person-to-person through coughing or sneezing of infected people.

If you get sick, CDC recommends that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them. I'm sorry if I've freaked you out in the process, I didn't mean to, but hopefully, you'll see why I'm concerned regarding this outbreak. I sincerely hope no one catches it.


 

5 comments:

Marshall Family said...

I think your right about the scare mongering aspect of it. Look back to "mad cow disease" and Bird Flu more recently. Serious out breaks were predicted but the reality although scary it wasn't as apocolyptic as they said it would be.

Tings have changed since the early 1900's, its a century ago. We've come a long way and we have much better hygene and housing available (I say housing as back in the early 1900's people lived in slum houses which were a family to a single room and this obviously had effects of living standards and health).

I wont be surprised if it hits the UK but I don't think this will wipe out the human race :o) Mebe Im naive but I've kinda heard it all before! (remember the scientific experiement last year where they re created the big bang and the whole world was meant to go BOOM with it? And not forgotting the embaressing millenium bug!)

Unknown said...

thanks for the comment, you brainy one lol

Your right, its all just hyped up to high heaven. No need to panic until if it gets out of control.

Nikola said...

OMG that is so scary! Especially since I can sometimes be a hypochondriac and just inflate any problem, lol.


By the way, I love your blog, so you got yourself a follower! Maybe we could be blog buddies! :)

Marshall Family said...

What can I say.. I wear my invisible glasses with pride =o) (takes invisible glasses off and polishes with with her jumper - which is very real.. and not invisible!)

Teena in Toronto said...

It's crazy, eh?

Happy blogoversary!